Presenting two collaborative research projects about migrant workers and students in Dubai, Singapore, and Toronto between Singapore Management University and University of Toronto through the School of Cities Urban Challenge Grant 3.0: Migration, belonging, and thriving.
Researchers at Singapore Management University and University of Toronto have partnered to examine the employment and educational structures that shape how migrant domestic workers and international students find belonging and thriving in their migrant experiences.
“Good employers” in the global city: Shaping the social networks of migrant domestic workers in Singapore and Dubai
- Yasmin Ortiga, Singapore Management University
- Rachel Silvey, University of Toronto
What does it mean to be a “good” employer in Singapore and Dubai, considered two of the destinations that provide the least effective legal support for temporary foreign workers? How do employers and employment intermediaries shape the social networks, work conditions, and sense of belonging that impact the wellbeing of migrant domestic workers?
Indian migrants in Singapore and Toronto: The role of “educational infrastructures” and migrant (un)belonging
- Orlando Woods, Singapore Management University
- Girish Daswani, University of Toronto
What are “educational infrastructures” as they apply to Indian international students? How do they shape the terms and extent of belonging in what are otherwise “global” spaces of education? How do young migrant students in Singapore and Toronto navigate the performance of citizenship and identity?
Important: please note that this online webinar is held at 7:30-9PM EDT (Toronto) on Tuesday 21 April, 2026, and at 7:30-9AM SGT (Singapore) on Wednesday 22 April, 2026.
Girish Daswani is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto. His first book examines the ethical dimensions of a Pentecostalism, in shaping the collective aspirations and individual lives of members from The Church of Pentecost in Ghana and London. His most recent public-facing work explores the ways in which imperialism, colonialism, and Orientalism have impacted (and are still impacting) the University and the field of Anthropology.
Yasmin Y. Ortiga is Associate Professor of Sociology at Singapore Management University. She is a sociologist interested in issues of migration, education and work. She investigates how changing definitions of “skill” shape where and why people migrate. She is the author of Emigraton, Employability and Higher Education in the Philippines (Routledge) and Stuck at Home: Pandemic Immobilities in the Nation of Emigration (Stanford University Press).
Rachel Silvey is Professor in the Department of Geography and Planning, and Director of the Collaborative Master’s Specialization in Contemporary East and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Toronto. She is best known for her research on women’s labour and migration in Indonesia and has published widely in the fields of migration studies, cultural and political geography, gender studies, and critical development.
Orlando Woods is Professor of Geography and Associate Dean (Research and Postgraduate Education) at the College of Integrative Studies, Singapore Management University, and Director of the SMU Urban Institute. His interdisciplinary research agenda spans a variety of questions concerning urban life, governance, and transformation in South and Southeast Asia.
