ABSTRACT
Feminist approaches to political geography argue that the dynamics of gender and difference should not be conceptualized independently of the state. Rather, formations of gender, race, and ethnicity should be understood as mutually constitutive elements of capitalist state power and process.2 Such inclusive feminist views of the state are relevant to understanding the roles of the Indonesian New Order (1966-1998) state and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (1899 to present) in shaping the migration of Indonesian female domestic workers to Saudi Arabia. Indeed, between the early-1980s and the late-1990s, both states have put policies in place that have contributed directly to rapid, large-scale increases in the numbers of Indonesian women workers migrating to Saudi Arabia.3 Both states’ sets of policies for migrant domestic workers fall under the broader rubrics of national economic development, with Indonesia focused on creating employment and generating foreign exchange through remittances, and Saudi Arabia’s economy benefi ting from the provision by migrant workers of social reproduction at low cost. In addition, the practices of the Indonesian state’s migration apparatus, and the Saudi state’s regulation of women’s mobility, as well as both states’ lack of regulation of domestic work, have contributed to the gender-specifi c exploitation and abuse faced by migrant women.
