Border tuberculosis: Migrant tuberculosis screenings and the enactment of disease in the Indonesia–Malaysia migration corridor

Abstract

Documented migrant workers from Indonesia recruited for work in Malaysia need to undergo tuberculosis screenings before being issued work permits and visas. Centered on the production, circulation, and interpretation of chest X‐ray images, these screenings are shaped in concrete, practical ways by the demands of border control regulations requiring them. By focusing on how these screenings are practiced in Indonesian clinics, I argue that migrant tuberculosis screenings in the Indonesia–Malaysia migration corridor enact a distinct form of tuberculosis, co‐determined by its relation to border control—what I call border tuberculosis. The notion of border tuberculosis draws attention to how biomedical practices and standards are adjusted in ways that lend themselves to the selective and productive function of the border. Thus, the article shows that these biomedical screenings are not disinterested instances of data gathering, but constitutive and productive elements of the particular mode of governing borders they are embedded in.