The State and the Foreign Relations of Households: The Malaysia-Indonesia Domestic Worker Dispute

Abstract

In Malaysia, the ready availability of low-cost female workers from Indonesia combined with the increased presence of women in the workforce has led to a situation in which domestic workers are ubiquitous in middle-class households. However, in 2009, responding to domestic outrage over the treatment of Indonesian migrant domestic workers, the Indonesian government placed an embargo on its citizens taking up employment as domestic workers in Malaysia. At the time of writing, the issues between Malaysia and Indonesia have only partially been resolved and domestic workers are still not arriving in large numbers to work in Malaysia through formal state-sanctioned recruitment channels. Significantly, migrant domestic work has emerged as a major foreign policy concern between these two states — exposing a relationship between foreign policy making/diplomatic practice and the webs of transnationalized social relations of reproduction that underpin the development prospects of middle-to low-income states.