Stuck between the Global North and South: Middling migrants in Australia and Singapore

Abstract

The literature on ‘middling transnationals’ is growing, although studies on Asian middling migrants are still relatively lacking. Current understandings of middling migrants are also frequently fixed on migrants’ mid-level skills and their middle-class status. Drawing on interviews with Nepali migrants living in Melbourne, Australia and mainland Chinese migrants living in Singapore respectively, this article considers how their middling visa status and imaginaries interact with anxious desires. The article argues, first, that migrants from the Global South experience heightened anxious desires due to imaginaries oscillating between the Global North and South. Second, and relatedly, the article argues that migration regimes keep migrants compliant through managing their anxious desires. By detailing the experiences of different groups of Asian migrants in separate migration regimes, the article aims to highlight the heterogeneous experiences among migrants originating from the Global South, and the techniques used by different states to produce temporary and compliant migrants.