Abstract
This chapter provides a detailed description of the situations of migrant women and girls in two key sectors in Singapore: domestic service and the sex and nightlife entertainment sector. Consideration is given particularly to the complexities of migrant women’s situations, drawing largely on women’s own narratives. It is suggested in the chapter that for migrant sexual labourers, sexual exploitation issues are often intertwined with, and even overshadowed by, problems relating to labour exploitation. For foreign domestic workers (FDWs) such complexities are often also evident, where exploitation in private households is not singular in nature—confinement or abuse or financial exploitation—but rather has multiple and compounding elements. Building on this observation about the complexities in women’s situations of exploitation in Singapore, the second part of the chapter examines the representation of these migrant women in the public, particularly print media domain. In doing this I extend the argument made in Chaps. 2 and 3 that women are either rendered highly visible by the state (and often by NGOs) within anti-trafficking frames or rendered invisible and obscured from it.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
In Singapore, the TIP Taskforce also withholds protections for victims initially identified until further investigations can substantiate their claims as victims of trafficking. NGOs, particularly HOME , have claimed this situation is inadequate because NGOs must shelter and provide other basic supports for victims, often for weeks or months, whilst the Taskforce makes its final determination. This stretches already overwrought capacity of NGOs (personal communication, representative of HOME , 15 September 2015).
- 2.
To demonstrate the thematic continuity, I briefly introduce another story of an abused maid here. ‘Maid reportedly only given instant noodles to eat for over a year’ (The Straits Times DATE?). This story also reported that the Filipina maid in question was not allowed to use hot water to shower and was not allowed outside her employer’s apartment. The woman sought refuge at HOME after escaping from her employer, and HOME reported that the maid was also not paid correctly and fined as a form of punishment for supposed infringements of house rules or for not doing her duties correctly (personal communication, HOME representative).
- 3.
The Singapore government has constantly criticised Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) reporting of human rights abuses in Singapore, including of maids. The Singapore government is now considering new laws to prosecute ‘fake news’ and biased and untruthful statements about Singapore, though HRW argues this could severely curb freedom of speech, especially in a country like Singapore, which currently ranks extremely poorly on the World Press Freedom Index. See AFP (2018). ‘Human Rights Watch “biased” and “untruthful”: Singapore’. 23 March. Available at: https://i.dailymail.co.uk (Accessed 29 August 2018).
- 4.
Of the 20 articles analysed for this chapter, 5 focused on the abuse of Singaporean children by FDWs , including The Straits Times (2018). ‘Maid jailed 9 months for abusing baby boy’. Available at: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/maid-jailed-9-months-for-abusing-baby-boy (Accessed 3 September 2018), Yahoo New (2018). ‘Maid who bit 6-month-old-baby twice jailed 10 weeks’. Available at: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/maid-bit-6-month-old-baby-twice-jailed-10-weeks-044540002.html (Accessed 3 September 2018), Asia Times (2018), ‘Caregiver arrested after CCTV shows her beating little girls’ (Asia Times 2018). Available at: http://www.atimes.com/article/caregiver-arrested-after-cctv-shows-her-beating-little-girls/, and The New Paper (2015). ‘Maid jailed two weeks for hurting baby in Toa Payoh flat’. Available at: https://www.tnp.sg/news/singapore-news/maid-jailed-two-weeks-hurting-baby-toa-payoh-flat (Accessed 3 September 2018).
- 5.
A Special Pass is a visa status in Singapore and is normally conferred to migrant workers who are held in Singapore for the purposes of an investigation or case resolution (in the medium to long term) or who are held until they can raise funds to finance the cost of their return to their home country (in the short term).
References
Anderson, B. (2010). Migration, immigration controls and the fashioning of precarious workers. Work, Employment and Society, 24(2), 300–317.
Anderson, B., & O’Connell Davidson, J. (2003). Trafficking—A demand led problem? A multi-country pilot study. Stockholm: Save the Children.
Andrijasevic, R. (2007). Beautiful dead bodies: Gender, migration and representation in anti-trafficking campaigns. Feminist Review, 86, 24–44.
Andrijasevic, R., & Mai, N. (2016). Editorial: Trafficking (in) representations: Understanding the recurring appeal of victimhood and slavery in neoliberal times. Anti-Trafficking Review, (7), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.20121771.
Asia Times. (2018). 134 foreign women nabbed in Singapore vice crackdown. Retrieved June 28, 2018, from http://www.atimes.com/article/134-foreign-women-nabbed-singapore-vice-crackdown/.
Austin, R., & Farrell, A. (2017). Human trafficking and the media in the United States. Oxford Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. USA: OUP. Retrieved June 29, 2018, from http://criminology.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264079-e-290?print=pdf.
