‘Emplacement’ studies focus mainly on immigrants or refugees who seek permanent settlement. This paper examines the emplacement of ‘temporary migrants’ living under conditions of ongoing arrival with no expectation of permanence. For foreign domestic workers (FDWs) in Hong Kong, emplacement is a form of collective and ongoing activism. It does not rely on any person’s or group’s permanence but persists across the longue durée. Such activism builds social ties and sociability as a collective form of rights-claiming. Economically and socially marginal, FDWs claim their central place, socially and geographically and demand recognition and visibility. I examine their ongoing arrival at the margins using ethnographic materials from three temporal strata (1990-2020) to illustrate how emplacement is (re)produced through conscious efforts and the production of sociality and sociability across time. Broadly, this paper contributes to critical analyses of conceptual binaries: margin/center, permanent/temporary, migrant/citizen, and highlights the coevalness of temporary migrants and nonmigrants.
Continual arrival and the longue durée: Emplacement as activism among migrant workers in Hong Kong