Dr. Megha Amrith
Curriculum Vitae
Megha Amrith has been the leader of the Max Planck Research Group “Ageing in a Time of Mobility” at MPI-MMG since January 2018. Her research focuses on migrant labor, care, ageing, inequalities, belonging and citizenship, primarily in Southeast Asia, but also drawing upon comparative ethnographic perspectives. She is author of the monograph “Caring for Strangers: Filipino Medical Workers in Asia” (NIAS Press, 2017), Co-Editor of the volume “Gender, Work and Migration” (with Sahraoui, Routledge, 2018), and has published her work in journals, such as Global Networks, Ethnos, Citizenship Studies, and Urban Studies. Megha Amrith obtained a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge under a Gates Cambridge scholarship. Prior to joining MPI-MMG, she held a post-doctoral fellowship at the Centre for Metropolitan Studies at the University of São Paulo (2012-2013) and a research fellowship at the United Nations University Institute for Globalization, Culture and Mobility, Barcelona (2014 – 2017).
Click here for Megha's Insight video “Ageing Across Borders”
Research projects
Publications
Special Issues
Sampaio, D., & Amrith, M. (Eds.). (2023). Special issue: Southern reconfigurations of the ageing-migration nexus [Special Issue]. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 49(4). Link
Sakti, V. K., & Amrith, M. (Eds.). (2022). Living in the here and now: Extended temporalities of forced migration [Special Issue]. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 43(4). Link
Books
Amrith, M. (2017). Caring for
Strangers: Filipino Medical Workers in Asia. Copenhagen: NIAS Press.
Collected Editions
Amrith, M., Sakti, V. K., & Sampaio, D. (Eds.). (2023). Aspiring in later life: Movements across time, space, and generations. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Link
Amrith, M., & Sahraoui, N. (Eds.). (2018). Gender, work and migration: Agency in gendered labour settings. London: Routledge. Link
Journal Articles
Amrith, M., Neal, Z. P., & Waters, J. L. (2023). Editorial. Global Networks, 23(1), 5-8. Link
Sampaio, D., & Amrith, M. (2023). Editorial introduction: Southern reconfigurations of the ageing-migration nexus. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 49(4), 927-944. Link
Sampaio, D., & Amrith, M. (2022). Editorial introduction: Southern reconfigurations of the ageing-migration nexus. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies: Special issue: Southern reconfigurations of the ageing-migration nexus. Link
Amrith, M. (2022). Fleeting joy, divergent expectations and reconfigured intimacies: The visits home of Filipino migrant care workers in Singapore. Global Networks, 1-15. Link
Sakti, V. K., & Amrith, M. (2022). Introduction: Living in the ‘here and now’: Extended temporalities of forced migration. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 43(4), 457-463. Link
Amrith, M., & Coe, C. (2022). Disposable kin: Shifting registers of belonging in global care economies. American Anthropologist. Link
Amrith, M. (2022). The temporal borders of transnational belonging: Aging migrant domestic workers in Singapore. American Behavioral Scientist. Link
Amrith, M. (2021). Ageing bodies, precarious futures: The (im)mobilities of ‘temporary’ migrant domestic workers over time. Mobilities. doi:10.1080/17450101.2021.1885834.
McKearney, P., & Amrith, M. (2021). Care. Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology. CEA. doi:10.29164/21care.
Amrith, M. (2020). The linear imagination, stalled: changing temporal horizons in migrant journeys. Global Networks: A Journal of Transnational Affairs. doi:10.1111/glob.12280. Link
Amrith, M. (2019). The substance of care: Ethical dilemmas in migrant medical labour. Ethnos, 1-17. Link
Amrith, M. (2018). Tentative friendships among low-income migrants in São Paulo’s commercial districts. Urban Studies, 55(3), 522-537. Link
Amrith, M., & Amrith, S. (2016). Migration, Health and Inequality in Asia. Development and Change, 47(4), 840-860.
Amrith, M. (2015). Pathways to Urban Citizenship among Low-Income Migrants in São Paulo. Citizenship Studies, 19(6-7), 649-663.
