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Migrant Workers and Xenophobia in the Middle East

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Racism and Public Policy

Abstract

Various forms of racism and xenophobia can be found in all societies. Stemming from a fear of strangers, social groupings or cultures are generally based on features of similarity, values and beliefs which determine the binding forces of individual and social identity to the exclusion of the ‘other’ (see Said, 1978; Turner, 1993; Ahmed, 2000). This chapter is concerned with contemporary xenophobic elements relating to foreign migrants in the Arab countries of Lebanon, Jordan and the Gulf states in the Middle East, with particular reference to the status of foreign female domestic employees (see Jureidini, 1998).

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Jureidini, R. (2005). Migrant Workers and Xenophobia in the Middle East. In: Bangura, Y., Stavenhagen, R. (eds) Racism and Public Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230554986_3

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