On 20th May 2016 UNU-CS hosted an event on Migrant Technologies: (re)producing (un)freedoms in Macau. The one-day event brought together scholars, practitioners and activists to share learning and exchange ideas on the range of migrant technologies research being conducted across Asia and explore future collaborative approaches. The key theme addressed at the event was how the use of mobile technologies adds layers of freedoms and unfreedoms to migration. Speakers of the day include: Introduction and Welcome: Michael Best, Director of UNU-CS Opening Remarks: Tony Roberts, UNU-CS Morning Panel: Emerging themes in Migrant Technology research - Chair: Tony Roberts, UNU-CS - Jack Qiu, Chinese University of Hong Kong - Freedom, Slavery, and Working-Class ICTs: Learning from Chinese Migrant Workers in Foxconn - Nikos Dacanay, Chiang Mai University - ICT usage and how ethnic migrant women in northern Thailand indigenize/mediate human rights’ discourse of gender equality - Odalia Wong, Baptist University of Hong Kong - Transnational Mothers and Mobile Phone Usage: The Case of the Filipino Female Domestic Workers in Hong Kong - Discussant: Rhodora A. Abano, Centre for Migrant Advocacy in Philippines Afternoon Panel: New Migrant Technologies - Chair: Tony Roberts, UNU-CS - Kayoko Ueno, University of Tokushima - Facebook Activism and Networking among Foreign Domestic Workers in Singapore - Jude Yew, National University of Singapore - Pemca: A proposed mobile platform for crowdsourcing the reporting and visualization of migrant worker injuries/deaths - Kakit Cheong, National University of Singapore - Kwento: Designing a family storytelling mobile application for domestic helpers - Discussant: Fish Ip, International Domestic Workers Federation

1. JACK QIU
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Migrant Technologies:
(re)producing (un)freedoms
Friday, 20th May, 2016
10:00am – 4:30pm
Nations University Institute on Computing and Society
for a free, one-day event where we bring together scholars, practitioners and
o panel discussions to share our understandings and research on information
and communication technology (ICT) use by migrants from Asia.
r now on Eventbrite by 15th May 2016 to secure your place for the event
ww.eventbrite.com/e/migrant-technologies-reproducing-unfreedoms-
922537982.
: Casa Silva Mendes, Estrada do
o Trigo No 4, Macau SAR, China
to the main entrance of Hotel Guia)
y:
MIGRANT TECHNOLOGIES:
(RE)PRODUCING (UN)FREEDOMS
Emerging themes in Migrant Technology research
Morningpanel
Freedom, Slavery, and
Working-Class ICTs:
Learning from Chinese
Migrant Workers in Foxconn

2. Freedom, Slavery, & Working-Class
ICTS: Learning from Migrant Workers
in Foxconn
Jack Linchuan Qiu

3. Snapshots from
(2016-forthcoming, U
of Illinois Press)

4. Migrants & Working-
Class ICTs:
Emancipating or
Enslaving?

6. ISLAVE: TWO SUBTYPES
 Manufacturing – rural-to-urban migrants,
institutionally disempowered, low pay,
poor work conditions, making gadgets
 Manufactured – consumers influenced by
marketing, culturally absorbed,
“immaterial labor”, making UGC
 Commonalities – long work time, body
discipline, atomized social life

7. MANUFACTURING iSLAVE
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maomaobear

8. Foxconn Suicide Express, 2010

9. Foxconn & Apple Blamed

10. FINANCIAL TIMES
Foxconn Facilities in China, 2011

11. Living Conditions Since Feitorias

12. Lower Deck in Middle Passage

13. Student “Interns”

14. Anti-Jumping Nets

15. Disposal of Workers

16. Testimony from Tian Yu

18. Weibo

19. A Typology of WGC
(Worker-Generated Content)

20. CONCLUSION:
FREEDOM BEYOND FOXCONN
 Freedom is better defined in the negative –
i.e., in de facto status of not being a slave
 Pernicious parallels between 21c
sweatshops & 17c slavery – both based on
unfree migrant workers
 Attention to the production not just
consumption of ICTs
 Labor resistance as basis for true
emancipation

21. Thank You

22. Define slavery?
• Slavery: an essential feature of
historical capitalism, even today;
• Slavery mutates over time
– from inmates & gang labor to familia
caesaries
• The goal is to exploit unfairly the
labor &/or body of the enslaved;
• Sociologically it works through “natal
alienation”;

23. Understanding slavery
• Resistance & abolition are
fundamental to slavery & to our
understanding of it;
• Slave systems wax & wane, resulting
from & accelerating geopolitical
change;
• Hegemonic consumption culture,
relying on communication and media,
is a pillar of slave-powered economies;

24. Understanding slavery
• Slavery as de facto condition
rather than de jure status;
• “the powers attaching to the
right of ownership”:
– e.g., possession, transfer, profit,
disposal;
– slavery & “institutions & practices
similar to slavery” exist if any of
these powers is found to have
been exercised.