Biographical Writing as Ethnography: The Journey of a Malagasy Worker in Beirut

Abstract

Abstract:Building on the premise that ethnography can function as a form of biographical inquiry, this study revisits key episodes experienced by Meramo, a Malagasy domestic worker in Lebanon, alongside an interpretive commentary addressing the plight of this significant yet sidelined population, currently among the worst affected by the COVID-19 crisis. The nuances in Meramo's narrative reveal the untold turpitudes of migrant life in Beirut, as well as the intersection between the narratives of migrant women and Lebanese women in a setting that regulates the existence of both. The article's retelling of Meramo's story, based on a number of interviews with the subject, also contributes to the sparse biographical representations of migrant household labor in Lebanon's creative writing canon.