Becoming a 'domestic worker' or a 'trailing spouse': migrant women, space, body and belonging in Singapore

Abstract

As the global labour market expands, together with other forms of migration, cities across the globe are characterised by increasing diversity as well as a rise of exclusionary politics of belonging. In the face of boundary-making practices from local citizens, it becomes more challenging for migrants to create a sense of belonging in their new home. This research provides a detailed ethnography of migrant’s belonging in Singapore: a prime example of a global city in Southeast Asia. It zooms into the experiences of female migrants who occupy diverse positions in the city-state as domestic workers or as privileged, trailing spouses. An intersectional analysis of the ethnographic materials reveals that migrant women engage in a variety of tactics of belonging, including spatial practices, maintaining a certain style, controlling their bodies and consumption patterns, and social (media) practices. With these tactics of belonging, migrant women mostly comply with norms for migrant spatiality, corporeality and behaviour. This compliance is analysed as a form of defensive agency, which helps women cope with the demands placed on them by societal structures, protects their precarious positions as female migrants and creates possibilities for belonging. This research thus connects mundane, everyday practices to global developments and shows that even a woman’s choice of outfit in the morning sheds light on how patriarchy is embedded in the global labour market.