ABSTRACT
Asia is now the region with the largest movements of migrants in the world. International migration within Asia accounts for a significant proportion of those mobilities, with Southeast Asia a highly popular destination region. Within this zone, Thailand, Brunei and Malaysia receive the highest levels of migrants. The city-state of Singapore, however, tops the list, with the highest total population of international migrant arrivals and about 53 per cent of its foreign resident population coming from other parts of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region (ILO 2015). Most migrants who move transnationally migrate to engage in low-waged dirty, dangerous and undesirable work that many locals will not do. This often places them in marginalized positions, not just in relation to the jobs that they carry out but the structural conditions under which they labor, as state policies often treat them as ‘needed but not wanted’. This group is seen as the Other to ‘skilled’ or middle-class migrants, often termed ‘expatriates’ or ‘foreign talent’, and allowed more rights and privileges within host countries. Notions of differential deservedness (Teo 2015) in relation to temporary migrants are highly political and politicized, as this chapter will go on to demonstrate.
