Carlos Piocos | De La Salle University (original) (raw)
Journal Articles by Carlos Piocos
Communication and the Public, 2023
Informed by Communication Infrastructure Theory (CIT), this article explores the ways community o... more Informed by Communication Infrastructure Theory (CIT), this article explores the ways community organizations and ethnic media serve as communicative resources and form into storytelling networks with different health-enhancing purposes for Filipina household service workers (FHSWs) in Hong Kong (HK). Using key informant interviews with print and broadcast media, non-governmental organizations, and faith-based organizations in HK, it found that cancer, stroke, and depression were shared concerns among FHSWs. Community organizations and ethnic media explained these concerns based on work and labor conditions. As communicative resources, they provided health information, offered tangible support, and campaigned to employers and governments. In discussing social media for health, community organizations highlighted accessibility, whereas ethnic media focused on journalistic practices. Overall, this article highlights ethnic media and community organizations as key but often overlooked publics in health communication and the importance of further incorporating temporality in CIT-informed research for migrant health. Implications to public health campaigns and health reporting are discussed.
Pelikula: A Journal of Philippine Cinema and Moving Image, 2022
This paper explores the intersections of transgendered migration, alternative citizenship, and co... more This paper explores the intersections of transgendered migration, alternative citizenship, and cosmopolitanism through the lens of trans theory. By analyzing Isabel Sandoval’s Lingua Franca (2019), this article first discusses the portrayal of the vulnerabilities of undocumented and trans im/migrant lives in Trump-era America. From there, I analyze how Olivia carves her way out of her struggles to disrupt and challenge notions of cosmopolitanism that are bounded not just by class and racial divides but also by dominant hetero- and cisnormative discourses on citizenship and belonging. In my reading of the film, I argue that Sandoval performs a trans-ing of cosmopolitanism by rethinking notions of intimate and sexual citizenship along the lines of ethics of care that expands what belonging in the world might mean from the perspective of those in the fringes of intersecting hierarchies of class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.
Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies on Humanities, 2022
Mobility has been historically tied to conceptions of cosmopolitanism, bringing forward imaginari... more Mobility has been historically tied to conceptions of cosmopolitanism, bringing forward imaginaries of belonging-in-the-world and going beyond the narrow limits of parochial allegiances into embracing virtues of openness as global citizens shaped by the experience crossing borders and encounter with the Other. Despite dominant ideas about cosmopolitans as elite itinerants of middle-class intellectuals, artists, tourists, expatriates and capitalists, global migration with its entailing forms of mobilities from below-economic migrants, transmigrants, refugees, exiles-has redefined the term to include forms of minor and vernacular cosmopolitanisms that emerge among the migrant underclass. However, just like these forms of mobilities, these types of cosmopolitanism are also bound and shaped by class, gender and ethnicity. This paper explores versions of cosmopolitanism from below in the stories of Mia Alvar in her book, In the Country, that center on female domestic workers from the Philippines. Through the transnational itineraries of these border-crossing women protagonists in contemporary Filipino fiction, the article examines the intersections and contradictions of class, gender and race in cosmopolitan imaginaries of mobilities in Southeast Asia.
Journal of Population and Social Studies, 2021
This paper explores the relationship between the social networks of Filipino migrant domestic wor... more This paper explores the relationship between the social networks of Filipino migrant domestic workers (FMDWs) in Hong Kong and the accessibility of health resources, especially for migrant women. This study primarily draws evidence from ethnographic interviews with 20 FMDWs in Hong Kong. Likewise, this analysis also relied on field notes from participant observations during formal meetings and informal activities. This paper reveals that FMDWs strategically use their strong and weak ties in managing risks and accessing resources for their health and well-being by deciding among their social network who and what to share regarding health concerns. They conscientiously negotiate their rights and opportunities with their employers, who can also provide access to social and institutional resources. Finally, FMDWs participate in conversations and discourses on health-related policies of their home and host countries with their social network. By focusing on the social networks of FMDWs in Hong Kong, this paper conceptually and empirically broadens conversations about how migration becomes a social determinant of health. Moreover, it illustrates how migrant social networks are organized, activated, and mobilized around discourses on state-crafted health policies towards migrant women.
