A M Paul
Biographic Data
| ID | 21461 |
|---|---|
| NAME | A M Paul |
| GIVEN NAMES | A M |
| FAMILY NAME | Paul |
| SIGNATURE | PAUL A M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Yale-NUS College |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0097-0018 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 238 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Temporariness as fact of life
Temporary togetherness
Dangerous destinations
This paper examines how South Asian expatriate parents in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) navigate the university destination decision-making process for their daughters, focusing specifically on their gendered safety concerns. While existing literature often connects the persistent gender gap in South Asian student migration to parents’ patriarchal biases and fears about female safety overseas, we argue that parents’ views in the South Asian dias…
Women’s political voice supporting men’s paternity leave
Do countries with greater women’s political representation offer better policy protections for male workers with family caregiving responsibilities via stronger paternity leave policies? Using data from the Global Care Policy Index project on a diverse set of 30 countries’ paternity leave policies, we find that the share of women’s representation in their country’s national parliament is strongly and positively correlated with more robust and lon…
Analyse des différences entre les régimes de protection des travailleurs domestiques de divers pays à l'aide du cadre du régime des politiques publiques
La main‐d'œuvre domestique est l'une des catégories de travailleurs les plus précaires et les moins protégées au monde. La situation est cependant très variable selon les pays. S'appuyant sur le cadre du régime de politiques publiques, l'autrice montre que ces différences de degré de protection juridique entre pays s'expliquent par des variations en matière d'idées, d'institutions et de groupes d'intérêts. Elle postule que la protection des trava…
When citizenship is off the table
A Home Away from Home
Return migration is typically framed as migration back to familiar territory. In contrast, onward migration does not presume any type of prior connection that the emigrant has with their new destination. This article proposes a new category of migration—“halfway-return”—that sits between return and onward migrations. Halfway-return refers to an emigrant’s return to the broader geographical region from which they originated, rather than the specif…
If caring begins at home, who cares for the carers? Introducing the Global Care Policy Index
Despite attempts to bring the plight of domestic care providers to the attention of policymakers, there continues to be inadequate regulatory protections for unpaid family caregivers and paid domestic workers. This article introduces the Global Care Policy Index (GCPI), an original scoring system for care‐policy comparisons. The GCPI aims to achieve two objectives: first, to systematically assess how states' domestic‐care provider protections mat…
Studying multinational migrations, speaking back to migration theory
A growing body of migration scholarship has highlighted the inadequacies of a single-origin-single-destination model for thinking about international migration in our globalizing world. Several terms - onward, stepwise, serial, secondary, triangular, multiple, and transit migration - have been coined to describe these multiple moves within a single migratory lifetime, but the lack of consensus on the terminology to describe these migrations is in…
The Giving Up of Weekly Rest-Days by Migrant Domestic Workers in Singapore
Why do so few live-in migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in Singapore utilize their weekly rest-day entitlement? Using data drawn from 3,886 online profiles of prospective MDWs and 40 interview sessions with MDWs, employers, and manpower agencies, we demonstrate how the industry encourages a “logic of submission” around rest-days. Through processual analysis, we unearth multiple, repeated moments of capitulation at key moments in a MDW’s work-life: …
Stigma on a spectrum
In Singapore, migrant domestic workers are not allowed by law to become pregnant. However, when it comes to their romantic relationships, the boundaries of what is deemed acceptable are less defined. Migrant domestic workers in Singapore experience layered stigmatization based on their twin marginalized statuses as foreigners and as domestic workers. But those workers in casual or committed relationships with partners in Singapore experience addi…
The Workplace-Entitlements Knowledge of Filipino and Indonesian Domestic Workers in Singapore
Awareness of her workplace entitlements augments a migrant worker’s ability to assert her employment rights. Using an original survey instrument, we construct a composite index of workplace-entitlement awareness among 98 Indonesian and Filipina migrant domestic workers employed in Singapore, assessing their knowledge of their rights to retain their personal documents, receive regular salary payments, and receive a weekly rest day. Multiple regres…
Methodological innovations in studying multinational migrations
