| Summary/Abstract |
Low-wage Tamil migrant workers have long been contributing to Singapore. Despite labouring for three decades and being connected to the existing Tamil diasporic community in Singapore, they have been left out in both state rhetoric and society, often due to claims of transience. Conversely, a fatal traffic accident in the locality of Singapore’s Little India in December 2013 involving a Tamil migrant issue_images_88_1_Hamid_Figure11worker that morphed into a ‘riot’ has again brought these men and their presence within the vicinity of Little India to the fore. This paper uses the concept of “transnational home” as a lens to study their everyday experience in Singapore’s Little India. The homely feelings experienced by the migrant workers highlight their feelings of homesickness vis-à-vis the need for a sense of belonging felt amongst transnational male migrant workers. On the other hand, practices that make the space unhomely for them not only illustrate their social position but will also contribute to the study of the governmentality of migration and control of migrant bodies.
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