Asia Pacific Social Science Review, 2021
The study examines the experiences, coping strategies, and responses of Filipino migrant domestic... more The study examines the experiences, coping strategies, and responses of Filipino migrant domestic workers (FMDW) to inequalities amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The collected narratives of migrant leaders from Italy, the U.K., and Hong Kong reveal that FMDWs employ their notions, ethics, and practices of care/care work in coping with the structural and social inequalities caused by the pandemic. We argue that the labor of care exhibited by FMDWs goes beyond the dichotomies of paid work and unpaid obligations of social reproduction. A "community of care" is manifested, which fosters community-building and solidarity in response to social exclusion and inequalities brought about by the COVID-19 crisis. The narratives also indicate a dynamic realignment of care circulation, with FMDWs becoming agents of multidirectional care.
International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare, 2021
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of states’ pandemic responses to th... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of states’ pandemic responses to the conditions and vulnerabilities of undocumented Filipino migrants in Italy and the UK. It also explores the role and strategies of migrant organisations in addressing the issues and concerns of undocumented workers.
Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative approaches are used to collect and analyse the narratives of the migrants and migrant organisations. This paper used government reports, policy briefs and documents from international organisations in analysing the socio-political vulnerabilities of undocumented migrants in the context of the global pandemic. In addition, we interviewed leaders of migrant organisations, which are involved in supporting irregular migrants.
Findings – The study reveals that states have exercised a regime of legitimate violence against undocumented workers in Italy and the UK. This regime is imposed not only by the stringent laws and policies that directly and indirectly cause economic, social and even cultural suffering to the migrants but also by the ‘‘symbolic violence’’ manifested in structural and social inequalities, and the exploitative economic order amid the pandemic. Responding to the ‘‘regime of fear’’, migrant organisations provide immediate relief and ‘‘safe spaces’’ for the undocumented workers.
Originality/value – The paper contributes to the ongoing conversation on state practices in regulating migration by framing the conditions of undocumentation as legal violence that structurally deprives irregular migrants access to health care and human rights amid global health crisis.
Feminist Media Studies, 2021
This article examines Baby Ruth Villarama's Sunday Beauty Queen to explore representations that u... more This article examines Baby Ruth Villarama's Sunday Beauty Queen to explore representations that unsettle heteronormative ideas around Filipina domestic workers' bodies and labor. First, I analyze the aesthetics of pageantry in Villarama's camerawork to argue that the film, in visually queering straight cisgender Filipina bodies, challenges scripts of heteropatriarchal portrayal of care labor. By using cinematic "queer time," the documentary troubles the "straight time" of care work as linear flow from left-behind families at homeland to host families at destination countries and back. This dovetails to a discussion of how the labor of care is queered within the homosocial community of migrant Filipina women abroad through the conception of community of care. By queering the labor of care, I unveil forms of queer intimacies and practices that reveal how pageantry and community building produce spaces for non-normative and nonbiological affinities for alternative modalities of care exchange. By looking at the intersections of queer and migration studies, I explore how Villarama's documentary represents spaces and social practices that offer alternative imaginaries of care that exceeds naturalized and normalized understanding of feminized labor diaspora.
Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 2020
Conceptually anchored on lived religion, this paper explores the meanings and experiences of heal... more Conceptually anchored on lived religion, this paper explores the meanings and experiences of health, illness, and healing among Filipino migrant women in Japan as they intersect with their religion. Likewise, it explores the functions and limitations of religion as migrant women face physical and mental health problems caused by work, marital status, and/or dislocation. Using biographical interviews and ethnography, this paper suggests that religion serves as a material and symbolic resource for making sense of health, illness and healing. As a material resource, it offered tangible, informational, and emotional support. It can however become limiting when personalised meanings and practices of religion frame illness based on morality, promote health misinformation, and delay healing and other health- seeking behaviours. Nonetheless, healing as perceived and experienced by Filipino migrant women involves lived religion in their complex meaning making and negotiated in terms of its physiological, spiritual and emotional effects.
