Silence, sacrifice, and subordination: Unpacking the gendered migration narratives of policy actors in Malaysia

This paper adopts an actor-centered perspective to investigate how gendered ideologies permeate migration narratives in Malaysia. It sheds light on how policy-relevant actors narratively construct the dynamics of female labor migration, with an emphasis on domestic worker migration. This research found the presence of narratives that construct women migrant domestic workers as “victims” of abuse who are in need of protection, often connected to trafficking narratives, and whose work is undervalued and overlooked. Yet, despite such powerful discourses, migrant domestic workers remain largely unprotected in law, policy, and practice in Malaysia.