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The pandemic has tested the fortitude and resilience of a huge swath of humanity. Even measures undertaken to address the pandemic, primarily the massive vaccination campaigns, revealed a glaring disparity between and within societies. The collective grief, anxiety, and desire for survival have led to creative ways to contend with the crisis. Poetry has served as one of those strategies. This paper revolves around selected pieces of poetry particularly those with themes related to being an Asian migrant worker during the pandemic. The primary themes drawn from the poems are as follows: dealing with the changes brought about by the pandemic; concern over family; job precarity and stigmatization; and hope and resilience.

Policies on migrant workers are characterised by competing frameworks of governance that do not necessarily protect migrants. Despite their vulnerability, however, migrant workers also possess agential capacities. Guided by the concept of “fugitive witnessing”, I discuss excerpts from the book “Bantay-Salakay: Anthology of Short Stories by Domestic Workers in Singapore, Hongkong and Taiwan” (Mga Bantay-Salakay: Antolohiya ng Maiikling Kuwento ng mga Indonesian Domestic Worker sa Singapore, Hongkong, at Taiwan), a collection of stories originally in Bahasa Indonesia and translated into Filipino. Specifically, I problematise how stories written by Indonesian domestic helpers reveal and negotiate varied aspects of migration. The paper concludes that stories of subaltern groups within the diaspora may serve as complex and discursive means to assess, interrogate and reform the contemporary phenomenon of labour mobility

As a genre, testimonios or testimonial narratives are not just transgressive of canonical literary aesthetics; they also serve as a tool for otherwise marginalized groups to expose, denounce, and negotiate their experiences of abjection and subordination. These narratives may constitute a counter-hegemonic project, if not an oppositional response, at least, to structures and relations sustained (often brutally) by the apparati of state and capital. In this exploratory paper, I read the letters of abused workers as counternarratives that rub against mainstream discourse. In particular, I am using as primary materials the letters written by the Filipino workers of a foreign company which has been recognized and endorsed by state officials for its “contribution” to investment and job generation. Occluded, however, are the stories of abuse, exploitation, and repression among the workers, some of whom have met violent deaths in the workplace. These “littlestories” become counternarratives vis-à-vis the positive, celebratory depiction of the company in official discourse, which bleaches the company of allegations concerning its anti-labor practices. The discussion revolves around how the letters as testimonios and as counternarratives exemplifydiscourses of resistance and solidarity, foregrounding the workers’ denunciation of the abuses committed by and within the company, while also highlighting the workers’ collective responses to these abuses.