Humanities Diliman, 2019
Sacrifice is a fraught concept that both describes and prescribes the fate-playing ventures of ov... more Sacrifice is a fraught concept that both describes and prescribes the fate-playing ventures of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Suffering on behalf of loved ones promises a better life in return; it is also used to serve very different discursive ends: as a state strategy to promote overseas work or as a rhetorical tactic to condemn the government's labor export policy. This paper tracks the trope of sacrifice in the state's and migrant activists' rhetoric and looks at how OFWs receive these meanings and respond to these discourses. The paper then examines Migrante International's campaign, Zero Remittance Day, as a complex political act of withholding that defies the state's remittance-centred strategy of migration-for-development.
Plaridel, 2019
This article discusses how Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong claim and transf... more This article discusses how Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong claim and transform transnational sites as portrayed in Ani Ema Susanti's 2008 short documentary film Mengusahakan Cinta [Effort for Love] and Moira Zoitl's documentary video series Exchange Square (2007). The films depict how Indonesian and Filipina domestic workers negotiate precarious working and living conditions by deploying forms of intimacy, through their social practices and alternative sexualities, that enable them to gain agency in finding their own community and sense of belonging. This article argues that while their relationship to both private and public spaces in Hong Kong is transformed, these migrant women also actively transgress the borders of private and public spheres and personal and political realms.
International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare, 2019
Purpose Informed by health activism (Zoller, 2005), the purpose of this paper is to explore the c... more Purpose Informed by health activism (Zoller, 2005), the purpose of this paper is to explore the communicative processes of organizations working with women migrants in countries of destination. In particular, it explored the definitions of and explanations for health of organizations, their solutions to disease and illness, as well as, the methods and tactics they use to communicate health. Design/methodology/approach It employed qualitative approach specifically in-depth interviews with leaders or core members of not-for-profit and faith-based organizations working with Filipina migrants in Japan. Field notes from participant observations in formal meetings and informal gatherings were likewise used as data sources. Findings While organizations also recognized physical and spiritual health, they placed strong emphasis on mental well-being. Other than translation service, pastoral care, and shelter, coordinating with other not-for-profit and faith-based organizations, international centers, and governments was solution for addressing illness and disease. Together with face-to-face, digital media were used as method and tactic to communicate within and outside organizations. It likewise found that the organizations included were inclusive such that they also worked with other Filipinos in Japan. Originality/value This paper contributed to migration health literature by discussing the central role of organizations for mental well-being activism, favorable consequences of coordination among organizations to promote access to quality healthcare and information and dual characterization of digital media for organizing publics. Overall, it is one of the few to explore the ways into which organizations communicatively challenge health structures in countries of destination.
Feminist Media Studies, 2019
In Singapore, many middle-class families employ foreign domestic workers (FDWs) to take on care a... more In Singapore, many middle-class families employ foreign domestic workers (FDWs) to take on care and domestic work. In this setup, female FDWs need to be “a part of the family” and “feel at home” to better perform and render intimate labor, but they are structurally displaced and prevented from being fully integrated in both their employer’s homes and in the host country. Ilo Ilo (2013), a debut film by a Singaporean director Anthony Chen, has poignantly portrayed this paradoxical relationship by showing a young boy’s growing affection to his Filipina maid, and how this brief yet enduring bond demonstrates migration’s effects on both the foreign helpers and the middle-class families employing them. This Singaporean family melodrama depicts the affective nature of migration by demonstrating how FDWs are positioned as an intimate yet excluded figure inside the employer’s homes. The contradiction between intimacy and social exclusion seen in the film also simultaneously describes and prescribes the FDW’s place in the host country. The film illustrates the paradox of intimacy and exclusion in the host–guest worker relationship of employers and their maids within the private domains of household and the public discourse on FDWs’ claims in Singapore.
Kritika Kultura, 2019
This article examines how migrant women’s lives are politicized through the work of mourning by a... more This article examines how migrant women’s lives are politicized through the work of mourning by analyzing how grieving over their deaths becomes a way of also claiming accountability to nation-state that deploys its citizen-breadwinners. I employ critical discussions on mourning by Vicente Rafael, Pheng Cheah and Judith Butler to analyze an OFW film and two Southeast Asian novels that present different responses to deaths of Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers: Joel Lamangan’s The Flor Contemplacion Story (1995), Jose Dalisay’s Soledad’s Sister (2008) and Rida Fitria’s Sebongkah Tanah Retak (‘A Lump of Cracked Land,’ 2010). While these texts are different—one is a melodrama, the other a faux-detective novel, the last one a novel inspiratif (‘inspirational novel’)—all three portray how grief becomes an affective economy, in that it reproduces and circulates feelings, like pity, sympathy, rage and reproach, that forges a community to either foster or forestall political action. My reading maps out how the bereavement over migrant women’s lives can lead to a more critical understanding of labor migration’s policies and discourses in the Philippines and Indonesia, opening the possibilities of social activism that not only transforms a national community but also transcends national boundaries among and between Filipina and Indonesian migrant women.
