12.30-13.30 (Brussels Time)
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Based on a qualitative study conducted with Algerian and Moroccan migrant women in the United Arab Emirates, this presentation aims to analyze how the system of the kafala articulates administrative rules, norms of respectability, and linguistic hierarchies to produce differentiated and unequally accessible mobilities. It draws on the notion of “neutralization,” understood as a set of practical adjustments and anticipations, as well as an intersectional reading of power relations, based on the interweaving of class, gender, nationality, language, migratory status, and forms of intermediation.
The analysis highlights three types of strategies deployed by migrant women: economic (remittances, savings), interactional and linguistic (code-switching, respectability work), and status-related or biographical (marriage, change of employer, step-by-step remigration).
Nassera Azizi is an associate professor in sociology at the University of Lorraine. Her work is situated in the sociology of work and migration, with particular attention to gender relations and professional inequalities in migratory contexts.
Her doctoral thesis focuses on Maghrebi migrant women in the Gulf countries, analyzing their professional and migratory trajectories in light of the system of the kafala. It explores the tensions between autonomy, legal constraints, and forms of alienation, highlighting power relations, gender norms, and the subjective experiences of migrant women. Her research more broadly examines the boundaries of work, migration regimes, and contemporary forms of domination in employment.