Caring for the elderly: the embodied labour of migrant care workers in Singapore
Abstract
Research on transnational care work has tended to focus on the migration of women for either domestic work or nursing, and the two bodies of work have remained largely separate. In developed countries such as Singapore, however, the high level of female labour force participation alongside a rapidly ageing population has led to the deployment of both groups of migrant care workers to alleviate the impending eldercare crisis. Migrant domestic workers are employed to look after the elderly in private domiciles while foreign healthcare workers provide eldercare in institutions such as nursing homes. Recognizing that the transnational labour migrations of women as domestic and healthcare workers are integrally linked in the care chain, we attempt to bring the two together in this article. We first examine how state policy differentially regulates the entry of these two groups to work in two very different spaces: the domestic space of the home, and the institutional space of nursing homes. Drawing on interviews with employers, we go on to argue that while the institutional mechanisms differ for the groups of care workers employed in these two spaces, Singapore's solution to its eldercare predicament is predicated on ‘othering’ the care worker's body along discourses of gender, nationality and notions of elderly care work as dirty, demanding and demeaning.
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Due to differing educational requirements between Norway and the Philippines, nurses often end up in lower-skilled positions with lower pay, such as care assistants, or in less preferred care work with unsociable hours.
“However, due to differing educational requirements between Norway and the Philippines, nurses often end up in lower-skilled positions with lower pay, such as care assistants, or in less preferred care work with unsociable hours [31].”
From A qualitative study of Filipina immigrants’ stress, distress and coping: the impact of their multiple, transnational roles as women (2017) · cites this paper as [31]
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“requirements between Norway and the Philippines, nurses often end up in lower-skilled positions with lower pay, such as care assistants, or in less preferred care work with unsociable hours [31].”
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- Authors
- HUANG, S., YEOH, B. S. A., & TOYOTA, M.
- Affiliations
- National University of Singapore (SG)
- Corresponding author
- HUANG, SHIRLENA
- Venue
- Global Networks
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2012-03-09
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 195-215
- ISSN
- 1470-2266 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-0374
- OpenAlex
- W2043198491
- Cited by
- 137
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 22.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Global Networks (publishedVersion)
- National University of Singapore (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Migration and Labor Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Labor Law and Work Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Demography › Migration, Aging, and Tourism Studies
- Keywords
- migrant care workers, domestic workers, healthcare workers, elderly care, population aging, nursing homes, embodied labour, othering, gender, nationality, state regulation of migration, Singapore, care chain, domestic space, institutional space
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