The Social Psychology of Kafala: Structural Inequities, Intersectional Harms and Host Society Narratives in Lebanon

ABSTRACT This study explored the mental distress experienced by migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in Lebanon under the Kafala (sponsorship) system, adopting a dual lens that considers both workers' lived realities and the host society's social‐psychological processes. Drawing on intersectionality and social psychology, the analysis examines how intersecting forms of discrimination, rooted in race, gender, class and legal status, combine with crisis contexts, such as Lebanon's economic collapse and the Beirut port explosion, to deepen psychological harm. The study interrogated the cultural narratives, moral hierarchies and ingroup/outgroup dynamics that normalise or obscure these conditions, situating the Lebanese Kafala regime within broader regional labour migration systems. Findings reveal a cyclical dynamic in which legal precarity, racialised labour hierarchies and societal attitudes reinforce both structural abuse and social invisibility. While MDWs mobilise coping strategies including solidarity networks, digital mobilisation, religious practices and community‐based initiatives, these remain constrained by systemic exclusion from national services and persistent stigma. The study argued that meaningful reform requires dismantling both the legal architecture of Kafala and the social‐psychological mechanisms that sustain it, coupling structural change with culturally responsive psychosocial interventions and regional labour governance reforms.