Production Politics and Migrant Labour Regimes (eBook)

Charan Bal is Deputy Head (Global Class) at the Department of International Relations, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta. He researches migrant labour politics and Southeast Asian political economy and has been published in the Journal of Contemporary Asia and the Asian Journal of Law and Society. He is a joint-winner of the Asian Studies Association of Australia PhD prize 2014.

1. Production Politics and Migrant Labour Regimes.- Approach: The centrality of Production Politics.- Navigation guide.- 2. The Political Economy of Singapore’s Migrant Labour Regime: State Policies and Contractor Strategies.- Singapore's Migrant Worker Population.- Regulating the Demand for Imported Labour: The Levy System.- The Construction Industry in Singapore.- Initial Contractor Responses (1987-1998).- EFMA Regulations.- Cost Pressures and Contractor Perspectives.- Contractor Strategies: Wage theft.- Salary deductions.- Witholding of wages.- 'Kickbacks'.- Indirect pressures on wages.- Migrant Worker Powerlessness.- Concluding Remarks.- 3. Temporary Bangladeshi Labour Emigrants to Singapore.- Bangladeshi Temporary Labour Migration to Singapore.- Class-status configurations in Rural Bangladesh and the Problems of Modhom Lok.- Class-statu configurations in rural Bangladesh.- The problems with being modhom.- 'Making a life'.- Social and Moral Expectations of Migration: Rural Images of Bidesh.- The Recruitment Process.- Powerlessness in recruitment.- What is at Stake: Various Outsomes of Migration.- Concluding Remarks.- 4. Constituting Tactical Obedience in the Workplace.- Work Arrangements, Control and Command.- Forms of Supervision.- Wage theft as 'company rules'.- Tensions in the Workplace: Worker Discontent.- Tactical Accommodation.- The tactical aspects of obedience.- Employer responses to informal negotiations.- Failure and passive non-renewal.- Explaining the Prevalence of Tactical Accommodation.- The dynmaics of control in the construction labour process.- The manifestation and strategic application of coercion within the labour process.- Migration objectives.- Concluding Remarks.- 5. Labor Conflict and the Restoration of Obedience at EW Construction .- The Case Study: EW Construction.- The division of control.- Labour productivity pressures.- Workers of different nationalities.- Existing Worker Discontent: 'Man can up, money no up' and 'All time body down'.- Tactical Accommodation adn Work Pacing.- Periods of surveillance and non-surveillance.- Opportunities for slow-downs.- The roles of supervisors.- Justifying delayed completion.- Rainy Days and the Crisis of Obedience.- Supervisory Intervention and the Restoration of Obedience.- Small concessions: time-off and extra overtime hours.- Direct interventions in work pacing.- Reordering production sequence.- Seeing like a Supervisor: Why They Intervened.- The Depoliticisation of Worker Grievances.- Concluding Remarks.- 6. Intimidation, Violence and the Compulsions of Desertion.- Labour and Resistance.- Forms of Disputes.- Disputes over wage theft and harsh work regimes.- Under-employment: no jobs, no pay.- Disputes over work injuries.- No recourse in disputes.- Confronting the Boss.- Worker demands.- Disobedience.- The Coercive Power of Employers.- Threats.- Isolation and violence.- Forced repatriation.- Desertion as the Consequence of Coercion.- The Course of Desertion.- The Political Significance of Desertion.- Conclusion.- 7. Production Politics and Migrant Labour Advocacy.- Political Opportunities and Civil Society Space in Singapore.- Models of Political Participation.- The Substansive Form of Migrant Labour Advocacy in Singapore.- Advocay in autonomous sites.- NGO demands and recommendations.- The limited impact of advocacy.- Production Politics and the Impetus for Advocacy.- The 'critical mass' of NGO case-work.- Leverage.- Spill-out from the 2008 GFC.- Limitations beyond NGO strategies and civil society space.- Struggles with collective mobilisation.- Refining the Regime by Administrative Means.- Concluding Remarks.- 8. Contesting Migrant Labour Regimes: The state of migrant labour politics in Asia and the Gulf.- The contentious Politics of Chinese Construction Workers in Singapore.- The work regime of Chinese branch companies in Singapore.- Contractual disputes, contentious politics and state esponses.- Construction Worker Strikes in Dubai.- Grievances, strikes and production geography.- Subsequent state responses.- Migrant Domestic Worker Advocacy in Sending and Receiving Countries.- The nature of domestic work.- MDW activism and the limits of contention.- Concluding remarks.- 9. Conclusion