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Rima Sabban

Rima Sabban (born 18 July 1952) is a Lebanese journalist, author and professor in sociology. She was born and raised in Lebanon, Beirut. She is know for her works and contributions in the field of domestic workers, family and youth. Rima Sabban is also the author of two books, and co-authored multiple books as well as received multiple regional and international grants awards.

Early Life

Rima Sabban was born and raised in Beirut. She graduated from the Lebanese University with a BA in Journalism and Media Studies in 1977. She worked as a journalist in Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates for 10 years with multiple newspapers. She later on earned her MA in Arab Studies and International Affairs from the Georgetown University in 1986. Sabban also got her Phd from the American University, in Washington D.C, in the Sociology of International Relations and Gender and Family. She wrote her dissertation on "Broken Spaces; Bounded Realities: Foreign Female Domestic Workers in the UAE". — Preceding unsigned comment added by Reindsaid (talk • contribs) 19:44, 29 November 2020 (UTC)

Personal Life

Sabban is married Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a professor in Political Science, and they share two children together, Khalid and Gaith and they live in the United Arabic Emirates.

Career

Rima Sabban is now an associate professor at Zayed University. Before that, she wokred as a journalist in Lebanon, after graduating from the Lebanese University, and in the UAE in multiple newspapers like Al Anwar, Assayad, Al Hassna', Al Nissa', Assafir, Al-Azmina, Al-Arabiya, Al-Fajir. After completing her MA and Phd in the United States of America, she moved to the UAE and became an academic consultant in Al-Arabia for Education and Development, conducting research and fieldwork to equip institutions with data sources on the sociology of education. In 1997, after getting her PhD, she worked as the Dean and Director of Students Affairs in the American University of Sharjah. In 1999, she became a consultant and assistant professor at Zayed University, working as a conslutant for the Family Sciences group. Rima Sabban then taught two courses on globalization and Dubai, in the year 2000, relating the concepts of globalization to the emergence of Dubai, in the American University of Dubai. Between late 2000 and 2003, she became the Chair of General Education Department at the University of Dubai that was called the Dubai University College at the time. Sabban then became a consultant at the Executive Office in Dubai where her work consisted on planning and executing a social research agenda for the Social Development Plan as part of the Dubai Strategy. In 2007, Sabban became a Regional Research Consultant in the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and designed a study of migration and health risks and HIV and coordinated multi-ethnic dimensions of research in Dubai. Rima Sabban is also active in multiple associations such as the International Sociological Association (ISA) as a member of the research committee and a member of the committee on Family Research. She is one of the founding members of the Arabic Council for Social Sciences (ACSS), a member of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), a member of the Gulf Development Forum and a member of Sociologist Association of Sharjah. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Reindsaid (talk • contribs) 08:53, 30 November 2020 (UTC)

Views On Migrant Domestic Workers

As mentioned before, Rima Sabban is known for her contribution in the fields of migration and migrant domestic workers in the UAE to be more precise. She has a number of publications, from books to chapters to articles and studies, studying migrant domestic workers, their history, current position in society.

History:

According to Rima Sabban, in an article she wrote called “From Total Dependency to Corporatization: The Journey of Domestic Work in the UAE”, the UAE has become a country that attracts an important number of foreign workers, across all sectors. In her article, Sabban explains how the discovery of oil that was made in the UAE, has created an economic boom in the country, which became an important pull factor for migrants to move to the UAE, which lead to the increase of migration to the UAE, increasing the number of expatriates in the country, to the point where nowadays the population of the UAE is composed of 90% expatriates and 10% nationals (in 2018) . This economic boom has helped a lot of new sectors to be activated, which created a lot of job opportunities. Due to this rise in foreign workers, the inhabitants of the UAE have grown a dependency on domestic service in particular .

Effects on Emirati Families:

This economic transition has generated a transition within structures of local families. With the arrival of foreign domestic workers, the physical and domestic work that was before specified for the wives and/or children shifted to these migrant domestic workers, which allowed the women in the families to go out and be active in society and participate in the labor market, making themselves part of modernity and globalization and creating a gap in the domestic sphere. In her published chapter, (In)Dependence of the Old/Local and Dependence of the New/Foreign: The UAE Family, Domestic Service and an Uncertain Future (2018), Sabban talks about how this increase of foreign workers has changes the structures of families and created a new dilemma to nationals living in the UAE, regarding their culture and traditions. The economic life in the UAE led to the marginalization of the Emirati families, because it drove them away from the national economy and their important roles in the labor market . The new globalized and modernized world systems took over the UAE, making families wealthier and able to afford adding domestic workers. These domestic workers have become an important factor in the lives of the inhabitants of the UAE. These domestic workers were providing the physical and domestic work in the household, almost disappearing this kind of work in most families . Sabban mentions that women were highly criticized because they were seen as moving away from the Emirati culture and traditions, where women in the family is the one that should be taking care of household chores and childrearing, breaking gender roles and entering the public sphere instead of staying in the private sphere .

Governmental Policies:

The government has also played a crucial role in making the importation of migrant domestic workers much easier, to facilitate the lives of the UAE populations, since having a migrant domestic worker became common in all households in the UAE, nationals and non-nationals thus this influx of migrant domestic workers was highly influenced by governmental policies .

Current situation of Migrant Domestic Workers in the UAE:

In 2004, she wrote a chapter in that was part of a report, published by the International Labor’s organization, called Gender and Migration in the Arab States: The case of domestic workers. In this report, Rima Sabban explained the situations of migrant domestic workers in the UAE, talking about their own experiences and life conditions, through interviews she conducted with multiple domestic workers . She states that after gaining their popularity in the UAE, migrant domestic workers became a necessity in all households in the UAE. However, the conditions in which they live in are do not match the amount of assistance they are bringing to the households they work at. Once a migrant domestic worker enters the house of her employer, she becomes totally under his/her control, because of the system that migrant domestic workers have to abide by, the Kafala system, which forces these workers to let go of their passports and the employer/sponsor becomes totally responsible of the worker until the end of the contract. In addition, Sabban talks about the inhuman conditions that migrant domestic workers live through. Since these domestic workers are migrating from underdeveloped countries, a power relation is created between these and the UAE inhabitants, where migrant domestic workers are seen as inferior, due to their backgrounds and low social class . This creates a huge imbalance in these power relations that were created, since these migrant domestic workers are the ones that are enabling their employers and their family members to have the time to participate in the labor activities, as well as participate in social events, go out and connect with friends and families, while the workers are taking care of internal and external household chores, childrearing and taking care of animals if present. Through the interviews conducted with 51 migrant domestic workers, where most of them have been victims of abuse by family members (whether physical, emotional or verbal). Sabban also talks about how migration is a process that is difficult to handle, due to the change that is occurring, adjusting to their new lives and accommodate a new language and lifestyle. Adding on to this adjustment some inhuman work conditions, where the migrant domestic worker is working for an average of 15 hours per day, with little to no human contact, activities and the inability to speak up for their rights (because most of them are not aware of their rights in the first place) is unfair .