Abstract:Labour emigration is not merely the business of states and governmental policies, but comes with a range of wider societal practices. This includes the production of -and contestation over -the
“…Thus as Rodriguez and Schwenken (2013) argue, whilst regularized system of return migration exist because of agreements between states, a state-centric (or regulatory)…”
Section: Everyday Actors and Return Migration Systemsmentioning
The article considers how the employment of domestic workers by middle class Malaysian households has been thrown into flux by the imposition of bans on the sending of workers by states such as Indonesia and Cambodia, as well as the decline in numbers of women seeking employment as domestic workers in Malaysia and rising employment costs. This article does not seek to focus on the high-level policy negotiations and disputes that have come to characterize systems of temporary return migration for domestic work in Asia, but to focus in on the everyday political economies (of social reproduction, work and everyday agency) that constitute the conditions of possibility within which bilateral disputes and labour agreements between Southeast Asian states take shape. We examine three dimensions of migration for domestic work in Southeast Asia in ways that bring together literatures on everyday life and social reproduction. These interconnected yet distinct dimensions are (a) the relationship between strategies to boost remittances and flows of workers from some of the most impoverished parts of Southeast Asia; (b) the centrality of low cost migrant domestic workers to Malaysian middle class 'success stories', and (c) the day to day production of 'good' worker subjects -a process that is actively and constantly resisted by workers themselves. Through a focus on these dimensions, the article provides important insights into the mechanisms through arenas of everyday life -and the household in particular -are transformed; becoming sites for the ever widening and deepening of the market economy.
“…Thus as Rodriguez and Schwenken (2013) argue, whilst regularized system of return migration exist because of agreements between states, a state-centric (or regulatory)…”
Section: Everyday Actors and Return Migration Systemsmentioning
The article considers how the employment of domestic workers by middle class Malaysian households has been thrown into flux by the imposition of bans on the sending of workers by states such as Indonesia and Cambodia, as well as the decline in numbers of women seeking employment as domestic workers in Malaysia and rising employment costs. This article does not seek to focus on the high-level policy negotiations and disputes that have come to characterize systems of temporary return migration for domestic work in Asia, but to focus in on the everyday political economies (of social reproduction, work and everyday agency) that constitute the conditions of possibility within which bilateral disputes and labour agreements between Southeast Asian states take shape. We examine three dimensions of migration for domestic work in Southeast Asia in ways that bring together literatures on everyday life and social reproduction. These interconnected yet distinct dimensions are (a) the relationship between strategies to boost remittances and flows of workers from some of the most impoverished parts of Southeast Asia; (b) the centrality of low cost migrant domestic workers to Malaysian middle class 'success stories', and (c) the day to day production of 'good' worker subjects -a process that is actively and constantly resisted by workers themselves. Through a focus on these dimensions, the article provides important insights into the mechanisms through arenas of everyday life -and the household in particular -are transformed; becoming sites for the ever widening and deepening of the market economy.
“…Similar to what has been observed in India, the Philippines, and Indonesia (e.g. Rudnyckyj, : 419; Lan, : 84; Constable, : 87; Rodriguez & Schwenken, ), pre‐departure trainings for Vietnamese workers primarily aim to acclimatise them to harsh living and working conditions of domestic servitude, which are presumed to be awaiting them at the destination: ‘So I went to Thái Bình City to attend the training....oh my…more than 100 people altogether… They gave us congee for breakfast. I was used to having a proper meal in the morning but they made me eat congee…watery congee…tasteless…I sneaked out of school to buy pancake and they caught me.…”
Section: The Subject Making Of Wailaomentioning
confidence: 72%
“…Through such preparations, brokerage agencies seek to cultivate a mindset of servitude and instil a sense of fear in migrant workers. Workers, to quote Rodriguez and Schwenken (: 376), become migrants even before they leave home. Together, the debt bondage nature of contract labour migration, the social label of wailao , and the technologies of servitude, as well as the bond and levy charged to Taiwanese employers, are part and parcel of a system of neoliberal governmentality that aims at creating submissive and governable migrant subjects.…”
The phenomenon of 'runaway' migrant contract workers in Asia has attracted considerable media attention. Drawing on a qualitative study in Vietnam and Taiwan, I examine the critical links between the neoliberal governmentality rationalities and technologies, the structural vulnerabilities that they produce, and the migrant worker's 'technologies of the self'. In so doing, I point out that the 'manufacturing' of the 'ideal' migrant subject is a multi-actor and multilayered process that involves not only state and market actors but also the migrants themselves through their internalisation of subordination. I emphasise that illegality is not just a legal status but also a political tool for the state and its proxies to discipline neoliberal subjects and a social image that informs individual practice in the context of transnational labour migration.
“…The discourse and concept of managing migration were also "productive" in (re-)emphasizing the need for migrants, rejected asylum seekers and victims of trafficking to "voluntarily return" or "resettle" and effectively "reintegrate" in their home country/the country of resettlement and to refrain from executing unwanted "secondary movements" or "asylum-shopping". Migration management became also associated with the assumption that there is a responsibility of (temporary) migrants "to contribute" to the development of their home countries, to remitting wisely and productively (for the society as a whole, not exclusively for the benefit of their own family), as well as to "successfully return" in an uncomplicated but also "beneficial" manner (Geiger and Steinbrink, 2012;Raghuram, 2009;Rodriguez and Schwenken, 2013).…”
Section: Disciplining the Transnational Mobility Of People Discoursesmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Governments (at both ends of the migration process) and potential employers define the class-and gender-specific characteristics of the "ideal" subject (hardworking, remittance-sender, flexible, etc. ), to which potential migrants are to bear resemblance (Rodriguez and Schwenken, 2013). The aim of disciplining efforts is thus not only to target the actual behaviour of people but also the way in which they perceive themselves -and therefore what could be referred to as their personal aspirations, values or intimacy.…”
Section: Disciplining and Self-discipliningmentioning
The global political economy is in flux as a series of cumulative crises impacts its organization and governance. The IPE series has tracked its development in both analysis and structure over the last three decades. It has always had a concentration on the global South. Now the South increasingly challenges the North as the centre of development, also reflected in a growing number of submissions and publications on indebted Eurozone economies in Southern Europe.An indispensable resource for scholars and researchers, the series examines a variety of capitalisms and connections by focusing on emerging economies, companies and sectors, debates and policies. It informs diverse policy communities as the established trans-Atlantic North declines and 'the rest', especially the BRICS, rise.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
