Countering Systemic and Hidden Forms of Violence Against Migrant Domestic Workers in Singapore

Present in nearly one in every five households in Singapore, female migrant domestic workers (MDWs) are heavily relied upon to support the everyday routines of social reproduction in the household whilst freeing other women in Singapore to participate in the workforce. Being legally bound to live at their employers’ residence in Singapore, MDWs are fully dependent on their employers’ goodwill in providing their daily necessities, food and lodging whilst being subjected to their acts of ‘soft violence’, mental and/or even physical abuse (Lam, 2023; Parreñas, Kantachote & Silvey, 2020; Wong, 2024). Abuses of any kind against MDWs are often difficult to detect as they live and work in a “paradoxical [domestic] space” that is relatively hidden from public and state scrutiny (Huang and Yeoh, 2007). In this vein, this paper is concerned with both the systemic and hidden forms of ‘violence’ MDWs experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic where issues surrounding overwork, inadequate accommodation, constrained mobility and food insecurity were then spotlighted in popular media. Drawing on a study involving interviews with Burmese, Indonesian and Filipino MDWs in Singapore, the paper explores the opportunities and constraints they experienced under restrictive employment conditions, focusing especially on the food (in)securities they encountered. More importantly, the paper aims to highlight their agency in countering the various abuses they have suffered and the various ways in which they resist their position as menial subjects in the household (Tan, 2023). This paper hopes to contribute to the multivocality and complexity of care, and agency among transient migrant workers in Singapore.