A growing body of migration scholarship has highlighted the inadequacies of a single-origin, single-destination model for thinking about international migration in the 21st century. Multinational migrations-involving the varied movements of international migrants across more than one overseas destination with significant time spent in each overseas country-have been observed among high-skilled migrants, low-wage labour migrants, and documented an…
Multinational Maids
Multinational Maids offers an in-depth investigation into the international migrations of Filipino and Indonesian migrant domestic workers. The author taps on her rigorous study of more than 1,200 subjects' migration trajectories to reveal how these migrants work in a series of overseas countries to improve their lives and, in some cases, seek permanent residence in another country. Challenging the portrayal of Asian migrant domestic workers as v…
High-tech housewives
10.1080/09589236.2019.1594109
Unequal networks
Previous studies of Asian migrant domestic workers' pre-migration overseas networks have tended to be ethnographic, small-n case studies such that it is unclear if network differences between migrants are due to individual- or country-level differences or both. This article draws from an original survey of 1,206 Filipino and Indonesian domestic workers in Singapore and Hong Kong to reveal statistically significant differences in the pre-migration…
Caring for Strangers
Today, the Philippines has become one of the largest exporters of medical workers in the world, with nursing in particular offering many the hope of a lucrative and stable career abroad. This timely volume narrates their stories in a multi-sited ethnography that follows aspiring migrants from Manila’s vibrant nursing schools to a different reality in Singapore’s multicultural hospitals and nursing homes, and back home to a Filipino village. In so…
Am I allowed to be pregnant? Awareness of pregnancy protection laws among migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, pregnancy is not legal grounds for employers to dismiss their migrant domestic workers (MDWs). However a survey of 589 Filipino and Indonesian MDWs in Hong Kong demonstrates that only a third of respondents know their pregnancy rights. Regression analysis of the survey data highlight the statistically significant positive role of being Filipino and length of tenure in Hong Kong in increasing respondents’ rights awareness. Follow-up …
Multinational Maids
Multinational Maids offers an in-depth investigation into the international migrations of Filipino and Indonesian migrant domestic workers. The author taps on her rigorous study of more than 1,200 subjects' migration trajectories to reveal how these migrants work in a series of overseas countries to improve their lives and, in some cases, seek permanent residence in another country. Challenging the portrayal of Asian migrant domestic workers as v…
Negotiating Migration, Performing Gender
Increasing numbers of independent women labor migrants leave countries in the Global South every year to work overseas. However, our understanding of how exactly gender and migration intersect at the decision-making moment is still inadequate. The new economics of labor migration (NELM) argument that individual migration is a household-level decision has been criticized by feminist scholars for ignoring the gendered social norms and inequitable i…
Capital and mobility in the stepwise international migrations of Filipino migrant domestic workers
The twenty-first century has been called the age of mobility; however, this narrative is most often applied to the movements of the global elite. In this paper, I demonstrate how low-status migrant domestic workers can also be part of the mobility age through a form of constrained mobility known as stepwise international labor migration. Due to their initial shortage of migrant capital, these aspiring labor migrants are unable to gain immediate a…
Craig Calhoun, Nations Matter
Stepwise International Migration
High cost barriers and immigration policy restrictions prevent many low-capital migrants from realizing their destination preferences. However, interviews with 95 Filipino domestic workers in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Singapore reveal how these low-capital migrants can intentionally follow a stepwise international migration trajectory, working their way up a hierarchy of destination countries and accumulating sufficient migrant capital in t…
The 'other' looks back
While the racial and ethnic stereotyping practised by the employers of migrant domestic workers has received significant scholarly attention, these workers' racial essentializations of their employers have been largely ignored. Drawing upon interviews with Filipino migrant domestic workers in Singapore and Hong Kong, I present findings concerning the racial stereotypes these workers hold about white and Chinese employers. This stereotyping involv…
Stepwise International Migration
High cost barriers and immigration policy restrictions prevent many low-capital migrants from realizing their destination preferences. However, interviews with 95 Filipino domestic workers in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Singapore reveal how these low-capital migrants can intentionally follow a stepwise international migration trajectory, working their way up a hierarchy of destination countries and accumulating sufficient migrant capital in t…
Studying multinational migrations, speaking back to migration theory
