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Theme: 8. Negotiating Margins: Representations, Resistances, Agencies
Yuk Wah Chan
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Isabelle Cockel
University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Nicola Piper
Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
Yuk Wah Chan
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Isabelle Cockel
University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Ratih Kabinawa
University of Western Australia, Australia
Jonathan Parhusip
National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
Chulhyo Kim
Gyeongsang National University, Republic of Korea
Set against the backdrop of the guest worker system in Asia, this panel examines the development of migrant labour activism in a number of Asian destinations and how individual migrant worker activist fought against exploitation and inequality and organized collective actions for the promotion of their own rights. By employing the life course theory of social movement, papers in the panel seeks to interrogate the rise and falls, ups and downs of migrant labour movement in the past few decades. The authors will identify various conditions that might help enhance or in contrast produce obstacles for its growth. Furthermore, we adopt the story-telling and protagonist approaches to bring forward the views and experiences of individual activists in order to understand how their life course intertwines with that of the movement.
Labour right movement is not merely a sum of collective actions and organizational work, but also contains rich encounters and experiences gained by individuals. Many of the worker-turned activists were extremely young when they first joined the movement. Along the processes of participation, many developed leadership, strategic planning, and mobilization skills that helped them grow as a worker, a person, a leader, and an activist. While many of these workers might stay in the destination only temporarily, their struggle for rights and justice can be long-term. Some may carry these skills back to continue to fight when they return home, while others use them for other purposes. This panel contains five research papers which examine labour movement in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and the transnational development of these movements. The papers interrogate the intersectional planes (both temporal and spatial) within the life courses of the migrant labour movement and of the activists themselves, and how they shape each other in diverse forms. While there were common resources and strategies that movement leaders have employed, there were also different approaches adopted by activists in different places that fit their board-based activism. Some activists on the other hand have deliberately avoided certain approaches and refrained from taking up certain roles. Drawing on individual stories and activists’ reflections and assessment of their own participation in the movement, the papers will contribute to a deeper understanding of how migrant labour activism waxes and wanes in Asia.
Presenter: Yuk Wah Chan – City University of Hong Kong
Presenter: Isabelle Cockel – University of Portsmouth
Presenter: Ratih Kabinawa – University of Western Australia
Presenter: Jonathan Parhusip – National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University
Presenter: Chulhyo Kim – Gyeongsang National University