Robyn Rodriguez, "Domestic Debates: Constructions of Gendered Migration from the Philippines" (page 8 of 8)

Conclusion

International migration has become an important developmental strategy in the Philippines, as the state benefits from the millions of dollars in remittances generated yearly by its citizens employed abroad. Specifically, women migrants have come to play an increasingly significant role as overseas workers. Women's migration in particular, however, has become a critical site for national debate as people in the Philippines have contested the meanings of gender as it has been transformed by international migration.

Different civil society actors have been concerned with the negative consequences of women's migration including the extreme forms of violence and abuse women suffer while working and living abroad and have attempted to advocate for migration reform. Research produced to support demands for reform, however, reify problematic, ultimately patriarchal, notions of femininity. Paradoxically, civil society actors, some of whom were ostensibly feminist, characterize women's migration as undermining the social and moral fabric of the Filipino family, and ultimately the Philippines, as women fail to perform traditional feminine roles in their bid for migration policy reforms.

The state, though initially ambivalent about civil society's concerns, even with the highly graphic and violent death of Maricris Sioson, is ultimately compelled to address them, particularly when migrants in the labor diaspora bring the issue of women's migration to a global stage with the protests against the hanging of domestic worker, Flor Contemplacion. When the Philippine state finds its gendered subject-status tested in the global arena, it finally responds to the broader public and migrant advocates' call for migration policy reform. Indeed, it incorporates many of the same representations circulated by civil society actors in its construction of new migration laws. Yet the paternal logics on which civil society actors' demands for migration reform rest, lead not to the increased regulation of the state's migration apparatus, but to the regulation of migrant women themselves.

Endnotes

1. Ruby Palma Beltran and Gloria F. Rodriguez, "Filipino Women Migrant Workers: At the Crossroads and Beyond Beijing." Quezon City, Philippines: Giraffe Books, 1996. [Return to text]

2. "Entertainer" refers to women migrants who work as singers and dancers in restaurants, lounges and bars. Generally women migrate to Japan to work as entertainers. [Return to text]

3. What Sonia Alvarez identifies in the Latin American context may have some relevance for the Philippines. Alvarez finds that neoliberal economic restructuring in Latin America can, "potentially undermine" NGOs' "ability to advocate effectively for feminist-inspired public policies and social change." Sonia E. Alvarez, "Advocating Feminism: The Latin American Feminist NGO 'Boom'." International Feminist Journal of Politics 1, 1999, 181209. Instead, states turn to NGO workers as gender experts, rather than citizen advocates. Moreover, they treat NGOs as surrogates for civil society, rather than attempting to fully incorporate broader segments of civil society actors. Finally, the state devolves some of its activities to NGOs, which are subcontracted to implement women's programs. [Return to text]

4. Na Young Lee, "Gendered Nationalism and Otherization: Transnational Prostitutes in South Korea." Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 7, 2006, 456471. See also, Helen Schwenken, ""...they decided to follow a completely different track—the one of trafficking". The challenges of framing women migrants' rights in the European Union." La Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales. REMI, Sharma, Nandita, 2005; and "Anti-Trafficking Rhetoric and the Making of a Global Apartheid." NWSA Journal 17, 88-111. [Return to text]

5. Amongst the few studies that do examine the consequences of women's migration in "home" countries is Petra Dannecker's work on Bangladeshi women's migration. Dannecker has found that the increasing out-migration from Bangladesh can "mean a challenge to the existing gender order" and that it can "initiate transformation of gender relations in this Islamic country" (Dannecker 2005, 657). Dannecker documents how an organization of male Bangladeshi migrants and an Islamic organization called for the banning of women's migration because they believed that women's honor could only be protected if they were prevented from leaving their families and the homeland. While the government instituted policies to regulate and hinder women's migration since the 1980s in order to respond to issues raised by these groups, protests from other civil society actors and recruitment agencies ultimately led to the repeal of a recent government ban. Contestations over the restriction of women's migration reveals to what extent the Bangladeshi gender order has been destabilized. See also, Nana Oishi, Women in Motion: Globalization, State Policies and Labor Migration in Asia. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005. [Return to text]

6. Ma. Alcestis Abrera-Mangahas, "Public Attitudes Towards Female Overseas Workers: Implications for Philippine Migration Policy." Social Weather Stations, Quezon City, Philippines, 1994; Ma. Alcestis Abrera-Mangahas, "Violence Against Women Migrant Workers: The Philippine Experience," in Filipino Workers on the Move: Trends, Dilemmas and Policy Options, Ed., B. Carino. Quezon City, Manila: Philippine Migration Research Network, Philippine Social Science Council, 1998; Lopez, Ma. Glenda S Lopez. 1995. "SWS 1994 Surveys on OCWs: Danger and Deployment Bans." Social Weather Stations, Quezon City, Philippines, 1995; Mahar Mangahas, "Perceptions of Risks Faced by Female Overseas Contract Workers," Social Weather Stations, Quezon City, Philippines 1995; Social Weather Stations, "Filipino Workers' Aspirations for Overseas Employment," Social Weather Stations, Quezon City, Philippines, 1991.[Return to text]

