Transcending the Border: Transnational Imperatives in Singapore’s Migrant Worker Rights Movement

03/09/2008 - 16:00

3 September 2008

Lecture by Prof. Lenore Lyons (IIAS affiliated fellow). Director of the Centre for Asia Pacific Social Transformation Studies (CAPSTRANS), University of Wollongong, Australia.

In the last five years, there has been an explosion of interest among civil society actors in the issues facing migrant domestic workers in Singapore. A number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), informal networks, and faith-based groups have formed to address the needs and interests of this group of workers. The majority of these organizations are welfare-oriented, providing support services, training programs, and social networking opportunities. A limited number engage in advocacy and research activities. This latter group has been successful in lobbying for important changes to the ways in which female migrant workers are recruited into and deployed within the domestic labour market. To date, their activities have been mostly focused at the local level through their engagements with the Singaporean government, employment agencies and employers. This orientation, however, has recently begun to change as they seek to develop transnational networks and support regional and international campaigns.

This paper examines the reasons behind this interest in cross-border organizing through detailed case studies of two advocacy-oriented NGOs - Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) and the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME). My analysis reveals that although a ‘transnational imperative' has begun to shape the activities of both NGOs, their motivations for engaging beyond the border are quite different. By revealing a diversity of forms and meanings associated with the processes of ‘scaling up', this paper contributes to the broader scholarly process of understanding the complex nature of transnational organizing and challenges previous studies which assert that transnational activism is a necessary and natural outcome of migrant worker organizing.

Date: 3 September 2008
Venue: Lipsius Building (room 147, 1st floor), Cleveringaplaats 1, Leiden
Time: 16.00 - 17.30 hrs
Information: IIAS, 071-527 2227 or iias@let.leidenuniv.nl

This is the first lecture in a Series on Global Migration Patterns, convened by Dr Melody Lu (IIAS) and Prof. Leo Lucassen (Leiden University)