IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v35y2021i3p509-526.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Building Inequality: Wage Disparity between Bangladeshi and Thai Guestworkers in Singapore’s Construction Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Katie Rainwater

Abstract

Existing research on wage inequality in the construction industry focuses on dual labour markets in which migrants earn considerably less than native workers. This article examines occupational inequality between higher-paid Thai and lower-paid Bangladeshi first-time guestworkers in Singapore’s low-wage construction industry. It argues that differently priced national groups of first-time construction guestworkers persist in Singapore’s industry; first, because Singapore wages are established with reference to the economies of sending states, and second, because construction firms associate worker productivity with nationality. Alleged differences in productivity between Thai and Bangladeshi guestworkers are related to the workers’ differently classed socialization in their home countries: Bangladeshis are recruited from their country’s middle-class, whereas Thais are working-class. Sourcing reflects the subset of each sending state’s population who can afford the considerable recruitment and training fees and are attracted by Singapore wages and work.

Suggested Citation

  • Katie Rainwater, 2021. "Building Inequality: Wage Disparity between Bangladeshi and Thai Guestworkers in Singapore’s Construction Industry," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 35(3), pages 509-526, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:35:y:2021:i:3:p:509-526
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017020942448
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017020942448
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017020942448?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Justin Byrne & Linda Clarke & Marc Van Der Meer, 2005. "Gender and ethnic minority exclusion from skilled occupations in construction: a Western European comparison," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(10), pages 1025-1034.
    2. Wajihah Hamid & Dylan Tutt, 2019. "“Thrown away like a banana leaf”: precarity of labour and precarity of place for Tamil migrant construction workers in Singapore," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(9), pages 513-536, September.
    3. Brenda S.A. Yeoh & Grace Baey & Maria Platt & Kellynn Wee, 2017. "Bangladeshi construction workers and the politics of (im)mobility in Singapore," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(5), pages 641-649, September.
    4. Simon Alexander Peth & Harald Sterly & Patrick Sakdapolrak, 2018. "Between the village and the global city: the production and decay of translocal spaces of Thai migrant workers in Singapore," Mobilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 455-472, July.
    5. Nicholas Van Hear, 2014. "Reconsidering Migration and Class," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48, pages 100-121, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Donna Bridges & Larissa Bamberry & Elizabeth Wulff & Branka Krivokapic‐Skoko, 2022. "“A trade of one's own”: The role of social and cultural capital in the success of women in male‐dominated occupations," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 371-387, March.
    2. Lorenzo Frangi & Tingting Zhang & Rupa Banerjee, 2021. "Constructing Inequalities: Tenure Trajectories of Immigrant Workers and Union Strategies in the Milan Construction Sector," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(2), pages 474-502, June.
    3. Donna Bridges & Elizabeth Wulff & Larissa Bamberry, 2023. "Resilience for gender inclusion: Developing a model for women in male‐dominated occupations," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 263-279, January.
    4. Garth Stahl & Hannah Soong & Guanglun Michael Mu & Kun Dai, 2024. "A Fish in Many Waters? Addressing Transnational Habitus and the Reworking of Bourdieu in Global Contexts," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 29(2), pages 418-437, June.
    5. Till Rockenbauch & Patrick Sakdapolrak & Harald Sterly, 2019. "Do translocal networks matter for agricultural innovation? A case study on advice sharing in small-scale farming communities in Northeast Thailand," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 36(4), pages 685-702, December.
    6. Emmanuel Apergis & Nicholas Apergis, 2022. "Reverse Immigration Effects for Expatriates in Oman During the COVID-19 Pandemic Shock," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 28(1), pages 19-37, May.
    7. Jenny Rodriguez & Evangelina Holvino & Joyce K. Fletcher & Stella M. Nkomo & Tessa Wright, 2016. "Women's Experience of Workplace Interactions in Male-Dominated Work: The Intersections of Gender, Sexuality and Occupational Group," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 348-362, May.
    8. Tabea Bork-Hüffer & Simon Alexander Peth, 2020. "Arrival or Transient Spaces? Differentiated Politics of Mobilities, Socio-Technological Orderings and Migrants’ Socio-Spatial Embeddedness," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(3), pages 33-43.
    9. Goreau-Ponceaud, Anthony, 2024. "Lives in exile? Perspectives on the resettlements of Sri Lankan refugees in Tamil Nadu, India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    10. Ingrid Tucci & Joanna J. Fröhlich & Inka Stock, 2021. "Exploring the Nexus between Migration and Social Positions using a Mixed Methods Approach," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(1), pages 114-129.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:35:y:2021:i:3:p:509-526. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.