Navigating politics across borders: Southeast Asian migrant workers’ activism in Taiwan
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
- Venue
- Senate House (Paul Webley Wing)
- Room
- SWLT
About this event
In the 2025 SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies Summer School, we are delighted to welcome Dr Ratih Kabinawa to discuss Southeast Asian migrant workers’ activism in Taiwan.
Talk Abstract
Using a case study of Southeast Asian migrant workers in Taiwan, this research raises critical questions about how migrant workers promote their working conditions and rights amidst the predominance of the labour migration system and policy in the host country. It will unpack the employment practices that govern the recruitment and placement of migrant workers, which could often lead to forced labour and exploitation.
By conducting interviews with migrant labour activists, organisations, and Taiwanese labour activists, this research will generate insights into the political and social activism of migrant workers in their quest for rights. Additionally, it will analyse how Taiwan’s democratic structures might offer opportunities and challenges for this activism to flourish, empowering these workers to express their aspirations and amplify their voices.
(image credit: Mufid Majnun via Unsplash)
Speaker
Ratih Kabinawa
Raith is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia, where she also earned her doctoral degree in International Relations and Asian Studies. Her research interests include foreign policy/diplomacy, transnational politics, and geopolitics of labour migration, with a regional focus on Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
