Dr. Megha Amrith
Curriculum Vitae
Megha Amrith was the leader of the Max Planck Research Group “Ageing in a Time of Mobility” from 2018 until 2024. Since 2025 she holds a professorship at Maastricht University and is a guest at MPI MMG. 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
Monographs
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. https://doi.org/10.1111/glob.12422
Amrith, M. (2023). Fleeting joy, divergent expectations and reconfigured intimacies: The visits home of Filipino migrant care workers in Singapore. Global Networks, 23(1), 203–217. https://doi.org/10.1111/glob.12394
Sampaio, D., & Amrith, M. (2023). Southern reconfigurations of the ageing-migration nexus. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 49(4), 927–944. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2022.2115624
Amrith, M., & Coe, C. (2022). Disposable kin: Shifting registers of belonging in global care economies. American Anthropologist, 124(2), 307–318. https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13688
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. https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2022.2088084
Amrith, M. (2022). The Temporal Borders of Transnational Belonging: Aging Migrant Domestic Workers in Singapore. American Behavioral Scientist, 66(14), 1912–1927. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642221075258
Amrith, M. (2021). Ageing bodies, precarious futures: The (im)mobilities of ‘temporary’ migrant domestic workers over time. Mobilities, 16(2), 249–261. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2021.1885834
McKearney, P., & Amrith, M. (2021). Care. Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.29164/21care
Amrith, M. (2021). The linear imagination, stalled: Changing temporal horizons in migrant journeys. Global Networks, 21(1), 127–145. https://doi.org/10.1111/glob.12280
Amrith, M. (2020). The Substance of Care: Ethical Dilemmas in Migrant Medical Labour. Ethnos, 85(2), 241–257. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2018.1542410
Amrith, M. (2018). Tentative friendships among low-income migrants in São Paulo’s commercial districts. Urban Studies, 55(3), 522–537. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098016631907
Amrith, M., & Amrith, S. (2016). Migration, Health and Inequality in Asia. Development and Change, 47(4), 840–860. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12242
Amrith, M. (2015). Pathways to urban citizenship for low-income migrants in São Paulo. Citizenship Studies, 19(6–7), 649–663. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2015.1023260
Amrith, M. (2015). Urban Marginality and the Affective Lives of Migrants. Third Text, 29(6), 459–472. https://doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2016.1236459
Amrith, M. (2013). Encountering Asia: Narratives of Filipino Medical Workers on Caring for Other Asians. Critical Asian Studies, 45(2), 231–254. https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.2013.792572
Amrith, M. (2010). ‘They Think We are Just Caregivers’: The Ambivalence of Care in the Lives of Filipino Medical Workers in Singapore. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 11(3–4), 410–427. https://doi.org/10.1080/14442213.2010.511631
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., 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.
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.
Amrith, M. (2023). Migrant eldercare workers. In S. Torres & A. Hunter (Eds.), Handbook on Migration and Ageing (pp. 217–227). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Amrith, M. (2022). Migrant Eldercare Workers in Asia. In S. Irudaya Rajan (Ed.), Handbook of Aging, Health and Public Policy: Perspectives from Asia (pp. 1–14). Singapore: Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1914-4_91-1
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.
Amrith, M. (2017). Migration and urbanisation in contemporary Asia: Addressing urban inequalities and promoting social sustainability. In F. Caprotti & L. Yu (Eds.), Sustainable Cities in Asia. Routledge.
Amrith, M. (2015). Cities as Lived Spaces: Making Sense of Everyday Migrant Sociability in Academic Discourses on Migration and Cities. In P. Nair & T. Bloom (Eds.), Migration Across Boundaries: Linking Research to Practice and Experience (pp. 163–182). London: Routledge.
Other
Amrith, M., Sakti, V. K., & Sampaio, D. (Eds.). (2023). Aspiring in later life: Movements across time, space, and generations. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Amrith, M. (2023). Reimagining Social Protection: Financialized Futures Among Ageing Migrant Domestic Workers in Asia. Bielefeld Anthropological Papers on Issues of the Global World, (2), 18.
Amrith, M. (2020, April 27). Enduring indifference and the vital labour of migrant domestic workers.
Amrith, M. (2020, September 16). The Two Singapores: Rethinking Migrant Domestic Care Work in COVID-19 (W. Al Mamun, Interviewer) [Onlinetext]. Retrieved from https://somatosphere.com/2020/two-singapores-rethinking-migrant-domestic-care-work.html/
Amrith, M. (2019, April 15). Care. Retrieved from EASA Network of Ethnographic Theory website: https://networkofethnographictheory.wordpress.com/care/
Amrith, M., & Sampaio, D. (2019, July). Reflections on the ‘Grey is the New Pink: Moments of Ageing’ Exhibition. Retrieved from Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity website: https://www.mmg.mpg.de/443790/blog-amrith-sampaio-moments-of-ageing
Amrith, M. (2018, December). Ageing Bodies: Retiring from Temporary Lives. Retrieved from Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity website: https://www.mmg.mpg.de/243715/blog-amrith-ageing-bodies
Amrith, M. (2018). Ageing in a time of mobility: A research agenda. MMG Working Papers, 18(01), 29.
Amrith, M. (2018, December). Ageing in a Time of Mobility: An Introduction. Retrieved from Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity website: https://www.mmg.mpg.de/244310/blog-amrith-ageing-in-a-time-of-mobility-introduction
Amrith, M., & Sahraoui, N. (Eds.). (2018). Gender, work and migration: Agency in gendered labour settings. Abingdon, Oxon New York, NY: Routledge.
Cheesman, N. (2016). Caring for Strangers Filipino Medical Workers in Asia. In New Books in Southeast Asian Studies. Retrieved from https://newbooksnetwork.com/megha-amrith-caring-for-strangers-filipino-medical-workers-in-asia-nias-press-2016/
Amrith, M. (2015). The Empowerment of Domestic Workers: Female Agency in the Asian Region (Policy Report No. 03/01; p. 14). Barcelona: United Nations University Institute on Globalization, Culture and Mobility. Retrieved from United Nations University Institute on Globalization, Culture and Mobility. website: https://i.unu.edu/media/gcm.unu.edu/publication/2752/REPORT-0306_OK-ONLINE.pdf
Amrith, M. (2015). The Invisible Labour of Female Migrants in the Care Sector (Policy Report No. 03/06; p. 24). Barcelona: United Nations University Institute on Globalization, Culture and Mobility. Retrieved from United Nations University Institute on Globalization, Culture and Mobility. website: https://i.unu.edu/media/gcm.unu.edu/publication/2752/REPORT-0306_OK-ONLINE.pdf