Filipinos Abroad

These papers give some perspectives on migrant women and the experience of Filipinas in Korea and the case of a Filipino community in Nagoya, Japan, the 3rd paper discusses issues of engaging with Filipinos abroad.

PAPER 1

Author: TSUJIMOTO, Toshiko
Title of paper: Migrant Women in a Crossing-Border and Value Space: Transnational Experiences of Filipinas in Korea and Their Challenges

Migration is not merely a process of moving from one physical space to another but even accompanying the transformation of one’s thoughts and behaviors. Moreover, the experience of crossing-border renders a person to view her/his world or phenomenon surrounded them in a comparative method that often provides them with critical insights. The concern of this paper is in such a dynamic aspect of migration. Especially in the age of women on migration in Asia, how the migrant women go through such a process inside migrant communities which are the crossing points with local and global as well as traditional and evolutional factors. The paper tries to direct its attention on bilateral aspects of Filipino migrant communities abroad as ‘home’ away home but reconstructing of nationhood through rules and norms back in the Philippines. Specifically, the paper tries to illustrate the gendered discourses reproduced inside Filipino community and experiences of Filipinas in Korea where is a site of intra-regional and continuing migration in Asia as well as destination for both Filipinos and Filipina migrants. Many studies about Filipino migrant issue have tended to focus on significant factors of Catholic Church as a source of networking and assistance provided for migrants. However, fewer studies have focused on contradicting aspects of religious based Filipino communities abroad. Especially these studies have not much focused on differences narrated by Filipinas and Filipinos and gendered ideologies manipulating those discourses. The paper also aims to look at how such transnational experiences of Filipinas challenge to its traditional norms by propounding their new insights and even they develop it as forming new spaces for women. These women’s transnational migration experiences are also translated as process of transferring from the limitation of nationhood to being a selfhood.

PAPER 2
Author: TAKAHATA, Sachi
Title of paper: The Filipino Community in Downtown Nagoya: Local and International Networking

The paper aims to reconsider the mechanism of local as well as international networking of a Filipino community in the city of Nagoya, which holds second largest Filipino population among Japan’s cities. What is striking with the Filipino community is that while confronting and handling various social problems of their countrymen that stem from their legal vulnerability, they try to establish a friendly relationship with the local Japanese organizations of the area. Their awareness to give importance on the harmony with local people impressed even most conservative persons of the local community. On the other hand, their networking with other overseas Filipino groups strengthened their organization as well as extended their support to migrant groups of other nationalities. Through the closer look at the Filipino community in downtown Nagoya, the author will discuss the social mechanism that enabled the weakly funded organization’s survival, local/international networking and establishing the inter-ethnic relationship.

PAPER 3
Author: ASIS, Maruja
Title of paper: Moving Terms of Reference: Engaging with Overseas Filipinos in the Time of Transnationalism

This paper focuses on the international migration of Filipinos since the 1970s and specifically examines the implications of engaging with overseas Filipinos in a globalizing and transnationalizing context. The realities, opportunities and problems engendered by different migration flows have contributed to the formation of a rich array of organizations addressing the interests and concerns of Filipinos abroad. Various migration contexts -- permanent migration, labor migration, forced displacement, legal vs. unauthorized migration -- suggest a different nature and level of inclusion of overseas Filipinos in the Philippines and in countries of destination. Issues of protection, for example, are more salient for migrant workers, whereas for permanent settlers, mobility concerns may be more important. As “migrants’ voices,” this paper advances that migrants’ associations and NGOs representing migrants’ concerns may have to reframe their agendas and approaches in light of transnational possibilities and other emerging realities.

Published: 23 Jan 2007

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