Structure as Depressant: Theorizing Narratives of Mental Health among Migrant Domestic Workers

Articulating that domestic workers in Singapore are marked by their subalternity, erased from the hegemonic discursive spaces in spite of their visibility as objects in the neoliberal economy, this manuscript draws on the culture-centered approach to conceptualize listening as a structurally transformative anchor to theorizing mental health. The narratives offered by workers reveal critical insights into the way structure functions to create conditions of mental health suffering in the performance of precarious domestic work, intricately tied to the erasure of voice. The material violence on the bodies of workers relates to the everyday challenges to mental health. A lack of access to infrastructures of information and communication add to the conditions of marginality. In listening to these storied descriptions of suffering in precariousness, we hear voices revealing limited alternatives to mental health care in poor working conditions, with workers entrapped in a cycle of stress, worry, and fear.