Brokers, channels, infrastructure: moving migrant labor in the Indonesian-Malaysian oil palm complex

Abstract

This article problematizes the dichotomy between fluid mobility and fixed infrastructure through a case study of migrant labor recruitment from Indonesia to the Malaysian oil palm industry. Channels of low-skilled transnational migration must be understood in relation to other forms of mobility, most notably that of brokers, who move along adjacent and overlapping routes. Broker mobility is not only shaped by relatively immobile moorings, but also by more fluid ‘moorings’, notably mobile communication, low-cost airlines, and emergent social relationships. In order to understand how the migration process is arranged it is critical to pay attention to the logistical practices that make mobility possible. The article argues that broker mobility, diverse forms of moorings, and logistics come to shape a socio-technical system that can be understood in terms migration infrastructure.