Book review of Michiel Baas (ed.) (2020) The Asian Migrant’s Body: Emotion, Gender and Sexuality. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 210 pp.

Abstract

The concept of the migrant’s body constructs of layers and perspectives. The intimacy and privacy of the body are inseparable from the social, economic and political nature of it. The Asian Migrant’s Body. Emotion, Gender and Sexuality succeeds in taking account of each of these aspects. This book comprises of eight scientific chapters that bring anthropological, sociological and psychological scholarly views together. The volume begins with Pardis Madhavi’s Chapter 1 on same-sex relations among migrant workers, which is an invigorating contribution to non-heteronormative scholarly literature on migration and sexuality. Some of the informants in her study have an interesting approach to the issue, as they seek to detach sexual politics from identity politics. Although sexuality is an important aspect of their identity, they wish to be associated more through their activism. For them, migration is a political act and in their search for a de-politicised space, they continue to participate in political acts such as LGBTIQ activism. In Chapter 2, ‘Bodies at Work’, Denise L. Spitzer examines female migrant beer sellers in South East Asia. It brings to the fore how the beer sellers encounter challenging of their boundaries, agencies and subjectivities. The objectifying treatment begins in the recruitment process by their employers and continues by their customers as they work. Importantly, Spitzer highlights that despite the stigma attached to their bodies as a consequence of