Contesting Migrant Labour Regimes: The State of Migrant Labour Politics in Asia and the Gulf

‘Cute face and quiet … but her look don't match her personality’: Commodifying flesh, shaping labour expectations and domestic workers' treatment in Singapore

“…While this form of migration is necessary for the functioning of Singapore's economy and society, DWs (as migrant ‘workers’, as opposed to ‘professionals’) have no right to remain in the country once their employment contracts have terminated. Indeed, the state operates a use‐and‐discard migratory regime that maintains racial order in the nation, rendering DWs a disposable population (Bal, 2016; Liow, 2011; Yeoh, 2006).…”

“…Indeed, Shah and Lerche (2020, p. 720) also argue that ‘capitalism articulates with and reinforces gendered, racialised and classed oppression as – through labour migrants – difference is mobilised for accumulation’. With its own contextual and historical intricacies, racialised differentiation is certainly also central to the functioning of the Singaporean economy, with racial order and hierarchies being meticulously curated and managed in both the citizen and migrant populations (Bal, 2016; Velayutham, 2017). While at one level, then, DWs are homogenised – as a group of women of specific nationalities that are deemed suited to domestic labour – they are not (to follow Maher's analogy) like one kind of fruit.…”

“…As Killias (2018, p. 145) writes, 'the process of becoming a "maid" does not take place overnight'. Through these processes, agencies are able to profit from both employee and employer (for detail, see Goh et al, 2016), often charging (or indebting) DWs with their exorbitant fees (Bal, 2016). As important intermediaries within the migration industry, employment agencies, or 'brokers', play a critical role in inscribing 'the text of policy into migrant workers' lives' (Wee et al, 2020a).…”

“…Having been marketed and sold as captive and fungible corporeal objects, many employers then go on to treat them as possessions (Ong, 2009). While all DWs in Singapore are ultimately going to be used and discarded (Bal, 2016;Liow, 2011;Yeoh, 2006), as they form a disposable population (Pratt et al, 2017;Tadiar, 2012Tadiar, , 2013, this does not happen equally.…”

Bangladeshi immigrants’ self-organization and associationism in Venice (Italy)

“…The model of political and social relations in Bangladesh is characterized by a hierarchical structure that, among other things, expresses a binary classification largely taking shape in a distinction between the borolok, or "big people" of wealth and status, and the chotolok, or "small people" of low wealth and status (Thorp 1978, Rozario 1992, Bal 2016). This makes "horizontal" forms of solidarity very sporadic, while "vertical" bonds of patronage are one of the most effective adhesives in the structuring of Bangladeshi social networks (cf.…”