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Contingent breadwinners: Left-behind women and the translocal dynamics of migrant worker precarity

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  • Sallie Yea

    (Department of Society Inquiry, La Trobe University, Wodonga, VIC, Australia)

Abstract

Extant research on migrant worker household dynamics tends to focus on the changing gender roles of those left behind and the intra-household dynamics that emerge in the context of the extended absence of a key family member. As provocative and diverse as this literature is, both analytically and geographically, it has yet to fully engage with the challenges to transnational householding presented in cases of extreme migrant worker precarity, including situations of forced labour and human trafficking. This paper examines the contingent roles left-behind mothers and wives perform in the absence of a male migrant relative breadwinner. I argue that the financial and relational effects of migrant worker exploitation produce contingent breadwinning amongst left-behind women. I draw on data from a study of human trafficking and forced labour in the offshore fishing industry in the Philippines to make my arguments.

Suggested Citation

  • Sallie Yea, 2025. "Contingent breadwinners: Left-behind women and the translocal dynamics of migrant worker precarity," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 57(6), pages 704-718, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:57:y:2025:i:6:p:704-718
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X251348115
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. David Tickler & Jessica J. Meeuwig & Katharine Bryant & Fiona David & John A. H. Forrest & Elise Gordon & Jacqueline Joudo Larsen & Beverly Oh & Daniel Pauly & Ussif R. Sumaila & Dirk Zeller, 2018. "Modern slavery and the race to fish," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-9, December.
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    4. Jamie Peck & Nik Theodore, 2001. "Contingent Chicago: Restructuring the Spaces of Temporary Labor," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 471-496, September.
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