A growing body of migration scholarship has highlighted the inadequacies of a single-origin-single-destination model for thinking about international migration in our globalizing world. Several terms - onward, stepwise, serial, secondary, triangular, multiple, and transit migration - have been coined to describe these multiple moves within a single migratory lifetime, but the lack of consensus on the terminology to describe these migrations is in…
The 'other' looks back
While the racial and ethnic stereotyping practised by the employers of migrant domestic workers has received significant scholarly attention, these workers' racial essentializations of their employers have been largely ignored. Drawing upon interviews with Filipino migrant domestic workers in Singapore and Hong Kong, I present findings concerning the racial stereotypes these workers hold about white and Chinese employers. This stereotyping involv…
Capital and mobility in the stepwise international migrations of Filipino migrant domestic workers
The twenty-first century has been called the age of mobility; however, this narrative is most often applied to the movements of the global elite. In this paper, I demonstrate how low-status migrant domestic workers can also be part of the mobility age through a form of constrained mobility known as stepwise international labor migration. Due to their initial shortage of migrant capital, these aspiring labor migrants are unable to gain immediate a…
When citizenship is off the table
Methodological innovations in studying multinational migrations
A growing body of migration scholarship has highlighted the inadequacies of a single-origin, single-destination model for thinking about international migration in the 21st century. Multinational migrations-involving the varied movements of international migrants across more than one overseas destination with significant time spent in each overseas country-have been observed among high-skilled migrants, low-wage labour migrants, and documented an…
Temporariness as fact of life
Caring for Strangers
Today, the Philippines has become one of the largest exporters of medical workers in the world, with nursing in particular offering many the hope of a lucrative and stable career abroad. This timely volume narrates their stories in a multi-sited ethnography that follows aspiring migrants from Manila’s vibrant nursing schools to a different reality in Singapore’s multicultural hospitals and nursing homes, and back home to a Filipino village. In so…
Unequal networks
Previous studies of Asian migrant domestic workers' pre-migration overseas networks have tended to be ethnographic, small-n case studies such that it is unclear if network differences between migrants are due to individual- or country-level differences or both. This article draws from an original survey of 1,206 Filipino and Indonesian domestic workers in Singapore and Hong Kong to reveal statistically significant differences in the pre-migration…
Temporary togetherness
A Home Away from Home
Return migration is typically framed as migration back to familiar territory. In contrast, onward migration does not presume any type of prior connection that the emigrant has with their new destination. This article proposes a new category of migration—“halfway-return”—that sits between return and onward migrations. Halfway-return refers to an emigrant’s return to the broader geographical region from which they originated, rather than the specif…
Multinational Maids
Multinational Maids offers an in-depth investigation into the international migrations of Filipino and Indonesian migrant domestic workers. The author taps on her rigorous study of more than 1,200 subjects' migration trajectories to reveal how these migrants work in a series of overseas countries to improve their lives and, in some cases, seek permanent residence in another country. Challenging the portrayal of Asian migrant domestic workers as v…
Am I allowed to be pregnant? Awareness of pregnancy protection laws among migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, pregnancy is not legal grounds for employers to dismiss their migrant domestic workers (MDWs). However a survey of 589 Filipino and Indonesian MDWs in Hong Kong demonstrates that only a third of respondents know their pregnancy rights. Regression analysis of the survey data highlight the statistically significant positive role of being Filipino and length of tenure in Hong Kong in increasing respondents’ rights awareness. Follow-up …
Dangerous destinations
This paper examines how South Asian expatriate parents in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) navigate the university destination decision-making process for their daughters, focusing specifically on their gendered safety concerns. While existing literature often connects the persistent gender gap in South Asian student migration to parents’ patriarchal biases and fears about female safety overseas, we argue that parents’ views in the South Asian dias…
Women’s political voice supporting men’s paternity leave
Do countries with greater women’s political representation offer better policy protections for male workers with family caregiving responsibilities via stronger paternity leave policies? Using data from the Global Care Policy Index project on a diverse set of 30 countries’ paternity leave policies, we find that the share of women’s representation in their country’s national parliament is strongly and positively correlated with more robust and lon…
