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Abstract:
In this paper, I illustrate that Bangladeshi male migrants are now part of a vast pool
of inexpensive and mobile workers that are maintained as such because of powerful
structures of inequality that require the extraction of their labour at both the
global and local scale. These low-waged migrants’ occupy particular positions in
Singapore’s segmented labour market – a point which remains the backdrop of my
argument. Drawing upon migrants’ own narratives, I examine how Bangladeshi men
make sense of their labour migration to Singapore, particularly after they fall out of
work. With reference to Bourdieu’s notions of class and habitus, I demonstrate that
their responses are not only based upon instrumental calculation but are also powerfully
shaped by a complex set of normative gendered formations which can further
constrain their voices. I argue here that these masculine normativities cannot only
be reduced to patriarchy but further, become a means for the reproduction of class
position.