Book by Carlos Piocos
Routledge, 2021
This book explores the politics of gendered labor migration in Southeast Asia through the stories... more This book explores the politics of gendered labor migration in Southeast Asia through the stories and perspectives of Indonesian and Filipina women presented in films, fiction, and performance to show how the emotionality of these texts contribute to the emergence and vitality of women’s social movements in Southeast Asia.
By placing literary and filmic narratives of Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong and Singapore within existing conversations concerning migration policies, the book offers an innovative approach towards examining contemporary issues of Asian migration. Furthermore, through rich ethnographic accounts, the book unpacks themes of belonging and displacement, shame and desire, victimhood and resistance, sacrifice, and grief to show that the stories of Filipina and Indonesian migrant women don't just depict their everyday lives and practices but also reveal how they mediate and make sense of the fraught politics of gendered labor diaspora and globalization. Contributing to the "affective turn" of feminist and transnational scholarship, the book draws insight from the importance and centrality of affect, emotions, and feelings in shaping discourses on women’s subjectivity, labor, and mobility. In addition, the book demonstrates the issues of vulnerability and agency inherent in debates on social exclusion, human rights, development, and nation-building in Southeast Asia.
Offering an innovative and multidisciplinary approach to analyses of Asian migration, this book will be of interest to academics in the fields of Asian Studies, literary and cultural studies, film studies, gender and women’s studies, and migration studies.
Sentro ng Wikang Filipino - University of the Philippines Diliman, 2020
Anthology of short fiction written by Indonesian migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, Singapore... more Anthology of short fiction written by Indonesian migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, translated to Filipino.
University of the Philippines Press, 2019
Hindi lugar ang siyudad sa aklat na ito kundi isang kondisyon ng posibilidad, isang malawak na pa... more Hindi lugar ang siyudad sa aklat na ito kundi isang kondisyon ng posibilidad, isang malawak na panginoring inaasam puntahan, panahanan, takbuhan at takbuhan papalayo ng mga katawan. At ang Pag-ibig ng mga katawan sa koleksiyong ito—mga mamamayan, turista, migrante’t destiyero—ay hindi lamang mga pangarap, libog, at lunggating nakalakip sa bawat baka-sakali ng pandarayuhan kundi mga pang-araw-araw na pagluluksa’t pagsalag sa dahas ng hangganan ng teritoryo’t teritoryalidad ng kapangyarihan. May “pangako ng ginhawa” sa kondisyonalidad ng Kung ang Siyudad ay Pag-ibig: ipinupusta ng wika ng tula na hindi lamang tayo makahanap ng lugar at “makapagpanibagong-lungsod” kundi makalikha rin ng bagong daigdig na may “mas ginintuang parang, mas makikinang na dagat, at mas mahihiwagang disyerto” para sa ating dinarahuyo’t tinutupok sa mumunti nating sulok sa malupit na mundo.
University of Sto. Tomas Publishing House, Inc., 2010
Tinatalunton ng Corpus ang katawan sa iba't ibang sangandaan ng ating pananalig sa iba't ibang an... more Tinatalunton ng Corpus ang katawan sa iba't ibang sangandaan ng ating pananalig sa iba't ibang anyo ng pag-ibig mula sa lalim ng kinukumpisal na sugat sa palad, sa mga daplis ng bala mula sa digmaan hanggang sa lawak ng blangkong pilas ng papel ng kasaysayan at kaligiran ng kahulugan at diskurso ng wika. Ang lahat ay pagtatangkang makahanap ng korporealidad ang tula: magkabalat ang salita at maghunos bilang panibagong uri ng danas sa harap ng iba't ibang dahas ng dito-at-ngayon ng ating panahon.
