Papers by Charanpal Bal
Third World Quarterly, 2017
Temporary migrant workers in Southeast Asia are subject to various
abuses in recruitment, work an... more Temporary migrant workers in Southeast Asia are subject to various
abuses in recruitment, work and repatriation. A decade ago ASEAN
governments committed to developing an Instrument governing
migrant worker rights, but a series of deadlocks have stymied
this agreement. Prevailing accounts explain this impasse as the
consequence of incompatible national interests, norms of noninterference
and consensus, a lack of institutional capacity and the
limits of rights advocacy in ASEAN. Conversely, utilising a political
economy framework, this article demonstrates this impasse in
regional governance reflects societal-level conflicts among migrant
workers, civil society organisations, business groups and state-based
actors, generated by the latter’s adoption of migrant labour as both a
livelihood and development strategy.
Asian Journal of Law and Society, 2015
By severely constraining the political personhood of temporary migrant workers, states’ use of de... more By severely constraining the political personhood of temporary migrant workers, states’ use of deportation laws seeks to curb agitation among these workers. Despite this, various episodes of unrest have been witnessed in both liberal and illiberal regimes across Asia. Drawing on a case study of Bangladeshi migrant construction workers in Singapore, this paper examines the development of migrant labour politics as deportation laws, and their enforcement, construct these workers as “use-and-discard” economic subjects. Data for the paper are drawn from multi-level sources—government, industry, media, and non-governmental organization (NGO) reports; interviews with key actors; and a participant observation stint in a construction firm—collected between 2010 and 2014. The paper argues that, rather than solely constraining, deportability serves as a constituent of certain forms of tactical worker contestations in the workplace. Specifically, under different workplace conditions, deportability can translate into differing forms of worker tactics, ranging from accommodation to confrontation and desertion. The outcomes of these strategies, in turn, have significant repercussions for the ways in which civil society groups and state-actors, respectively, challenge and reconfigure the political personhood of temporary migrant workers.
Journal of Contemporary Asia, 2015
Since 2005, NGO activism, calling for greater legal protection for contract migrant workers has b... more Since 2005, NGO activism, calling for greater legal protection for contract migrant workers has been the most concerted challenge to Singapore’s migrant labour regime. Despite a severely restricted civil society space, migrant labour advocacy has delivered small but significant reforms to laws covering migrant labour. The existing literature on migrant labour advocacy focuses on the importance of civil society space in determining the outcomes of organised contention. In the Singapore context, the limitations of advocacy are emphasised and explained in terms of the illiberal nature of the People’s Action Party-state and the strategies deployed by non-governmental organisations. Such an approach is limited in its explanatory potential as it only states what political spaces are not available without examining how spaces for contention are created. In contrast, this article identifies the production politics between migrant workers and their employers as crucial in influencing the extent to which spaces for non-governmental organisation contention can be carved out. Accordingly, this article argues that forms of production politics leading to worker desertion from the workplace, rather than tactical accommodation, have provided non-governmental organisations with the impetus to push forward reform agendas within an authoritarian political environment.
Thesis Chapters by Charanpal Bal
Books by Charanpal Bal
Critical Studies of the Asia Pacific, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016
This book emphasizes the importance of production politics, or struggles in the workplace between... more This book emphasizes the importance of production politics, or struggles in the workplace between workers and their employers, for understanding migrant labour regimes in Asia and the Gulf. Drawing from a study of Bangladeshi construction workers in Singapore, as well as on comparative material in the region, Bal shows that migrant labour politics are significantly influenced by the specific form of production politics as well as their variable outcomes. In contrast to contentious politics approaches, this book sheds light on the extent to which migrant labour regimes can be contested by workers and civil society groups and explains the recent rise in migrant labour unrest in the region.
Book Chapters by Charanpal Bal
in "Living with Myths in Singapore" edited by Loh Kah Seng, PJ Thum and Jack Chia, Ethos Books: S... more in "Living with Myths in Singapore" edited by Loh Kah Seng, PJ Thum and Jack Chia, Ethos Books: Singapore (2017)
Race and multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore, Jan 1, 2009
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Papers by Charanpal Bal
abuses in recruitment, work and repatriation. A decade ago ASEAN
governments committed to developing an Instrument governing
migrant worker rights, but a series of deadlocks have stymied
this agreement. Prevailing accounts explain this impasse as the
consequence of incompatible national interests, norms of noninterference
and consensus, a lack of institutional capacity and the
limits of rights advocacy in ASEAN. Conversely, utilising a political
economy framework, this article demonstrates this impasse in
regional governance reflects societal-level conflicts among migrant
workers, civil society organisations, business groups and state-based
actors, generated by the latter’s adoption of migrant labour as both a
livelihood and development strategy.
Thesis Chapters by Charanpal Bal
Books by Charanpal Bal
Book Chapters by Charanpal Bal
abuses in recruitment, work and repatriation. A decade ago ASEAN
governments committed to developing an Instrument governing
migrant worker rights, but a series of deadlocks have stymied
this agreement. Prevailing accounts explain this impasse as the
consequence of incompatible national interests, norms of noninterference
and consensus, a lack of institutional capacity and the
limits of rights advocacy in ASEAN. Conversely, utilising a political
economy framework, this article demonstrates this impasse in
regional governance reflects societal-level conflicts among migrant
workers, civil society organisations, business groups and state-based
actors, generated by the latter’s adoption of migrant labour as both a
livelihood and development strategy.