Involuntary transnationalism and regulated precarity: lived experiences of skilled Chinese and Indian migrants in Singapore

Abstract

Transnationalism is often perceived as an agentic practice in migration studies. While acknowledging such agency, we argue that transnationalism also involves forced-choice decision-making by migrants whose work and daily lives are subjected to structural constraints beyond individual control. We employ the concept of ‘involuntary transnationalism’ to capture this often-neglected dimension of transnationalism. Based on analysis of survey data and in-depth interviews of skilled Chinese and Indian migrants in Singapore, we find that skilled foreign migrants face employment insecurity and other vulnerabilities largely due to visa regulations and that they have to turn to transnationalism as a coping strategy to mitigate precarity and temporality.