Amrith, M. (2015). Urban Marginality and the Affective Lives of Migrants. Third Text, 29(6), 459-472. Link
Amrith, M. (2013). Encountering Asia: Narratives of Filipino Medical Workers on Caring for Other Asians. Critical Asian Studies, 45(2), 231-254.
Amrith, M. (2010). 'They Think we are Just Caregivers’: The Ambivalence of Care among Filipino Medical Workers in Singapore. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 11(3/4), 410-427.
Amrith, M., Johnson, J., Martin, D., Murawski, M., & Nelms, T. (2008). Harvesting Failure in the Field: An Ethnographic Apprenticeship in Coping with the Unexpected. Cambridge Anthropology, 28(1), 61-82.
Contributions to a Collected Edition
Amrith, M. (2023). Migrant eldercare workers. In S. Torres, & A. Hunter (Eds.), Handbook on Migration and Ageing. (pp. 217-227). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Link
Amrith, M., Sakti, V. K., & Sampaio, D. (2023). Introduction. In M. Amrith, V. K. Sakti, & D. Sampaio (Eds.), Aspiring in later life: Movements across time, space, and generations (pp. 1-16). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Link
Amrith, M. (2023). Letting go and looking ahead: The aspirations of middle-aged migrant domestic workers in Singapore and Hong Kong. In M. Amrith, V. K. Sakti, & D. Sampaio (Eds.), Aspiring in later life: Movements across time, space, and generations. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Link
Amrith, M. (2022). Migrant eldercare workers in Asia. In S. Irudaya Rajan (Ed.), Handbook of Aging, Health and Public Policy: Perspectives from Asia. Singapore: Springer Singapore. Link
Amrith, M. (2018). Dignity of labour: Activism among Filipina domestic workers in Singapore and Barcelona. In M. Amrith, & N. Sahraoui (Eds.), Gender, work and migration: Agency in gendered labour settings (pp. 65-82). London: Routledge. Link
Amrith, M. (2017). Migration and Urbanization in Contemporary Asia. In F. Caprotti, & L. Yu (Eds.), Sustainable Cities in Asia. London: Routledge.
Amrith, M. (2015). Cities as Lived Spaces. In P. Nair, & T. Bloom (Eds.), Migration Across Boundaries: Linking Research to Practice and Experience. London: Ashgate.
Working Papers
‘Reimagining Social Protection: Financialized Futures Among Ageing Migrant Domestic Workers in Asia’, Bielefeld Anthropological Papers on Issues of the Global World (BAPGW), BAPGW Nr. 2, October 2023. Link
Amrith, M. (2018). Ageing in a time of mobility: a research agenda. MMG Working Paper, (18-01). Link
Other
Walton-Roberts, M., Amrith, M., & Sæther, B. (2022). [Review of:] Doctoral thesis review - Anmeldelse av doktoravhandling. Aslaug Gotehus. 2022. Agency and Temporality in Skilled Migration: Decisions, Experiences and Practices of Filipino Nurses in Norway and the Philippines. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography, 76(3), 192-195. Link
Amrith, M. (2020). Interview: The two Singapores: Rethinking migrant domestic care work in COVID-19. Link
Amrith, M. (2020). Blog post: Enduring indifference and the vital labour of migrant domestic workers, Identities COVID-19 Blog Series. Link
Amrith, M. (2019). Blog post: Guest reading list on ‘Care’, Network of Ethnographic Theory. Link
Amrith, M., & Sampaio, D. (2019). Blog post: Reflections on the ‘Grey is the New Pink: Moments of Ageing’ exhibition. Link
Amrith, M. (2019). Book Review: Domestic Economies: Women, Work, and the American Dream in Los Angeles by Susanna Rosenbaum, Duke University Press. Anthropological Forum, 29(2), 190-192.
Amrith, M. (2018). Blog post: Ageing Bodies: Retiring from Temporary Lives. Link
Amrith, M. (2018). Blog post: Ageing in a Time of Mobility: An Introduction. Link
Amrith, M. (2017). Podcast: New Books in Southeast Asian Studies: Caring for Strangers: Filipino Medical Workers in Asia. Link
Amrith, M. (2015). The Invisible Labour of Female Migrants in the Care Sector. Barcelona: United Nations University.
Amrith, M. (2015). The Empowerment of Domestic Workers. Barcelona: United Nations University.