Abstract:

B.A.T.A.M. tells the contrasting stories of two women: Wati, a young factory worker, and Dewi, a prostitute, both of whom live through a dramatic transformation on the Indonesian island of Batam, located on Singapore's doorstep. In this free-trade zone, an official economy based in the factories, and an unofficial economy of prostitution, have developed together increasing Batam's population from 3,000 to 700,000. As the two divergent economies depend on female labor, the experiences of these two women illuminate the ways in which multinational capitalism and migration interact in the shadowlands of globalization.