Shelters as Spaces of Care and Violence: The everyday experiences of detained and deported migrant domestic workers in Southeast Asia

国际移民在全球范围内是一个备受争议的话题，各民族国家都在试图平衡对移民劳动力的需求，以及他们持有的任何仇外态度，以及他们公民的情绪。当代的流动性一方面受到赞扬，另一方面也令人恐惧；依赖于移动的人。正如Andersson （2014, p.4）所写：“当一些旅行者……它们以缩小距离和连接领土的能力而闻名，其他国家也因同样的原因而感到担忧……这些移民困扰着富裕国家，但很少有人知道他们是谁，也不知道他们为什么会引发这种恐惧。”由于移民引起的焦虑，他们的身体受到监视和管理，以确保他们的行为“适当”，并防止逾期居留/“非法”居留。在新加坡，合法化规定国家有权监测移徙家庭佣工的行为，一方面规定一年两次的怀孕检查是强制性的，另一方面在法律中规定，“外国雇员不得参与任何非法、不道德或不受欢迎的活动，包括破坏家庭”（民政局，2020年，第44页）。然而，对移民尸体的恐惧还在进一步扩大，因为各国有权选择谁有资格、谁没有资格留在其领土内。事实上，国际移徙者的特点是缺乏归属感和临时身份，往往没有投票或获得永久居留权或公民身份的合法权利。虽然从种族化驱逐的历史中出现（De Genova, 2018），并且它仍然嵌入其中，但今天驱逐出境被用来在那些被允许和不被允许进入国家边界的人之间制造鸿沟。尽管存在根深蒂固的担忧，但移民对全球民族国家和城市空间的形成至关重要。例如，新加坡令人印象深刻的天际线、干净的街道和整洁的房屋往往被视为繁荣、进步和自豪的标志。然而，建造、维护和清洁它的剥削性劳动——真正的血、汗、眼泪和死亡——却变得不那么显眼了。虽然经常被忽视，但新加坡五分之一的家庭依赖至少一名全职住家佣工的劳动（HOME, 2015），目前新加坡有超过25.5万名家庭佣工（MOM, 2019）。尽管家庭佣工的存在对社会的运作至关重要，但她们仍然极有可能受到雇主的虐待和虐待，并被拘留/驱逐出境。我的研究揭示了家庭佣工在新加坡被拘留和驱逐出境的方式，这种做法即使在她们受到虐待/殴打时也会发生。在这种情况下，家庭佣工被迫在收容所等待不知道的时间，而且无法工作（创收是大多数人首先移徙的原因），有时长达数月甚至数年。这个奖学金不仅能让我传播关于这些实践和过程的发现，还能让我关注那些居住在这些庇护所空间的人的生活经历。通过在学术期刊上发表文章，我将能够提升这些实践和经验的知识，同时将两个不同的地理探究领域结合在一起，这将带来新的学术见解：关于家庭和地域的写作。除了学术受众，这个奖学金将使我能够与更多不同的受众分享我的研究，包括政策制定者和非政府组织，目的是促进积极的社会变革。它还将使我能够进行一些进一步的（但有限的）研究，并将我的发现呈现给它所关注的社区。最后，它将为我提供完成进一步培训，网络，研究访问和提出未来研究申请的机会。

International migration is a hotly debated topic and contentious issue globally, with nation states attempting to balance a need for migrant labour with any xenophobic attitudes they hold, and alongside the sentiments of their citizens. While contemporary mobility is, on the one hand, lauded, it has also, on the other, become feared; dependent upon the person who is moving. As Andersson (2014, p.4) writes:"while some travellers ... are celebrated for their powers to shrink distances and connect territories, others are fretted about for the same reasons ... These migrants haunt the rich world, but it is rarely clear who they are or why they provoke such fear". As a result of the anxiety that migrants invoke, their bodies are surveilled and managed, to ensure that they behave 'appropriately' and to prevent overstaying/'illegal'-stays. In Singapore, legalisation enshrines the state's right to monitor the behaviour of migrant domestic workers, both by making biannual pregnancy tests mandatory and enshrining in law that, "[t]he foreign employee shall not be involved in any illegal, immoral or undesirable activities, including breaking up families" (MOM, 2020, p.44). The fear of migrant bodies extends further still, however, with states' maintaining the right to choose who is and isn't eligible to stay within its territory. Indeed, international migrants are marked by a lack of belonging and their temporary status, often with no legal rights to vote or to attain permanent residency or citizenship. While emerging from a history of racialised expulsions (De Genova, 2018), and in which it is still embedded, today deportation is used to create a divide between those who are, and are not, allowed within a state's boundary. Despite deep-rooted fears, migrants have been fundamental to the formation of nation states and urban space globally. Singapore's impressive skyline, clean streets and immaculate homes, for instance, are often seen as signs of prosperity, progress and pride. The exploitative labour - the literal blood, sweat, tears and death - that build, maintain and clean it are, however, rendered much less visible. While often being invisibilised, one in five households in Singapore rely on the labour of at least one full-time live-in domestic worker (HOME, 2015), with over 255,000 domestic workers now in Singapore (MOM, 2019). Despite their presence being fundamental to the functioning of society, domestic workers remain at great risk of mistreatment and abuse by their employers, and of detainment/deportation.My research brings visibility to the ways in which domestic workers are detained and deported from Singapore, a practice which occurs even when they have been abused/assaulted. In these circumstances, domestic workers are made to wait in shelter spaces for unknown periods of time, and unable to work (income generation being the reason why most people migrated in the first instance), sometimes for many months or even years. This fellowship will not only allow me to disseminate findings about these practices and processes, but will also allow me to bring attention to the lived experiences of those inhabiting these shelter spaces. By publishing in academic journals, I will be able to advance knowledge of these practices and experiences, while bringing together two disparate areas of geographic inquiry that would bring about new academic insights: writing on home and carcerality. In addition to academic audiences, this fellowship will allow me to share my research with more diverse audiences, including policy makers and NGOs, with the aim of making positive societal transformations. It will also enable me to carry out some further (but limited) research and to present my findings back to the communities it focuses upon. Finally, it will provide me with the opportunity to complete further training, networking, research visits and to put forward applications for future research.