The Difference Gender Makes: State Policy and Contract Migrant Workers in Singapore

Abstract

The increasing numbers of men and women involved in international labor migration at all skill levels have raised crucial policy issues and concerns for both sending and receiving countries, not only in the area of migration and employment legislation, but also in terms of how migrant workers are positioned within the larger society. Using the case of Singapore, we adopt a gendered analysis to examine the central role of state policies and practices in the incorporation vis-à-vis non-incorporation of male versus female contract migrant workers into Singapore society, in terms of their differential access to legal protection; the differential effects of state medical surveillance of their bodies; the different ways in which their ‘skills' are valorized; as well as differences in the efforts invested into the social control of these workers in public space.