Transnationalism and (Im)mobility: The Gendered Processes of Boundary Construction in the Riau Islands

Lenore Lyons (University of Wollongong) and Michele Ford (Flinders University)

This paper examines the material and socio-cultural practices that inform the construction of national identity among men and women who live on the Riau Islands located between Singapore and Indonesia. The Riau Islands, which are part of Indonesia, have been traditionally conceived of as a borderlands community, yet our research shows that the literature on borderlands, which primarily focuses on the social construction of territorial borders, does not accurately describe the spatial dimensions of this border. If these spatial boundaries are considered, the Riau Islands can be conceived of as existing within the border rather than on the border; as a transnational space between the nations of Indonesia and Singapore rather than as a borderlands community.

Our usage of the term ‘transnational’ moves beyond the central focus within the migration literature on the relationships that migrant communities maintain with sending countries, and thus overcomes its tendency to remain bounded by the territoriality of national borders. By examining the border itself as a transnational space, we include in our analysis people who are not themselves mobile but whose identity is shaped by transnational processes. These transnational subjects include local people who interact with commuters who travel regularly across the Singapore-Riau border to work; tourists, including some 3000 Singaporeans who visit Batam every month for sex; and domestic workers who transit in Riau on their way elsewhere. Our analysis of these groups raises theoretical questions about the intersection of gender and sexuality with identity construction, and the ways women’s bodies come to symbolise the boundaries of the Indonesian nation. Our interest is in the ways in which local communities respond to these gendered processes of boundary construction as Singapore attempts to expand its economic and cultural influence in the region.