Bakan, A. B., & Stasiulus, D. (2012). The political-economy of migrant live-in caregivers: A case of unfree labour. In P. T. Lenard & C. Straehle (Eds.), Legal inequality: Temporary labour migration in Canada (pp. 202–226). Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press.
Bauder, H. (2005). Landscape and scale in media representations: The construction of offshore farm labour in Ontario, Canada. Cultural Geographies, 12(1), 41–58.
Bauder, H. (2008). Foreign farm workers in Ontario (Canada): Exclusionary discourse in the newsprint media. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 35(1), 100–118.
Butler, J. (2009). Frames of war: When is life grievable? London: Verso.
Channel News Asia. (2016). Maid jailed for hurting baby with knife. Retrieved August 30, 2018. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/maid-jailed-abuse-baby-knife-smother-send-videos-lover-10528274.
Channel News Asia. (2018). Maid charged with murder of 70-year-old woman at Choa Chu Kang flat. Retrieved August 30, 2018, from https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/maid-charged-murder-choa-chu-kang-elderly-employer-10474128.
Darling, J. (2011). Domopolitics, governmentality and the regulation of asylum accommodation. Political Geography, 30, 263–271.
Doezema, J. (2010). Sex slaves and discourse masters: The construction of trafficking. London: Zed Books.
Farrell, A., & Pfeffer, R. (2014). Policing human trafficking: Cultural blinders and organisational barriers. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, 653(1), 46–64.
Gorman, C. S. (2017). Redefining refugees: Interpretive control and the bordering work of legal categorisation in U.S. Asylum law. Political Geography, 58, 36–45.
Hill, A. (2016). How to stage a raid: Police, media and the master narrative of trafficking. Anti-trafficking Review, (7), 39–55. https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.20121773.
HOME. (2013). FDW trafficking research report. Retrieved March 29, 2018, from http://www.home.org.sg/library/research/.
HOME. (2019). Behind closed doors: Forced labour in the domestic work sector in Singapore. Singapore: HOME.
Human Rights Watch. (2005). Maid in Singapore. New York: HRW.
ILO. (2009). ILO indicators of forced labour. Retrieved June 15, 2017, from https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/publications/WCMS_203832/lang%2D%2Den/index.htm.
Krsmanovic, E. (2016). Captured ‘realities’ of human trafficking: Analysis of photographs illustrating stories on trafficking into the sex industry in Serbian media. Anti-trafficking Review, (7), 139–160. https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.20121778.
Lainez, N. (2017). Social structure, relationships and reproduction in quasi-family networks: Brokering circular migration of Vietnamese sex workers in Singapore. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2017.1417028.
Mai, N. (2013). Embedded cosmopolitanisms: The subjective mobility of migrants working in the global sex industry. Gender, Place and Culture, 20(1), 107–124.
MOM. (2016). National approach to trafficking in persons. Singapore: MOM. Retrieved June 29, 2018, from http://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/press-releases/2016/0310-launch-of-singapores-new-national-approach-against-trafficking-in-persons.
O’Brien, E. (2013). Ideal victims in human trafficking awareness campaigns. In K. Carrington, E. O’Brian, & J. Tauri (Eds.), Crime, justice and social democracy: International perspectives (pp. 315–326). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Parrenas, R. (2012). The indentured mobility of migrant women: How gendered protectionist laws lead hostesses to forced sexual labour. Journal of Workplace Rights, 15(3), 327–339.
Soderlund, G. (2005). Running from the rescuers: New US crusades against sex trafficking and the rhetoric of abolition. NWSA Journal, 17(3), 64–87.
Suarez-Navaz, L. (2007). Immigration and the politics of space allocations in rural Spain: The case of Andalusia. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 34(2), 207–239.
Szorenyi, A. (2016). Expelling slavery from the nation: Representations of labour exploitation in Australia’s supply chain. Anti-trafficking Review, (7), 79–86. https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.20121775.
Tazreiter, C. (2015). Lifeboat politics in the Pacific: Affect and the ripples and shimmers of a migrant saturated future. Emotion, Space and Society, 16, 99–107.
The Independent. (2018). Domestic helper allegedly attempts suicide from 8th floor of Choa Chu Kang HDB block. Retrieved August 31, 2018, from http://theindependent.sg/domestic-helper-allegedly-attempts-suicide-from-8th-floor-of-choa-chu-kang-hdb-block/.
The New Paper. (2017, July 17). Increased policing of prostitution helps Geylang clean up its act. Retrieved June 28, 2018, from http://stomp.straitstimes.com/singapore-seen/increased-policing-of-prostitution-helping-geylang-clean-up-its-act.
