Carlo John B. Arceo , Diana Peters.2025. Palawan and Sabah in the oil palm frontier: undocumented Filipino migrant workers and the social reproduction of labour.

Palawan and Sabah in the oil palm frontier: undocumented Filipino migrant workers and the social reproduction of labour

Carlo John B. Arceo , Diana Peters

Carlo John B. Arceo e-mail:cjbarceo@cau.edu.cn

The Journal of Peasant Studies,First Published:15 Dec 2025

Abstract:This article analyses the social reproduction of undocumented migrant workers within a stringent labour regime in an enclosed Malaysian oil palm plantation. It illustrates how capital and institutions tolerate irregular migration, creating an intergenerational labour stock that shapes economic and social dynamics. Exploitation commences with irregular migration, extending to toleration of household members for supplemental labour and gendered oppression in productive and reproductive activities. Female workers navigate productive space for social reproduction to sustain three generations of undocumented households. We argue that unpaid social reproduction is interlinked with the paid productive process for labour renewal, which sustains the capitalist system.

Keywords: Social reproduction; irregular migration; gender; oil palm; generation; Sabah

Palawan and Sabah in the oil palm frontier  undocumented Filipino migrant workers and the social reproduction of labour.pdf

To link to this article:https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2025.2584785