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The global migration of maids, nannies, nurses, sex workers and contract brides is the outcome of multiple conditions and dynamics. Are the particular conditions and dynamics brought on by globalization altering or re-inscribing these often old and well-established histories of migration and exploitation? The focus is on two conditions. One is the globalizing of often older survival and profit-making activities that contribute today to producing a global supply of low-wage women workers. The second is the growing demand for migrant women in the global north as part of a sharp reorganization of labor demand. These dynamics are particularly visible in global cities, also strategic sites for global corporate capital. Both in the global city and in these survival circuits women emerge as crucial actors for new and expanding types of economies. It is through these supposedly rather value-less economic actors that key components of these new economies have been built.