Stigma on a spectrum
In Singapore, migrant domestic workers are not allowed by law to become pregnant. However, when it comes to their romantic relationships, the boundaries of what is deemed acceptable are less defined. Migrant domestic workers in Singapore experience layered stigmatization based on their twin marginalized statuses as foreigners and as domestic workers. But those workers in casual or committed relationships with partners in Singapore experience addi…
Stepwise International Migration
High cost barriers and immigration policy restrictions prevent many low-capital migrants from realizing their destination preferences. However, interviews with 95 Filipino domestic workers in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Singapore reveal how these low-capital migrants can intentionally follow a stepwise international migration trajectory, working their way up a hierarchy of destination countries and accumulating sufficient migrant capital in t…
The 'other' looks back
While the racial and ethnic stereotyping practised by the employers of migrant domestic workers has received significant scholarly attention, these workers' racial essentializations of their employers have been largely ignored. Drawing upon interviews with Filipino migrant domestic workers in Singapore and Hong Kong, I present findings concerning the racial stereotypes these workers hold about white and Chinese employers. This stereotyping involv…
Craig Calhoun, Nations Matter
Negotiating Migration, Performing Gender
Increasing numbers of independent women labor migrants leave countries in the Global South every year to work overseas. However, our understanding of how exactly gender and migration intersect at the decision-making moment is still inadequate. The new economics of labor migration (NELM) argument that individual migration is a household-level decision has been criticized by feminist scholars for ignoring the gendered social norms and inequitable i…
Capital and mobility in the stepwise international migrations of Filipino migrant domestic workers
The twenty-first century has been called the age of mobility; however, this narrative is most often applied to the movements of the global elite. In this paper, I demonstrate how low-status migrant domestic workers can also be part of the mobility age through a form of constrained mobility known as stepwise international labor migration. Due to their initial shortage of migrant capital, these aspiring labor migrants are unable to gain immediate a…
Multinational Maids
Multinational Maids offers an in-depth investigation into the international migrations of Filipino and Indonesian migrant domestic workers. The author taps on her rigorous study of more than 1,200 subjects' migration trajectories to reveal how these migrants work in a series of overseas countries to improve their lives and, in some cases, seek permanent residence in another country. Challenging the portrayal of Asian migrant domestic workers as v…
Caring for Strangers
Today, the Philippines has become one of the largest exporters of medical workers in the world, with nursing in particular offering many the hope of a lucrative and stable career abroad. This timely volume narrates their stories in a multi-sited ethnography that follows aspiring migrants from Manila’s vibrant nursing schools to a different reality in Singapore’s multicultural hospitals and nursing homes, and back home to a Filipino village. In so…
Am I allowed to be pregnant? Awareness of pregnancy protection laws among migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, pregnancy is not legal grounds for employers to dismiss their migrant domestic workers (MDWs). However a survey of 589 Filipino and Indonesian MDWs in Hong Kong demonstrates that only a third of respondents know their pregnancy rights. Regression analysis of the survey data highlight the statistically significant positive role of being Filipino and length of tenure in Hong Kong in increasing respondents’ rights awareness. Follow-up …
Multinational Maids
Multinational Maids offers an in-depth investigation into the international migrations of Filipino and Indonesian migrant domestic workers. The author taps on her rigorous study of more than 1,200 subjects' migration trajectories to reveal how these migrants work in a series of overseas countries to improve their lives and, in some cases, seek permanent residence in another country. Challenging the portrayal of Asian migrant domestic workers as v…
High-tech housewives
10.1080/09589236.2019.1594109
Unequal networks
Previous studies of Asian migrant domestic workers' pre-migration overseas networks have tended to be ethnographic, small-n case studies such that it is unclear if network differences between migrants are due to individual- or country-level differences or both. This article draws from an original survey of 1,206 Filipino and Indonesian domestic workers in Singapore and Hong Kong to reveal statistically significant differences in the pre-migration…
The Giving Up of Weekly Rest-Days by Migrant Domestic Workers in Singapore
