The Migrating out of Poverty (Asia Research Institute) team has been working on a project focusing on Singapore's migration industry for domestic workers since March 2015. Please check out our publications and media mentions below. We also update our blog, Facebook page, Twitter and mailing list often, so please follow us on one of these platforms if you'd like to know what's coming up for us next!
Who’s holding the bomb? Debt-financed migration in Singapore’s domestic work industry
Charmian Goh, Kellynn Wee and Brenda Yeoh
Click here to download (Working Paper 38)
Debt-financed migration in South-East Asia is often criticised as a model that yokes migrant domestic workers to employers with onerous salary deductions. However, more recent conceptualisations of debt-financed migration have recognised how debt can both enable and constrain migratory trajectories, while also acknowledging that brokers are not simply ‘merchants of labour’ who seek to maximise profit at the expense of the worker. Based on our research on Singapore’s placement and recruitment agencies for migrant domestic workers, we argue that debt is not the sole provenance of the worker; instead, brokers distribute the liability for a defaulted debt to various parties within the migration industry, most often between employers and brokers themselves. By paying attention to the temporality of debt, we avoid freeze-framing the distribution of debt at a point in time and consider the varied meanings and effects of debt across the repayment period, and the implications these have for the worker, the agent and the employer. Finally, we argue that the relationship between migrant workers and debt is not always absolutely oppressive. While debt-financed migration can compound the vulnerability of migrant domestic workers, the imbrication of employers, agents and other institutions in debt repayment also provides a measure of leverage for the worker.
Charmian Goh, Kellynn Wee and Brenda Yeoh
Click here to download (Working Paper 38)
Debt-financed migration in South-East Asia is often criticised as a model that yokes migrant domestic workers to employers with onerous salary deductions. However, more recent conceptualisations of debt-financed migration have recognised how debt can both enable and constrain migratory trajectories, while also acknowledging that brokers are not simply ‘merchants of labour’ who seek to maximise profit at the expense of the worker. Based on our research on Singapore’s placement and recruitment agencies for migrant domestic workers, we argue that debt is not the sole provenance of the worker; instead, brokers distribute the liability for a defaulted debt to various parties within the migration industry, most often between employers and brokers themselves. By paying attention to the temporality of debt, we avoid freeze-framing the distribution of debt at a point in time and consider the varied meanings and effects of debt across the repayment period, and the implications these have for the worker, the agent and the employer. Finally, we argue that the relationship between migrant workers and debt is not always absolutely oppressive. While debt-financed migration can compound the vulnerability of migrant domestic workers, the imbrication of employers, agents and other institutions in debt repayment also provides a measure of leverage for the worker.
“The current system is no good”: The challenges of Singapore’s domestic work industry
Kellynn Wee and Charmian Goh
Click here to download
Employment agents who match migrant domestic workers to Singaporean employers play a critical role in the way Singapore’s migration industry is currently structured: they set fees, create job matches, intervene when fissures appear, and shape migration flows between Singapore and countries of origin. Based on 47 interviews with employment agents and other key actors in Singapore and Indonesia, we break down the cost components for both employers and workers, pay attention to the flow of money across the migration industry rather than the sum costs, and show how the employer, agent and worker are tightly bound in a complicated web of debt. Employers become contractually liable for defaulted loans and must pay high upfront fees, while workers’ vulnerability and stress are heightened by protracted salary deductions. We suggest that Singapore would benefit from better labour protections and more thorough skills differentiation for workers, as well as policies to prevent agents from collecting placement loans on behalf of their overseas counterparts.
Kellynn Wee and Charmian Goh
Click here to download
Employment agents who match migrant domestic workers to Singaporean employers play a critical role in the way Singapore’s migration industry is currently structured: they set fees, create job matches, intervene when fissures appear, and shape migration flows between Singapore and countries of origin. Based on 47 interviews with employment agents and other key actors in Singapore and Indonesia, we break down the cost components for both employers and workers, pay attention to the flow of money across the migration industry rather than the sum costs, and show how the employer, agent and worker are tightly bound in a complicated web of debt. Employers become contractually liable for defaulted loans and must pay high upfront fees, while workers’ vulnerability and stress are heightened by protracted salary deductions. We suggest that Singapore would benefit from better labour protections and more thorough skills differentiation for workers, as well as policies to prevent agents from collecting placement loans on behalf of their overseas counterparts.
New work pass proposed for maids taking care of the elderly
Straits Times, 21 Oct 2016
Click here to read
A group of Singapore researchers is proposing a skills-based, tiered system of work pass for foreign maids who look after the elderly. It could offer better pay and perks, like an option to live in their own accommodation, for those who are more skilful.
The move could ensure Singapore stays an attractive destination for domestic workers, said the researchers. Currently, all maids get the same work permit regardless of their experience or skills. The researchers from the National University of Singapore's Asia Research Institute (ARI) made the suggestion following interviews with industry players like maid training centres in Indonesia for their ongoing study.
Straits Times, 21 Oct 2016
Click here to read
A group of Singapore researchers is proposing a skills-based, tiered system of work pass for foreign maids who look after the elderly. It could offer better pay and perks, like an option to live in their own accommodation, for those who are more skilful.
The move could ensure Singapore stays an attractive destination for domestic workers, said the researchers. Currently, all maids get the same work permit regardless of their experience or skills. The researchers from the National University of Singapore's Asia Research Institute (ARI) made the suggestion following interviews with industry players like maid training centres in Indonesia for their ongoing study.