I. Women Transnational Migrants from the Philippines (Parrenas)

A. Besky: global markets --> plantation agriculture, economy of scale, monoculture
B. This week: Urban professional or entrepreneurial middle class in some parts of Asia + unemployment in other parts --> foreign domestic workers (FDWs)
C. FDWs help new middle classes realize their vision of the good life
D. Women migrants from Philippines

1. Now in over 130 countries
2. 1999: 6.5 million Filipino labor migrants, approximately 60% of them women (Rimban 1999, 128; cited in Parrenas, 1133)
3. 1996: women constitute 83.3% of Filipino migrants in Hong Kong (83.3%), Singapore (77.1%), and Italy (78.3%)
4. Economic dimensions

a. Reduce unemployment
b. Remittances (as much as $6 billion in 1995) sustain economy and provide foreign currency to pay interest ($1.8 billion annual interest in 1995 (1142)) to World Bank and IMF

E. Global forces: "A particular result of global restructuring, this labor diaspora is a product of the export-led development strategy of the Philippines, the feminization of the international labor force, and the demand for migrant women to fill low-wage service work in many cities throughout the world" (1130).
F. Partial citizenship that includes denial of reproductive rights

1. Separation from families in Philippines
2. Lack of protection related to work conditions; unemployment --> deportation
3. Insecurity of guest worker status
4. May be forbidden from getting pregnant, children are denied residency or citizenship rights, cannot sponsor children in the Philippines to join them

G. Host country motivations

1. Don't have to cover cost of families --> justifies lower wages
2. Limited stays --> new supply of low wage workers
3. Workers can be sent home if economic circumstances change

H. Globalization shapes parallel circumstances in different countries: sense of Filipina identity (home) and transnational migration ("imagined (global) community")
I. Evidence: 17 issues (October 1994 to May 1996) of Tinig Filipino

1. Published in Hong Kong and Italy
2. Written in English (migrants' high educational status)

J. "Modern-day Hero" image

1. Masculine
2. Philippine state downplays migrant women's vulnerability
3. Migrant women construct belonging in Philippines, yet have greater autonomy in Hong Kong, particularly with respect to marital relationships
4. Critique Philippine government
5. Heroism comes from suffering: naturalizes partial citizenship

K. Imagined (global) community

1. Flow of goods, such as Tinig Filipino
2. Families (sisters, daughters) in multiple countries
3. Downplay differences of class, education, age, region
4. Magazine eases loneliness and anxiety: pages 1146-1147
5. Advice tends to promote compliance, even as it offers info about rights and resources

L. Hero image underscores displacement and partial citizenship

 

II. Domestic Workers in Hong Kong with Children

A. Constable: ethnography of 100 foreign domestic helpers (FDHs), mostly from Philippines and Indonesia, and about 25 of their current or former male partners; 65 interviews
B. How do workers use legal and political rights, including UN Convention against Torture, labor law, and family law

1. Gain time to process claims
2. Recognizance papers permit staying, but forbid working
3. Problems of return: fathers of children, marital status, economic difficulties of raising a child

C. Hong Kong's population

1. 95% Chinese
2. Non-Chinese can be permanent residents (right of abode)

a. Babies born to Chinese nationals or Hong Kong permanent residents
b. At least 7 years of continuous legal residence (doesn't apply to FDHs)
c. One parent is permanent resident --> child has right of abode, but other parent may not
d. Neither parent has permanent resident status --> child does not have right of abode

3. Fear of influx of poor people, especially from mainland

D. Temporary worker system in Hong Kong

1. Southeast Asians seen as easily controlled because ethnically different
2. Temporary work helps middle class households: Hong Kong women can work, aging population with lower fertility

E. 2012: over 300,000, more than half from Indonesia, less than half from Philippines
F. Only a small number have children and seek to stay in Hong Kong

1. Most return home
2. Some are illegally terminated
3. Two-week rule
4. Those who try to stay illuminate legal system, rights, and problems of treating people as only workers

G. Four case studies

1. Putri (married to a local resident)
2. Rose and Barney (single mother and child)
3. Ratna (domestic worker and child)
4. Domingo family (fighting for right of abode)

H. "Tactics" reflect weakened position

1. Right of abode: partner's status --> legal dependent and right of abode if 7 years of continuous residency
2. Employment law: wrongful termination, register pregnancies and gain access to reproductive services
3. UN conventions on refugees and against torture --> asylum claims and International Social Services support (rent, modest necessities, time)

I. Role of networks
J. Migration is transformative and makes it difficult to return "home"
K. Success stories illustrate heteronormative privilege