Why do so few live-in migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in Singapore utilize their weekly rest-day entitlement? Using data drawn from 3,886 online profiles of prospective MDWs and 40 interview sessions with MDWs, employers, and manpower agencies, we demonstrate how the industry encourages a “logic of submission” around rest-days. Through processual analysis, we unearth multiple, repeated moments of capitulation at key moments in a MDW’s work-life: …
Stigma on a spectrum
In Singapore, migrant domestic workers are not allowed by law to become pregnant. However, when it comes to their romantic relationships, the boundaries of what is deemed acceptable are less defined. Migrant domestic workers in Singapore experience layered stigmatization based on their twin marginalized statuses as foreigners and as domestic workers. But those workers in casual or committed relationships with partners in Singapore experience addi…
The Workplace-Entitlements Knowledge of Filipino and Indonesian Domestic Workers in Singapore
Awareness of her workplace entitlements augments a migrant worker’s ability to assert her employment rights. Using an original survey instrument, we construct a composite index of workplace-entitlement awareness among 98 Indonesian and Filipina migrant domestic workers employed in Singapore, assessing their knowledge of their rights to retain their personal documents, receive regular salary payments, and receive a weekly rest day. Multiple regres…
Methodological innovations in studying multinational migrations
A growing body of migration scholarship has highlighted the inadequacies of a single-origin, single-destination model for thinking about international migration in the 21st century. Multinational migrations-involving the varied movements of international migrants across more than one overseas destination with significant time spent in each overseas country-have been observed among high-skilled migrants, low-wage labour migrants, and documented an…
Studying multinational migrations, speaking back to migration theory
A growing body of migration scholarship has highlighted the inadequacies of a single-origin-single-destination model for thinking about international migration in our globalizing world. Several terms - onward, stepwise, serial, secondary, triangular, multiple, and transit migration - have been coined to describe these multiple moves within a single migratory lifetime, but the lack of consensus on the terminology to describe these migrations is in…
If caring begins at home, who cares for the carers? Introducing the Global Care Policy Index
Despite attempts to bring the plight of domestic care providers to the attention of policymakers, there continues to be inadequate regulatory protections for unpaid family caregivers and paid domestic workers. This article introduces the Global Care Policy Index (GCPI), an original scoring system for care‐policy comparisons. The GCPI aims to achieve two objectives: first, to systematically assess how states' domestic‐care provider protections mat…
A Home Away from Home
Return migration is typically framed as migration back to familiar territory. In contrast, onward migration does not presume any type of prior connection that the emigrant has with their new destination. This article proposes a new category of migration—“halfway-return”—that sits between return and onward migrations. Halfway-return refers to an emigrant’s return to the broader geographical region from which they originated, rather than the specif…
Analyse des différences entre les régimes de protection des travailleurs domestiques de divers pays à l'aide du cadre du régime des politiques publiques
La main‐d'œuvre domestique est l'une des catégories de travailleurs les plus précaires et les moins protégées au monde. La situation est cependant très variable selon les pays. S'appuyant sur le cadre du régime de politiques publiques, l'autrice montre que ces différences de degré de protection juridique entre pays s'expliquent par des variations en matière d'idées, d'institutions et de groupes d'intérêts. Elle postule que la protection des trava…
When citizenship is off the table
Dangerous destinations
This paper examines how South Asian expatriate parents in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) navigate the university destination decision-making process for their daughters, focusing specifically on their gendered safety concerns. While existing literature often connects the persistent gender gap in South Asian student migration to parents’ patriarchal biases and fears about female safety overseas, we argue that parents’ views in the South Asian dias…
Women’s political voice supporting men’s paternity leave
Do countries with greater women’s political representation offer better policy protections for male workers with family caregiving responsibilities via stronger paternity leave policies? Using data from the Global Care Policy Index project on a diverse set of 30 countries’ paternity leave policies, we find that the share of women’s representation in their country’s national parliament is strongly and positively correlated with more robust and lon…
Temporariness as fact of life
Temporary togetherness
Migration and Labor Dynamics (19 works) · Political science (19 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Economics (14 works) · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy (13 works) · Demographic economics (11 works) · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity (9 works) · Gender Studies (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Economic growth (7 works)