The Work of Refuge

This project attends to the everyday labour that goes into making refugee life possible in spaces of temporary or permanent resettlement. Using the post-1975 exodus of Vietnamese boat people to Hong Kong as a historical geographical fulcrum, it argues that a more nuanced understanding of the refugee experience must account for their (self)positioning as working subjects. Through a close reading of documents sourced from Hong Kong’s Public Records Office, I identify two forms of labour that sustained refugee life in Hong Kong. They are: the waged labour of precarious employment; and the care labour provided by community organizations and volunteers.

Essential and Preferred Skills:

• Some experience or interest in working with/alongside Asian diasporic communities, either in North America or in Asia
• Some experience or interest in conducting archival research
• A familiarity with relevant work (on domestic work, global care chains, labour migration, gendered organizing, logistics/infrastructure and so on) in human geography and Asian/Asian diaspora studies
• Good close reading and analytical skills
• Being able to read Vietnamese or traditional Chinese script would be ideal, but not essential