You are a Singaporean who has been presented with a great career opportunity in Australia. You decide to take it—though it means leaving your ageing parents behind at home. Yet as your parents grow frailer, and their care needs increase, how will you make sure they are sufficiently looked after in your absence? Can you rely on relatives based in Singapore? Or a domestic worker?

Today, many older Singaporeans belong to transnational families—families whose members are living in two or more countries. At the same time, many migrants in Singapore have care obligations to their parents who live in their home countries. The ageing population and migration are two dominant factors that shape Singapore’s social fabric, and contribute to a global eldercare chain.

So how do migration and eldercare interact? What are the lived experiences for care workers, and for the family that gets left behind? And what is it like caring across borders?

To highlight the role of caregivers in transnational caregiving, and to create a greater understanding for eldercare in general, AWARE will be hosting a panel discussion on the global care chain. The panelists are

• Menusha de Silva, research fellow at SMU
• John Gee, former president of the non-profit organisation Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2)
• A representative (TBD) from the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics [H.O.M.E.]

Both John and H.O.M.E. will expand on the role that foreign domestic workers play in caring for local families. Menusha’s research examines the experiences of Sri Lankan skilled migrants in Australia, their older parents who reside in Sri Lanka, and the siblings upon whose shoulders caregiving responsibilities fall.

AWARE’s head of advocacy and research, Shailey Hingorani, will moderate and speak about the gendered aspects of caregiving, which drive much of AWARE’s current work.

Sign up now for this free talk on an important, under-discussed topic. Refreshments will be provided.

Date: 23 April 2019 (Tuesday)
Time: 7pm – 9pm
Where: AWARE Centre (5 Dover Crescent, #01-22, Singapore 130005)

About the speakers: 

Menusha de Silva is a Research Fellow at the School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University. She received her PhD from the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. She has published her work in peer-reviewed journals such as Area; Gender, Place & Culture; and Population, Space and Place. Her recent work focuses on international education and religion and migrant subjectivities in Singapore.

John Gee has been involved with Transient Workers Count Too since its inception, and served as its president from 2007 to 2011. TWC2 is a non-profit organisation that provides legal and medical support to migrant workers. He is now a board member and head of the Research Sub-Committee of TWC2. A freelance writer by profession, John co-authored ‘Dignity Overdue’, an account of TWC2’s forerunner, The Working Committee 2, as well as the 2009 research report ‘Indonesian Domestic Workers in Singapore’. He has written numerous articles and letters on migrant worker issues and assisted the stream of students and researchers who come through TWC2.

Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (H.O.M.E.) is a Singapore-based charity founded in 2004. H.O.M.E. is dedicated to empowering and supporting migrant workers who find themselves victims of human rights violations and suffer abuse and exploitation. H.O.M.E. works with government agencies, civic groups, corporations and other regional and local partners to meet the goals of its three pillars: Welfare, Empowerment and Advocacy.