ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews literature that investigates the influence of female domestic workers from South Asia and Africa on the receiving families in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Current theoretical conceptualizations suggest that the social impact of the female domestic workers in the families would be defined as social benefits, social implications, and social problems. Positive influences include the greater social freedom of the female members of the families and higher social status of the families employing foreign female domestic workers. Negative influences are perceived as implications on morality, language, and religion of the family members and social problems in realms of domestic conflicts, childcare, and negligent care for elderly family members. The examination of the influence of South Asian and African domestic workers on the receiving families in GCC countries also attends to the vulnerability of the foreign female domestic workers.
