Voiceless Migrants vs Loving Employers: Framing the Kafala System in News from Lebanon

This study analyzes how migrant workers under the Kafala or “sponsorship” system are represented in Lebanese news media during times of crisis. To investigate media representations of migrants in Lebanon, this study employs quantitative and qualitative analysis of 197 randomly sampled news headlines...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: King, Gretchen (author)
Other Authors: Abi Hadir, Dany (author), Saati, Farah (author), Ayyad, Zaynab (author)
Format: article
Published: 2026
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10725/17730
https://doi.org/10.1080/15562948.2026.2629335
http://libraries.lau.edu.lb/research/laur/terms-of-use/articles.php
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15562948.2026.2629335
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Summary:This study analyzes how migrant workers under the Kafala or “sponsorship” system are represented in Lebanese news media during times of crisis. To investigate media representations of migrants in Lebanon, this study employs quantitative and qualitative analysis of 197 randomly sampled news headlines and 18 purposively sampled news articles published from 2020–2021. The quantitative findings reveal that during times of crisis in Lebanon, the headlines about migrant workers became more negative while the qualitative analysis found the articles almost never quoted migrants while reproducing racialized and gendered media biases through the media frames, discourses, and visuals presented.