7. Ruby Palma Beltran and Aurora Javat De Dios, "Filipino Women Overseas Contract Workers ... At What Cost?" Quezon City, Philippines: JMC Press, Inc., 1992. [Return to text]

8. Ibid. [Return to text]

9. Ruby Palma Beltran and Gloria F. Rodriguez, "Filipino Women Migrant Workers: At the Crossroads and Beyond Beijing." [Return to text]

10. Solidarity, "Filipinos Overseas: Is it Worth All Those Dollars?" Solidarity 27, 1994. [Return to text]

11. Catherine Ceniza Choy, Empire of Care. Durham: Duke University Press, 2003. [Return to text]

12. Sylvia Chant and Cathy McIlwaine, Women of a Lesser Cost: Female Labour, Foreign Exchange and Philippine Development. Quezon City, Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1996. [Return to text]

13. Bana Batnag, "Maricris Sioson, 'Japayuki'." Philippines Free Press, November 2, 1991. [Return to text]

14. Sandra Harding, Feminism and Methodology. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1987. [Return to text]

15. Ma. Alcestis Abrera-Mangahas, "Public Attitudes Towards Female Overseas Workers: Implications for Philippine Migration Policy." [Return to text]

16. Ibid. [Return to text]

17. Ibid. [Return to text]

18. Eviota Uy Eviota, The Political Economy of Gender: Women and the Sexual Division of Labor in the Philippines. London, Zed Books, 1992. [Return to text]

19. Ruby Palma Beltran and Gloria F. Rodriguez, "Filipino Women Migrant Workers: At the Crossroads and Beyond Beijing." [Return to text]

20. Ruby Palma Beltran and Aurora Javat De Dios, "Filipino Women Overseas Contract Workers ... At What Cost?" [Return to text]

21. Rhacel S. Parrenas, Servants of Globalization. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. [Return to text]

22. Ma. Alcestis Abrera-Mangahas, "Public Attitudes Towards Female Overseas Workers: Implications for Philippine Migration Policy." [Return to text]

23. Anne McClintock, "Family Feuds: Gender, Nationalism and the Family." Feminist Review 44, 1994, 61-81. [Return to text]

24. Ma. Alcestis Abrera-Mangahas, "Public Attitudes Towards Female Overseas Workers: Implications for Philippine Migration Policy." [Return to text]

25. Sarah Radcliffe, "Gendered Nations: Nostalgia, development and territory in Ecuador." Gender, Place and Culture 3, 1996, 5-21. [Return to text]

26. Neferti Tadiar, "Domestic Bodies of the Philippines." Soujourn 12, 1997, 153-91. [Return to text]

27. Solidarity, "Filipinos Overseas: Is it Worth All Those Dollars?" [Return to text]

28. UNIFIL, an organization of self-organized Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong has been struggling for many years for better wages and working conditions (Migrante International, 2005). [Return to text]

29. Solidarity, "Filipinos Overseas: Is it Worth All Those Dollars?" [Return to text]

30. Ma. Alcestis Abrera-Mangahas, "Public Attitudes Towards Female Overseas Workers: Implications for Philippine Migration Policy." [Return to text]

31. Beltran, Ruby Palma and Aurora Javat De Dios. 1992. "Filipino Women Overseas Contract Workers ... At What Cost?" [Return to text]

32. Ibid. [Return to text]

33. Young offers an interesting argument about the paternal state with specific reference to President George W. Bush and his actions post-9/11. Her definition of the paternal state, however is can be applicable here (Young 2003). [Return to text]

34. Department of Labor and Employment, "White Paper on Overseas Employment." Department of Labor and Employment, Republic of the Philippines, Philippines, 1995. [Return to text]

35. Ibid. [Return to text]

36. Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995. Mandaluyong City, Philippines: Philippine Overseas Employment Administration,1995. [Return to text]

37. Ibid. [Return to text]

38. In Tyner's study of policies specifically regulating Filipina entertainers' migration from the Philippines he makes a similar argument about the state's role in regulating women migrants. He argues that state policies have addressed women's migration as entertainers, "not within the sites of employment, but rather within the internal character of migrant women." That is, women's exploitation as entertainers is understood not as a consequence of abusive employers, but rather as result of women migrants' own moral deficiency (Tyner 1997). My aim here, however, is to highlight how specific civil society actors are critically implicated in the state's policies. [Return to text]

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