Dr. Megha Amrith

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

• Retiring from temporary lives: ageing migrant labor in Asia

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.

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). Ageing in a time of mobility: a research agenda. MMG Working Paper, (18-01). Link

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.