The Arab Uprisings and Social Rights: Asian Migrant Workers in Lebanon

Elizabeth Picard (1)

1 IREMAM - Institut de Recherches et d'Etudes sur les Mondes Arabes et Musulmans

The Arab spring of 2011 first reverberated in Lebanon in the form of political protest against the rule, not of one despotic autocrat but of a clique of collusive confessional leaders. Soon, however, demands and demonstrations in favor of reform and secularization fizzled out, engulfed by the 8 March - 14 March dispute exacerbated by the spilling over of the Syrian crisis. Democratization forces and anti-system groups appeared divided along confessional and clannish lines. Hope for political change vanished. Still, social and civil demands persisted through 2012: on the one hand, strikes in the public and private sector, demonstrations in protest against deficiencies in public infrastructures and social services, lawsuits against abusing employers, whistle blowing on corruption of unions' leadership; on the other hand, Lebanon witnessed a burgeoning of advocacy associations in defense of Human rights, ethnic and sexual minorities, prisoners, refugees, etc., the public denunciation of the subjection of the judiciary by the political, and demands for the respect of the rule of Law. As the global legalist narrative impacted on the Lebanese debate, the status and treatment of migrant populations, of unskilled foreign labor especially, appeared at the forefront of collective mobilizations by activists from the Anti-Racism Movement, the anti-exploitation society Kafa, the Migrant Worker Task Force, and others. Human rights activists and union militants concurred with migrants' associations in demand of the revision of the Labor code. In an unprecedented move, the Labor minister even made public his intent to eliminate the kafala (sponsorship) system for migrant workers. Can a new articulation between the national and migrant workers' movements succeed in alleviating Lebanon's labor crisis? Could improvement of civil and social rights shake its political stalemate? And will Lebanon social movement escape hijacking by external strategic forces following the trend in several Arab uprisings? A comparison with other immigration Arab countries, namely GCC states such as Bahrain and Kuwait, in spite of structural differences in their demographic balance and the capacity of their welfare state, draws attention to competing dynamics. Hypotheses suggest that interests and strategies are split between three main forces encompassing networks of national, international and transnational actors: 1) human and civil rights activists whose action runs against the "national security logic" advocated by the state ; 2) the business community whose interest is to maintain cheap labor by accommodating the political class and reining in national workers' demands; and 3) migrant workers whose remittances support their community of origin while they are exploited by recruitment agencies, human traffickers, sponsors and smugglers. These forces concur in the undemocratic segmentation and stratification of the labor market along ethno-national lines. The paper is based on the Lebanese press (2011-12), on interviews with Lebanese civil society activists, labor unionists and government agencies (2012) as well as academics studies such as the publications of the Consortium for Applied Research in International Migration (European University Institute, Florence), "The political Impact of Labor Migration in Bahrain" (L. Louër, 2008) and GU Qatar working group studies on Migrant Labor in the Gulf (2011).

Mots clés: Lebanon; Asian Workers; Labour Code; Social mobilizations; Nation building

Domaines: Science politique

Elizabeth Picard. The Arab Uprisings and Social Rights: Asian Migrant Workers in Lebanon. 2013. ⟨halshs-00938259⟩