The Sammyboy Times. (2018). Pub cashier fined for helping with vice-related activities. Retrieved June 29, 2018, from https://www.sammyboy.com/threads/pinoy-pub-talents-arrested-at-lucky-plaza.252937/.
The Straits Times. (2015, January 17). Geylang re-zoning may raise condo values. Retrieved June 28, 2018, from https://www.straitstimes.com/business/interactive-geylang-re-zoning-may-raise-condo-values.
The Straits Times. (2016). 8 women nabbed in Hougang and Kovan vice raids. Retrieved June 29, 2018, from http://stomp.straitstimes.com/singapore-seen/courts-crime/eight-women-nabbed-in-hougang-and-kovan-vice-raids.
The Straits Times. (2017a). 99 women arrested islandwide for vice activities in 4-day operation. Retrieved June 28, 2018, from https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/99-women-arrested-islandwide-for-vice-activities.
The Straits Times. (2017b). Suspected sex workers nabbed in hotel raid. Retrieved June 28, 2018, from http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/suspected-sex-workers-nabbed-in-hotel-raid.
The Straits Times. (2017d). 3 foreign women arrested for offering sexual services in Jurong West HDB ‘brothel’. Retrieved June 28, 2018, from http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/3-foreign-women-arrested-for-offering-sexual-services.
The Straits Times. (2017e). 11 women nabbed in police raids on unlicensed massage parlours. Retrieved June 29, 2018, from https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/11-women-nabbed-in-police-raids-on-unlicensed-massage-parlours.
The Straits Times. (2018a, April 23). 15 years jail for maid who killed employer by stabbing her in the throat. The Straits Times. Retrieved August 23, 2018, from https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/15-years-jail-for-maid-who-killed-elderly-employer-by-stabbing-her-in-the.
The Straits Times. (2018b). 6 women arrested, 7 massage parlours raided in police operation. Retrieved June 28, 2018, from https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/6-women-arrested-7-massage-parlours-raided-in-police-operation.
The Straits Times. (2018c, March 8). 5 women, 2 men from public entertainment outlets arrested for drug-related, immigration offences. Retrieved June 28, 2018, from https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/5-women-2-men-from-public-entertainment-outlets-arrested-for-employment-drug.
Today. (2018). Life as a Singapore domestic maid’s employer: Managing a live-in domestic helper (FDW) and raising a special needs child. Retrieved March 22, 2019, from https://maid-employer.blogspot.com/2017/02/indonesian-maid-fdw.html.
Today On-line. (2018a). 17 women nabbed during latest anti-vice raids. Retrieved June 29, 2018, from https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/17-women-nabbed-during-latest-anti-vice-raids.
Today On-line. (2018b). Maid jailed one year for stealing S$41,000 from elderly employer. Retrieved from https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/maid-jailed-one-year-stealing-s41000-elderly-employer.
TWC2. (2015). The right to rest. TWC2: Singapore. Retrieved August 20, 2017, from https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2015/06/12/twc2-59-of-foreign-domestic-workers-do-not-get-a-weekly-day-off/.
TWC2 & HOME. (2017, October). CEDAW shadow report for Singapore. HOME: Singapore. Retrieved August 16, 2018, from http://twc2.org.sg/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Cedaw_Singapore_2017_TWC2HOME.pdf.
Yahoo News. (2017, September 25). Myanmar maid recounts incidents of abuse by Singaporean couple. Retrieved June 16, 2016, from https://sg.news.yahoo.com/myanmar-maid-recounts-incidents-abuse-singaporean-couple-114719067.html.
Yahoo News. (2018, January 12). More than 90 people arrested for prostitution activities in raids across Singapore. Retrieved September 16, 2018, from https://sg.news.yahoo.com/90-people-arrested-prostitution-activities-raids-across-singapore-111426112.html.
Yea, S. (2014). Social visits and special passes: The exploitation of migrant women and girls in Singapore’s sex and nightlife entertainment sector. Singapore: Franciscan Mission of Mary.
Yea, S. (2015). Trafficked enough? Missing bodies, migrant labour exploitation and the classification of trafficking victims in Singapore. Antipode, 47(4), 1080–1100.
Yea, S., & Chok, S. (2018). Unfreedom unbound: Developing a cumulative approach to understanding unfree labour in Singapore. Work, Employment and Society, 32(5), 925–941.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Yea, S. (2020). (In)visible Women and (Anti)-trafficking. In: Paved with Good Intentions?. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3239-5_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3239-5_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-3238-8
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-3239-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)