Trespassing legal and moral boundaries: Ethiopian domestic workers returned from the Middle East

Ninna Nyberg Sørensen

Trespassing legal and moral boundaries: Ethiopian domestic workers returned from the Middle East

Ninna Nyberg Sørensen

Research output: Contribution to Book, Anthology, Report › Book Chapter › Research › peer-review

Abstract

International human rights and anti-trafficking entities predict that the combined effects of environmental change, economic hardship and protracted conflict situations will increase women’s vulnerability to human trafficking. Thus, specific protection measures are needed. A derivative effect of the coinciding focus vulnerability and protection is that women’s irregular migration routinely is conflated with human trafficking among state and nonstate actors. The chapter examines the economic, political and social factors prompting Ethiopian women to migrate as well as the politics around global migration governance that circumscribe how their migration is understood and categorized. It suggests reorienting the analytical focus away from questions of (il)legality and introduces the notion of legal and moral trespassing as an alternative analytical entry point.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Governing climate mobility in Africa : Explorations of adaptation in Ethiopia and Ghana
Editors	Ninna Nyberg Sørensen, Lily Salloum Lindegaard, Neil Anthony Webster
Place of Publication	Bristol
Publisher	Bristol University Press
Publication date	28 Jul 2025
Pages	210-230
Chapter	10
ISBN (Print)	9781529245394
ISBN (Electronic)	9781529245400, 9781529245417
Publication status	Published - 28 Jul 2025

Keywords

Human trafficking
Return migration
Irregular migration
Migration governance
Labour mobility
Women's agency
Social protection
Development studies

Access to Document

https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/edcollchap-oa/book/9781529245417/ch010.xmlLicence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

1 Anthology

Governing climate mobility in Africa: Explorations of adaptation in Ethiopia and Ghana
Sørensen, N. N. (Editor), Lindegaard, L. S. (Editor) & Webster, N. A. (Editor), 28 Jul 2025, Bristol: Bristol University Press. 287 p.
Research output: Book, Anthology, Thesis, Report › Anthology › Research › peer-review

Open Access

Cite this

Sørensen, N. N. (2025). Trespassing legal and moral boundaries: Ethiopian domestic workers returned from the Middle East. In N. Nyberg Sørensen, L. Salloum Lindegaard, & N. A. Webster (Eds.), Governing climate mobility in Africa: Explorations of adaptation in Ethiopia and Ghana (pp. 210-230). Bristol University Press. https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/edcollchap-oa/book/9781529245417/ch010.xml

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Sørensen, NN 2025, Trespassing legal and moral boundaries: Ethiopian domestic workers returned from the Middle East. in N Nyberg Sørensen, L Salloum Lindegaard & NA Webster (eds), Governing climate mobility in Africa: Explorations of adaptation in Ethiopia and Ghana. Bristol University Press, Bristol, pp. 210-230. <https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/edcollchap-oa/book/9781529245417/ch010.xml>

Trespassing legal and moral boundaries: Ethiopian domestic workers returned from the Middle East. / Sørensen, Ninna Nyberg.
Governing climate mobility in Africa: Explorations of adaptation in Ethiopia and Ghana. ed. / Ninna Nyberg Sørensen; Lily Salloum Lindegaard; Neil Anthony Webster. Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2025. p. 210-230.

Research output: Contribution to Book, Anthology, Report › Book Chapter › Research › peer-review

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