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Abstract

This paper contributes to the literature on labour migration by considering the class
commonalities and differences as refracted through gender that are embedded within
recruitment practices of different workers. Recent writings on the recruitment of
labour migrants often distinguish between low-waged and middle-income workers
without clearly addressing the the linkages between recruitment practices of both. By
adopting a comparative framework between Bangladeshi male migrants and transnational financial professionals, I draw out the varied configurations of gender and
class that are deployed in recruitment processes that contour the existing division
of labour in Singapore. For both groups of workers, their access to work is conditioned, not only by technical skills, but also by their social and cultural capital as
well. Through the analyses of the mesogeography of labour assembly, recruitment
methods become crucial channels to the realms of economic production and social
reproduction, which are intertwined. This accounts for the segmented social space
that is the labour market by demonstrating that recruitment processes are themselves
embedded with specific class intersections as deployed through varied gender constructions.