Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Production Politics and Migrant Labour Regimes pp 141–170Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Intimidation, Violence and the Compulsions of Desertion

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

  • 405 Accesses

Part of the book series: Critical Studies of the Asia-Pacific ((CSAP))

Abstract

This chapter examines how tactical accommodation transforms into contentious struggles in the form of confrontation and desertion. Desertion is engendered by the same factors of migrant worker powerlessness and the vulnerability of migration that ordinarily drive workers to accommodate control. Within the context of labour disputes these constraints compel workers to confront their bosses over unpaid wages, under-deployment and mismanaged work injuries. Worker agitation unleashes the full coercive power of their employers who respond with threats, violence and forceful repatriation. Consequently, workers flee beyond the reach of their employers and come to connect with local NGOs who assist these workers in channelling their grievances and disputes into the formal complaints mechanism of the state. This effectively forces employers to resolve work disputes within the formal-legal framework of the Ministry of Manpower rather than through intimidation or violence.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Arnold, D. and Hewison, K. (2006) Exploitation in global supply chains: Burmese migrant workers in Mae Sot, Thailand. In: Hewison, K. and Young, K. (eds.). Transnational Migration and Work in Asia. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauder, H. (2006) Labor Movement: How Migration Regulates Labor Markets. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Behal, R.P. (1985) Forms of Labour Protest in Assam Valley Tea Plantations, 1900-1930. Economic and Political Weekly. 20(4). 19–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binford, L. (2009) From Fields of Power to Fields of Sweat: the dual process of constructing temporary migrant labour in Mexico and Canada. Third World Quarterly. 30 (3). 503–517.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Camp, S.M.H. (2004) Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday Resistance in the Plantation South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • CNN (2011). Debts and dreams: Singapore’s migrant workers. [Online] 7 October. Available from: <http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/07/business/singapore-migrants> [Accessed: 10 March 2012].

  • Constable, N. (2007) Maid to Order in Hong Kong: Stories of Migrant Workers. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fegan, B. (1986) Tenants’ Non-Violent Resistance to Landowner Claims in a Central Luzon Village. Journal of Peasant Studies. 13(2). 87–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Genova, N.P. (2005) Working the Boundaries: Race, Space and ‘Illegality’ in Mexican Chicago. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Government of Singapore (1975) Work Injury Compensation Act, Chapter 354. Revised 31July 2009. Singapore: Attorney-General’s Chambers. Available from: <http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/aol/search/display/view.w3p;page=0;query=CompId%3Ab447044b-9f75-4c6f-9010-78ca96d6c7ce;rec=0> [Accessed 19 April 2013].

  • Government of Singapore (1872) Penal Code, Chapter 224. Revised 30 November 2008. Singapore: Attorney-General’s Chambers. Available from: <http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/aol/search/display/view.w3p;page=0;query=CompId%3Ae40d5913-c2dc-4284-bf68-eb315c55c8fa;rec=0> [Accessed 19 April 2013].

  • Hart, G. (1991) Engendering Everyday Resistance: Gender, Patronage and Production Politics in Rural Malaysia. The Journal of Peasant Studies. 19 (1). 93–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hing, A.Y. (1997) Industrial Restructuring and the Reconstitution of Class Relations in Singapore. Capital and Class. 62. 79–120

    Google Scholar 

  • HOME (2008) Humanitarian Organization of Migration Economics. Annual Report of Non-Domestic Cases April 2007 to March 2008. Unpublished helpdesk report.

    Google Scholar 

  • HOME (2009) Humanitarian Organization of Migration Economics. Annual Report of Non-Domestic Cases April 2008 to March 2009. Unpublished helpdesk report.

    Google Scholar 

  • HOME and TWC2 (2010) Humanitarian Organization of Migration Economics and Transient Workers Count Too. Justice Delayed, Justice Denied: The Experiences of Migrant Workers in Singapore. Singapore: HOME and TWC2.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Jakarta Globe (2011) Missing Migrant Workers Hunted Down in Singapore. [Online] 3 August. Available from: <http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/international/missing-migrant-workers-hunted-down-in-singapore/456875> [Accessed: 10 March 2012].

  • Koo, H. (2001) Korean Workers: The Culture and Politics of Class Formation. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lembcke, J. (1991) Class Analysis and Studies of the U.S. Working Class: Theoretical, Conceptual, and Methodological Issues. In: McNall, S.G., Levine, R.F. and Fantasia, R. (eds.). Bringing Class Back In: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives. Boulder, San Francisco and Oxford: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leung, P.N. and Pun, N. (2009) The Radicalisation of the New Chinese Working Class: a case study of collective action in the gemstone industry. Third World Quarterly. 30 (3). 551–565.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Metcalfe, A. (1988) For Freedom and Dignity: Historical Agency and Class Structures in the Coalfields of NSW. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, D. (1996) The Lie of the Land: Migrant Workers and the California Landscape. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • The New Paper (2005) Repatriation Companies. [Online] 26 November. Available from: <http://www.scribd.com/doc/70217633/Repatriation-Companies-TNP> [Accessed: 10 March 2012].

  • Ong, A. (1987) Spirits of Resistance and Capitalist Discipline: Factory Women in Malaysia. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ortner, S.B. (1995) Resistance and the Problem of Ethnographic Refusal. Comparative Studies in Society and History. 37(1). 173–193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pinches, M. (2001) Class and National Identity: the Case of Filipino Contract Workers. In: Hutchison, J. and Brown, A. (eds.). Organising Labour in Globalising Asia. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodan, G. (1989) The Political Economy of Singapore’s Industrialization: Nation State and International Capital. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodan, G. and Jayasuria, K. (2007) The Technocratic Politics of Administrative Participation: Case Studies of Singapore and Vietnam. Democratization. 14(5). 795–815.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sargeson, S. (1999) Reworking China’s Proletariat. Houndmills: Macmillan Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sassen-Koob, S. (1981) Towards a Conceptualization of Immigrant Labor. Social Problems. 29 (1). 65–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sassen, S. (1988) The Mobility of Labor and Capital: a study in international investment and labor flow. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, J.C. (1990) Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sewell, W.H. Jr. (1980) Work and Revolution in France: The language of labor from the old regime to 1848. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Stoler, A. (1986) Plantation Politics and Protest on Sumatra’s East Coast. Journal of Peasant Studies. 13(2):.124–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • The Straits Times (2009a) New help centre for foreign workers. 31 January. p. B6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stubbs, T.M.C. (2006) Review of Stephanie M.H. Camp’s Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday Resistance in the Plantation South. H-Net Reviews. Available from: <http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12259> [Accessed: 20 January 2013].

  • Therborn, G. (1983) Why Some Classes Are More Successful than Others. New Left Review. 138. 37–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, E.P. (1966) The Making of the English Working Class. New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yeoh, B. (2006) Bifurcated Labour: The Unequal Incorporation of Transmigrants in Singapore. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie. 97 (1). 26–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of International Relations, BINUS University, Jakarta, Indonesia

    Charanpal Singh Bal

Authors
  1. Charanpal Singh Bal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Bal, C.S. (2016). Intimidation, Violence and the Compulsions of Desertion. In: Production Politics and Migrant Labour Regimes. Critical Studies of the Asia-Pacific. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54859-7_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation