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The Visible Invisibles: Stories of Migrant Workers in Asia
Featuring a careful curation of unconventional yet universal life stories from a diverse and incredible cast of characters, The Visible Invisibles: Stories of Migrant Workers in Asia offers a very uniquely human connection to the undocumented lives of migrant workers across Asia, presenting stories of adventure, love, hope, loss, guilt and redemption, and written by an inter-racial migrant couple coming from India and China who have played a foundational role in giving voices to migrant workers across Asia and Africa through acclaimed platforms such as Migrant Poetry Competitions and the Global Migrant Festival.
- GenresAsia
226 pages, Paperback
Published October 25, 2022
2 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Shivaji Das
8 books29 followersShivaji Das is the author of eight critically acclaimed travel, art and business books. He was the first prize winner for Time Magazine's Sub-Continental Drift Essay contest and shortlisted for Fair Australia Prize for Short Stories.
Shivaji has been actively involved in migrant issues and is the conceptualizer and organizer for the acclaimed Migrant Worker and Refugee Poetry Contests in Singapore, Malaysia and Kenya and is the founder and director of the Global Migrant Festival.
Shivaji's work and his interviews have been featured on BBC, CNBC, The Economist, Travel Radio Australia, Around the World TV, etc. Shivaji's writings have been published in magazines such as TIME, South China Morning Post, Think China, Asian Geographic, Jakarta Post, Conscious Magazine, PanaJournal, Freethinker, etc.
Shivaji Das was born and brought up in the north-eastern province of Assam in India. Shivaji is a graduate from IIT Delhi and has an MBA from IIM Calcutta. He works as the Managing Director-APAC for Frost & Sullivan, a research and consulting company. Shivaji is currently a Singapore citizen.
Shivaji has been actively involved in migrant issues and is the conceptualizer and organizer for the acclaimed Migrant Worker and Refugee Poetry Contests in Singapore, Malaysia and Kenya and is the founder and director of the Global Migrant Festival.
Shivaji's work and his interviews have been featured on BBC, CNBC, The Economist, Travel Radio Australia, Around the World TV, etc. Shivaji's writings have been published in magazines such as TIME, South China Morning Post, Think China, Asian Geographic, Jakarta Post, Conscious Magazine, PanaJournal, Freethinker, etc.
Shivaji Das was born and brought up in the north-eastern province of Assam in India. Shivaji is a graduate from IIT Delhi and has an MBA from IIM Calcutta. He works as the Managing Director-APAC for Frost & Sullivan, a research and consulting company. Shivaji is currently a Singapore citizen.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 25, 2022
Rating: 4.75
If there's one non-fiction I'd urge people to pick up this year, it would be "The Visible Invisibles" by Yolanda Yu & Shivaji Das, a collection of anecdotes from various migrant workers scattered throughout Asia.
Among these pages, you will encounter people from all walks of life: A Philippines domestic worker looks after her employers' childrenwhile her own daughter hasn't seen her in decades. An Indian man works as a laborer to build a city's infrastructure but makes barely enough to partake in the fruits of his labor. A China man spends the majority of his life away from his family while he mines through a tunnel in hazardous conditions. A Bangladeshi man recounts how his fellow countryman and colleague died due to negligence by others at a construction site. An Indonesian woman involves herself in activism and writes about her working condition to bring awareness to others. Workers of different nationalities find common ground after being exposed to each other's cultures. An Indian man provides his assistance to his fellow colleagues by involving himself in activism.
These are just some snippets of the real-life accounts you will read about, and they are all impactful. Every story reveals that at the end of the day, these workers want what's best for themselves and their families and will do whatever it takes to ensure that our family's future is secured, even if it means sacrificing decades of their years working in a foreign land that exploits and ostracizes them. And even during their dark times, these people prove how resilient humans can be despite the odds stacked against them.
These are the people who have had to migrate to other countries in search of opportunities that might not be available in their hometowns due to various circumstances. The sad truth is that a lot of our development and creature comforts can only be achieved based on the labor of migrant workers, who typically receive low wages and are forced to live and work through inhumane conditions. Sadly, these migrants are then demonized whenever it's convenient to blame them for the fault lines in the system, despite the undeniable fact that they form an essential part of the country's society. Nearly every country benefits from this exploitative system, all in the name of capitalism and progress.
Through years of interviews, Yu & Das have collected and compiled these stories to give voice to these 'invisible visibles'. Written in accessible language, the simple narrative within this book conveys the interviewees' struggles and hope in a heartbreaking way. Prepare yourself for an emotionally heavy read; I had to set the book aside several times to have a good cry before picking it up again. Above all, this was a good reminder that whatever we're going through, others are having it so much worse. Never again will I look at my privileged life in Malaysia the same way after reading this.
In our current political climate and divisive times, it's become more important than ever to develop our empathy alongside our knowledge of current issues to avoid undue prejudice, so I implore others to give this a read.
My infinite gratitude to Penguin Books SEA for sending over this amazing, amazing read. I'm so glad to see this kind of title gracing our SEA shores!
If there's one non-fiction I'd urge people to pick up this year, it would be "The Visible Invisibles" by Yolanda Yu & Shivaji Das, a collection of anecdotes from various migrant workers scattered throughout Asia.
Among these pages, you will encounter people from all walks of life: A Philippines domestic worker looks after her employers' childrenwhile her own daughter hasn't seen her in decades. An Indian man works as a laborer to build a city's infrastructure but makes barely enough to partake in the fruits of his labor. A China man spends the majority of his life away from his family while he mines through a tunnel in hazardous conditions. A Bangladeshi man recounts how his fellow countryman and colleague died due to negligence by others at a construction site. An Indonesian woman involves herself in activism and writes about her working condition to bring awareness to others. Workers of different nationalities find common ground after being exposed to each other's cultures. An Indian man provides his assistance to his fellow colleagues by involving himself in activism.
These are just some snippets of the real-life accounts you will read about, and they are all impactful. Every story reveals that at the end of the day, these workers want what's best for themselves and their families and will do whatever it takes to ensure that our family's future is secured, even if it means sacrificing decades of their years working in a foreign land that exploits and ostracizes them. And even during their dark times, these people prove how resilient humans can be despite the odds stacked against them.
These are the people who have had to migrate to other countries in search of opportunities that might not be available in their hometowns due to various circumstances. The sad truth is that a lot of our development and creature comforts can only be achieved based on the labor of migrant workers, who typically receive low wages and are forced to live and work through inhumane conditions. Sadly, these migrants are then demonized whenever it's convenient to blame them for the fault lines in the system, despite the undeniable fact that they form an essential part of the country's society. Nearly every country benefits from this exploitative system, all in the name of capitalism and progress.
Through years of interviews, Yu & Das have collected and compiled these stories to give voice to these 'invisible visibles'. Written in accessible language, the simple narrative within this book conveys the interviewees' struggles and hope in a heartbreaking way. Prepare yourself for an emotionally heavy read; I had to set the book aside several times to have a good cry before picking it up again. Above all, this was a good reminder that whatever we're going through, others are having it so much worse. Never again will I look at my privileged life in Malaysia the same way after reading this.
In our current political climate and divisive times, it's become more important than ever to develop our empathy alongside our knowledge of current issues to avoid undue prejudice, so I implore others to give this a read.
My infinite gratitude to Penguin Books SEA for sending over this amazing, amazing read. I'm so glad to see this kind of title gracing our SEA shores!
February 13, 2023
5 stars. Featuring a careful curation of unconventional yet universal life stories from a diverse and incredible cast of characters, this collection offers a very uniquely human connection to the undocumented lives of migrant workers across Asia, presenting stories of adventure, love, hope, loss, guilt and redemption.
The experiences shared in this collection were simultaneously harrowing and heartwarming, but what gave me hope was the migrant workers’ own hope for the future, and also hearing how some nonprofit organisations have genuinely helped them in times of distress.
