ABSTRACT
This paper contends that Lebanon’s Kafala system is not a flawed labour framework but a racialised apparatus of statecraft that governs migrant domestic workers (MDWs) through legal dependency, spatial confinement and moral surveillance. Drawing on 50 interviews with Filipino, Ethiopian and Sri Lankan MDWs, and key informants from civil society and international organisations, the study reveals how race, gender and legal status intersect to produce subordination within both domestic and public spaces. The paper argues that the home functions as a domestic border—where employers act as de facto migration authorities and racial hierarchies are naturalised through everyday interactions. Through a critical race and intersectional lens, it explores how nationality operates as a proxy for moral value, labour suitability and sexual respectability, shaping the experiences and perceived legitimacy of MDWs. Yet, the study also highlights forms of everyday resistance, from informal solidarity networks to micro-acts of refusal and care, which challenge the racialised moral order of Lebanon’s migration regime. Ultimately, the paper reframes migration governance as a technology of racialised control and argues that the domestic space is a site where state power is diffused, privatised and enacted—rendering the politics of race, labour and belonging most visible in the intimate.