Relational Work in Job Transfers: Southeast Asian Migrant Workers and Co-National Brokers

• In Event: 20862 - Section on International Migration Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 11: Migration and Labor

Abstract

Challenging the assumption that market mechanisms hinder social relationships, this article reveals the relationship between the ‘co-national’ brokers and migrant workers in the job transfer process within Taiwan's guest-worker system. The Taiwanese government has adopted a strict guest worker system and outsourced surveillance responsibilities to broker agencies. Despite the recently relaxed regulations that provide migrant workers opportunities to transfer jobs, brokers remain key gatekeepers in job transfers, with most migrant workers compelled to pay “buy-job fees.” Existing research has analyzed the structural constraints imposed on migrant workers, emphasizing Taiwanese brokers align with the state to reinforce the exploitation of migrant workers. However, I found that a significant number of brokers come from Southeast Asia and communicate with migrant workers in their native languages. These co-national brokers, who often share similar socioeconomic backgrounds and migration experiences with the workers, complicate the prevailing narrative of brokers as exploitative intermediaries. I argue that the relationship between migrant workers and co-national brokers is not merely an economic transaction or exploitation.
To capture bidirectional relational dynamics, this article employs a multi-sited ethnographic approach and in-depth interviews and focuses on two groups of Southeast Asian migrants: migrant workers and co-national brokers. I examine the social ties between these two groups, as well as the potential formation of mutual support networks. Drawing on the concept of “relational work”, this article discusses how actors interpret their relationships, how these relationships facilitate economic activities, and how economic actions, in turn, shape social ties. I identified migrant workers’ interpretations into two distinct types of relational work. Furthermore, while this article engages with literature on Latin American’s co-ethnic networks in the U.S., this article highlights how Taiwan’s guest worker system—characterized by a short-term labor regime—introduces distinct patterns of brokerage and migrant interactions.

Author

• Chih-Hsuan Chang, National Taiwan University