My Body Was The Contract

What happens when a system invites you in - and then quietly destroys your body?My Body Was the Contract is a searing, unflinching account of migrant labour, sponsorship, and the human cost hidden behind care work and compliance. Written from lived experience, this book exposes how legality can coexist with exploitation, and how silence is often demanded as part of survival. Through deeply personal reflection, Josy K.
documents the slow erosion of dignity faced by migrant support workers:the waiting, the fear of speaking, the pressure to endure unsafe conditions, and the devastating aftermath when a body finally breaks. This is not a story of one injury, but of a system designed to extract labour while avoiding responsibility. This book challenges the comforting belief that following the rules guarantees protection.
It reveals how visas can become leverage, how gratitude is weaponised, and how harm is quietly reframed as misfortune once a worker is no longer useful. My Body Was the Contract is not written for sympathy. It is written as evidence. For migrant workers, care professionals, policymakers, advocates, and anyone who believes dignity should not be conditional, this book demands recognition - and change.
Content note: This book discusses workplace injury, systemic neglect, exploitation, and the long-term physical and emotional consequences of unsafe labour