The setting

Walking through the small island city-state on a warm, breezy evening, one can hear laughter surfacing from the crowded hawker centres, as Singaporeans enjoy the tastes and aromas of their cosmopolitan dishes in the open-air cafeteria style setting. As food is readily available for a low cost on almost every corner, Singapore not only prides itself of its diverse and unique dishes, but also on its food security. However, the narrative of food security does not necessarily apply to all individuals living in the nation, such as foreign domestic workers, who come from neighbouring countries to support residents of Singapore with housekeeping and childcare. In a city filled with prosperity, hunger and food insecurity are the last things on one’s mind as they explore the cityscape. Because domestic workers live and work within their employers homes, they rely on their employers for basic needs such as food and housing. Living and working in the hidden domestic space of the household also means that little is known about the food security experiences of domestic workers beyond the odd quantitative survey collected every once in a while. Though there have been reports on the news about domestic workers not receiving enough food to eat, little research has been done to investigate the food experiences of domestic workers from their perspective. For my master’s thesis in Anthropology at the University of Victoria, I focused on the food security and eating experiences of Indonesian domestic workers in their employers’ homes. I also looked at how these women embody and are emotionally affected by their experiences of food security. All of the respondents in my project had the opportunity to share their experiences from their perspectives. This webpage is a platform for me to showcase some of my results and experiences from my fieldwork.