I feel the title really captures the dynamic between locals and migrant workers, as they are seen around so often yet we do not have a single idea what and how much they’re going through. Thus it was extremely insightful to hear not only the truth and depth of their situations but also to get a look into their mindsets and how their upbringings, combined with their encounters abroad, have shaped them.
I urge people to pick this up to broaden your worldview, and to gain a better understanding of the migrant workers that play such a big part in our lives, better yet told from their own perspectives. Thank you again to all the migrant workers came forth to share their stories, to Shivaji Das and Yolanda Yu for collating them, and Penguin Books SEA for sending this copy over.
The experiences shared in this collection were simultaneously harrowing and heartwarming, but what gave me hope was the migrant workers’ own hope for the future, and also hearing how some nonprofit organisations have genuinely helped them in times of distress.
I feel the title really captures the dynamic between locals and migrant workers, as they are seen around so often yet we do not have a single idea what and how much they’re going through. Thus it was extremely insightful to hear not only the truth and depth of their situations but also to get a look into their mindsets and how their upbringings, combined with their encounters abroad, have shaped them.
I urge people to pick this up to broaden your worldview, and to gain a better understanding of the migrant workers that play such a big part in our lives, better yet told from their own perspectives. Thank you again to all the migrant workers came forth to share their stories, to Shivaji Das and Yolanda Yu for collating them, and Penguin Books SEA for sending this copy over.
September 25, 2024
A curated collection of short stories where the interviewed authors narrate their life stories. The range of experience is rich, but there are common themes: sacrificing for the family and children for a better future, hardship and suffering from exploitative and deplorable conditions, helplessness and hopelessness. I really enjoyed this collection.
August 11, 2023
The grim life of migrant workers in their own words. An important reminder of the sacrifices these people make and the bad treatment they have to endure just to be able to support their families. The institutionalised human trafficking behind all this is a national disgrace in countries like Singapore.
April 28, 2023
Review by The Straits Times, Singapore
https://www.straitstimes.com/life/art...
Review by The New Straits Times, Malaysia
https://www.nst.com.my/lifestyle/sund...
Review by Modern Diplomacy
https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2023/01/15...
Excerpt at The Diplomat
https://thediplomat.com/2022/12/one-w...
Interview in BFM Malaysia
https://www.bfm.my/podcast/evening-ed...
https://www.straitstimes.com/life/art...
Review by The New Straits Times, Malaysia
https://www.nst.com.my/lifestyle/sund...
Review by Modern Diplomacy
https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2023/01/15...
Excerpt at The Diplomat
https://thediplomat.com/2022/12/one-w...
Interview in BFM Malaysia
https://www.bfm.my/podcast/evening-ed...
December 7, 2023
I enjoyed the diversity of voices in this collection - people in different roles, coming from different places. Though a single vein ties them all in the hardships and structural violence that they endure.
Personally, I've learned of migrant worker hardships and issues mainly through accounts and reports compiled by NGOs. These essays were hence illuminating in terms of getting to know their individual thoughts and feelings. The essays were deeply human -- we learn of their pain, fears, joys, dreams, regrets, all of which unique.
Trigger warning that some sections cover sexual abuse, and also explicit descriptions of physical injuries.
Personally, I've learned of migrant worker hardships and issues mainly through accounts and reports compiled by NGOs. These essays were hence illuminating in terms of getting to know their individual thoughts and feelings. The essays were deeply human -- we learn of their pain, fears, joys, dreams, regrets, all of which unique.
Trigger warning that some sections cover sexual abuse, and also explicit descriptions of physical injuries.
October 16, 2023
Think the authors gave up towards the end; otherwise this is a heart rending read of the troubles that plague migrant workers and the needless suffering that corrupted or thoughtless employers snd those in authority inflict on these workers.
September 8, 2024
We live in the same world but with such different realities. Such a humbling and eye-opening read.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews