Informality during migration, conversion within and across national spaces: Eliciting moral ambivalence among informal brokers

Conditions of precarity, irregularity, and illegality are often associated with informality. Yet the functional and analytical value of informality as a condition and process underpinning the migration industry and infrastructure has yet to be fully investigated. This paper considers first, how is informality constructed within national space and across national spaces (i.e., transnationally) during migration? Second, in the context of migration, what does informality reveal of the binaries associated with legality/illegality and morality/immorality? Third, what does inhabiting informality as a negotiated space achieve for the various stakeholders who are involved in mediating migration? We address these questions through a study of how foreign domestic workers (FDWs) migrate from Myanmar to work in Singapore. Although FDWs can secure legal documents from Singapore (the receiving country), the government of Myanmar (the sending country) considered migration for domestic work illegal until it lifted a ban on such migration in April 2019. Even so, the government will to formalise and enforce legal migration in Myanmar has been lagging, alongside a lack of traction for multi-stakeholder collaboration in this direction. Through discussing informality during the recruitment, training, and deployment stages, we draw attention to how informal brokers experience moral ambivalence, a condition that can be seen as a resource that illuminates new political and social subjectivities, as well as a means for the brokers to manage risks and uncertainties during migration.

Automated summary

This paper examines the impact of informality on different stakeholders in the migration process. Using the case of foreign domestic workers migrating from Myanmar to work in Singapore, it highlights the moral ambivalence and ongoing risks associated with informality in government policies and broker behaviors.