Love’s labour’s cost? Gendered migration and intimate labour in Asia

Abstract Recognising the need to expand research on intimate labour beyond the predominant focus on intimate occupations in which low-waged migrant workers are often engaged, we highlight in our editorial the processes and exchanges taking place in the provisioning of intimate work. We juxtapose existing research with the articles in this themed section to engender a deeper understanding of how intimate practices and relations are mediated by the orderings of power, gender and class. By examining the nature, conditions and obligations of intimate exchanges within domestic and public spheres located in both urban and rural contexts, the editorial further emphasizes the interplay of power and global neoliberal conditions in (re)producing uneven intimate exchanges.