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1st Int. Transborder Conf. of the Timor Island: Timor %u2013 Science without borderDili, 7-8 May 2025158When Pre-Migration Shapes Life: Experiences of East Nusa Tenggara Women Migrants in the United KingdomMario A. OnggangInstitute Resource of Governance and Social ChangesEmail: marioarnestoonggang@gmail.comAbstractThis study explores the biopolitical governance and lived experiences of female migrant workers from East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Indonesia, who reside in the United Kingdom. Drawing on the narratives of four women%u2014referred to by the pseudonyms Lorence, Linda, Maria, and Beti%u2014the research examines how pre-migration conditions and host country policies shape their daily lives. It highlights the intersections of power, status, mobility, and class consciousness in shaping their experiences of precarity. The study reveals that biopolitical mechanisms%u2014such as immigration control and legal status%u2014play a significant role in producing marginalization and what Agamben conceptualizes as \forming supportive communities, such as Flobamora, which enable them to maintain cultural identity and resist social exclusion. Their efforts to preserve and promote NTT culture in the UK exemplify their agency and contest dominant narratives of %u201cillegal victimhood,%u201d which often circulate within Indonesia and contribute to the erasure of East Nusa Tenggara people from public discourse.Keywords: Biopolitics, Bare life, Woman Migrant, East Nusa Tenggara, Victimhood.