Using place lens : the construction of diasporic identity and a "home away from home" by foreign domestic workers in Singapore.

• Main Author: Tan, Dilys Yi Fang.
• Other Authors: Caroline Pluss
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/35266
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This research paper investigates how Foreign Domestic Workers (FDWs) from the Philippines use space to represent and express their identities as members of a diaspora who maintain ties transnationally with their homeland. It studies the process of place-making by looking at how FDWs form communities and name, interpret and transform the place to a temporary home. The migrant sites chosen for analysis are Lucky Plaza, Botanic Gardens, the area behind ISS International School and the pathway beside Tong building. The first part of the research focuses on the spatial dimension, demonstrating how public space is perceived and appropriated by FDWs to form a “home away from home”. The second part looks into the idea of networks using the “place lens”, paying attention to studying how the networks of family, friends and nation interrelate and intertwine within these spaces, and to discuss the effects of these networks on shaping the identities of FDWs in Singapore.