Dual Abandonment as Structural Violence in Intimate Labour: Migrant domestic workers in conflict zones

Abstract

The abandonment of migrant domestic workers in conflict zones constitutes a distinct form of structural violence. This short article offers an initial exploration of dual abandonment—the violence produced when intimate labour relations break down as employers withdraw support and states fail to protect during armed conflict. Drawing on Johan Galtung’s framework of structural violence and foregrounding intimate labour as a key site of harm, it argues that armed conflict does not create this violence but exposes the gendered structural violence already embedded in care labour and migration governance.