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International Migration in Southeast Asia pp 181–209Cite as

Packaging Talent: The Migrant Creative Labor Management of Overseas Filipino Musicians

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Part of the book series: Asia in Transition ((AT,volume 2))

Abstract

In recent years, research into labor market intermediaries in migration has sought to move away from the conventional image of the unscrupulous and exploitative recruiter, toward a more nuanced understanding of the role, function, and significance of third-party processes in the mediation of migrant labor across borders. This chapter contributes to this field of critical inquiry through an analysis of the agents and managers who facilitate the employment of overseas Filipino musicians (OFMs) in hotels and cruise ships in Asia. I contend that as a sector of migrant creative labor, the provision of live music entertainment in these themed leisure venues constitutes a unique form of high-skilled, specialist labor (music performance) in work conditions characteristic of low- and semi-skilled migrant labor namely, hyperflexible and racialized. Using the concept of migration infrastructure, I frame the work of OFM agents and managers as a process of packaging talent . The process of packaging is further subdivided into the organizational practices of recruitment and training of OFMs’ aesthetic and affective labor for the particular requirements of live music entertainment; and the representational strategies of “grooming” and branding to strengthen the racialized and gendered reputation of OFMs as competent yet low-cost providers of creative labor . Beyond merely facilitating the movement of workers between origin and destination countries , or between the spheres of production and consumption, OFM agents and managers are actively involved in shaping the demand for migrant creative labor, responding to and ultimately seeking to profit from the paradoxical tension between high skill and low cost which constitutes the employment context of OFMs.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    70 semi-structured interviews were conducted in three overseas destinations (Macao, Hong Kong, Singapore), two Philippine origin cities (Manila and Cebu City), and onboard a four-day, three-night cruise from Penang, Malaysia to the Thai islands of Phuket and Krabi. Research participants included 53 overseas Filipino musicians, 12 OFM agents, and 5 non-Filipino music directors, bandleaders, and session musicians active in the industry for live music entertainment.

  2. 2.

    A term used in labor economics to describe a worker’s minimum price for accepting the terms of employment in a contract. It is a reciprocally subjective figure, and represents the overlap between the employer’s estimation of the highest possible rate they are willing to offer the worker, and the worker’s lowest possible threshold of the rate they are willing to accept.

  3. 3.

    This chapter focuses on the first two areas of precarity; I discuss politico-legal precarity in another work (de Dios, forthcoming).

  4. 4.

    This also parallels emergent trends of state-led initiatives to manage and regulate conditions of precarity in creative labor sectors in domestic contexts (Kong 2011), further underlining the increasing significance of the creative industries as a key sector of national economic growth, and the plurality of industrial and organizational contexts in which states seek to harness them.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Anjeline de Dios

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  1. Anjeline de Dios
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Correspondence to Anjeline de Dios .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Bandar Seri Begawan, Gadong,, Brunei Darussalam

    Kwen Fee Lian

  2. Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Md Mizanur Rahman

  3. Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Continuing Education Centre, Bandar Seri Begawan, Gadong, Brunei Darussalam

    Yabit bin Alas

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de Dios, A. (2016). Packaging Talent: The Migrant Creative Labor Management of Overseas Filipino Musicians. In: Lian, K., Rahman, M., Alas, Y. (eds) International Migration in Southeast Asia. Asia in Transition, vol 2. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-712-3_10

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