Debt, precarity and gender

Male and female temporary labour migrants in Singapore

Bibliographic Data

ID3628868
AuthorsMaria Platt (National University of Singapore, corresponding author), Grace Baey (National University of Singapore), B S A Yeoh (0000-0002-0240-3175, National University of Singapore), Choon Yen Khoo (0000-0002-9538-7118, National University of Singapore), Theodora Lam (0000-0003-0342-5808, National University of Singapore)
Year2017
Volume43
Issue1
Pages119-136
Publication date2017-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183x.2016.1218756
OpenAlexW2515768830
LanguageEN
Citations received53
References cited33

As one of Asia’s key hubs for transient workers, Singapore’s migration regime creates particularly gendered streams of labour, especially among lower skilled occupations, as is apparent in two key sectors – domestic work and construction work. Drawing on surveys with Bangladeshi construction workers and Indonesian domestic workers based in Singapore, as well as in-depth interviews with each group, this paper examines gendered issues of temporary labour migration, precarity and risk, as they occur against a backdrop of migrant indebtedness. In this paper, we argue that migrant indebtedness occurs along a spectrum that ranges from less visible, or what we call ‘silently’ incurred forms of debt, through to more ‘resonant’ types of debt that are acquired upfront and thus more readily quantifiable. Using this spectrum of migrant indebtedness, we aim to complicate debates about debt-financed migration by underscoring the ways in which notions of debt and unfreedom can be imbricated with both constraints and opportunities for migrants’ agency

Business · Debt · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Household debt · Indonesian · Labour economics · Migrant workers · Political science · Precarity · Sociology · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Gender Studies · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Finance