From Special Issue: Against the Day: Migration Struggle in East and Southeast Asia, South Atlantic Quarterly. Volume 120, Issue 3, 1 July 2021.
Jonathan S. Parhusip
South Atlantic Quarterly (2021) 120 (3): 663–669.
https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-9155366
Abstract
Local labor laws in Taiwan push migrant workers to run away from contracted employment arrangements and become undocumented. This article examines the common forms of struggle pursued by runaway Indonesian migrant workers with a focus on the informal organizational structures that support their daily survival. To open space for maneuver within nation-state borders, runaway migrant workers utilize their agency and negotiate state and nonstate structures such as recruitment companies, NGOs and civil society organizations, migrant communities, illegal agency services, and taxi drivers.