The starting point in exploring possible linkages between migration and democratisation in this paper is the role of collective organisations in influencing and changing the direction and practice of political activism aimed at advancing the rights of migrants as foreign workers. Given the specific context of my discussion being temporary contract migration—the predominant form of (legal) economic migration in Asia today—taking a transnational perspective that links origin and destination countries is paramount, as the problem issues these contract migrants face occur at both 'ends' of the migration journey, often simultaneously. I develop a reconputalisation of the notion of 'political remittances' to analyse political activism via collective organisations that operate across borders. In doing so, I raise the question whether this activism contributes to the transnationalisation of migrant rights—a specific form of political remittances. In conclusion, I argue that the analysis and theorisation of political remittances aimed at furthering solidarity among workers and democratising of labour and human relations needs to be situated within a multi-sited landscape of collective organisations and the networks between them.
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Nicola Piper (2009) studied this question.