Book Chapters by Carlos Piocos
Bordered Lives No More: The Humanities and the Post-Covid19 Recovery, 2023
Hulagway: Bahay ng Salita, Balai ng Gunita, 2022
Banwa at Layag: Antolohiya ng mga Kuwentong Paglalakbay ng mga Pilipino sa Ibayong Dagat, 2023
Communication and the Public, 2023
Informed by Communication Infrastructure Theory (CIT), this article explores the ways community o... more Informed by Communication Infrastructure Theory (CIT), this article explores the ways community organizations and ethnic media serve as communicative resources and form into storytelling networks with different health-enhancing purposes for Filipina household service workers (FHSWs) in Hong Kong (HK). Using key informant interviews with print and broadcast media, non-governmental organizations, and faith-based organizations in HK, it found that cancer, stroke, and depression were shared concerns among FHSWs. Community organizations and ethnic media explained these concerns based on work and labor conditions. As communicative resources, they provided health information, offered tangible support, and campaigned to employers and governments. In discussing social media for health, community organizations highlighted accessibility, whereas ethnic media focused on journalistic practices. Overall, this article highlights ethnic media and community organizations as key but often overlooked publics in health communication and the importance of further incorporating temporality in CIT-informed research for migrant health. Implications to public health campaigns and health reporting are discussed.
Pelikula: A Journal of Philippine Cinema and Moving Image, 2022
This paper explores the intersections of transgendered migration, alternative citizenship, and co... more This paper explores the intersections of transgendered migration, alternative citizenship, and cosmopolitanism through the lens of trans theory. By analyzing Isabel Sandoval’s Lingua Franca (2019), this article first discusses the portrayal of the vulnerabilities of undocumented and trans im/migrant lives in Trump-era America. From there, I analyze how Olivia carves her way out of her struggles to disrupt and challenge notions of cosmopolitanism that are bounded not just by class and racial divides but also by dominant hetero- and cisnormative discourses on citizenship and belonging. In my reading of the film, I argue that Sandoval performs a trans-ing of cosmopolitanism by rethinking notions of intimate and sexual citizenship along the lines of ethics of care that expands what belonging in the world might mean from the perspective of those in the fringes of intersecting hierarchies of class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.
Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies on Humanities, 2022
Mobility has been historically tied to conceptions of cosmopolitanism, bringing forward imaginari... more Mobility has been historically tied to conceptions of cosmopolitanism, bringing forward imaginaries of belonging-in-the-world and going beyond the narrow limits of parochial allegiances into embracing virtues of openness as global citizens shaped by the experience crossing borders and encounter with the Other. Despite dominant ideas about cosmopolitans as elite itinerants of middle-class intellectuals, artists, tourists, expatriates and capitalists, global migration with its entailing forms of mobilities from below-economic migrants, transmigrants, refugees, exiles-has redefined the term to include forms of minor and vernacular cosmopolitanisms that emerge among the migrant underclass. However, just like these forms of mobilities, these types of cosmopolitanism are also bound and shaped by class, gender and ethnicity. This paper explores versions of cosmopolitanism from below in the stories of Mia Alvar in her book, In the Country, that center on female domestic workers from the Philippines. Through the transnational itineraries of these border-crossing women protagonists in contemporary Filipino fiction, the article examines the intersections and contradictions of class, gender and race in cosmopolitan imaginaries of mobilities in Southeast Asia.
Journal of Population and Social Studies, 2021
This paper explores the relationship between the social networks of Filipino migrant domestic wor... more This paper explores the relationship between the social networks of Filipino migrant domestic workers (FMDWs) in Hong Kong and the accessibility of health resources, especially for migrant women. This study primarily draws evidence from ethnographic interviews with 20 FMDWs in Hong Kong. Likewise, this analysis also relied on field notes from participant observations during formal meetings and informal activities. This paper reveals that FMDWs strategically use their strong and weak ties in managing risks and accessing resources for their health and well-being by deciding among their social network who and what to share regarding health concerns. They conscientiously negotiate their rights and opportunities with their employers, who can also provide access to social and institutional resources. Finally, FMDWs participate in conversations and discourses on health-related policies of their home and host countries with their social network. By focusing on the social networks of FMDWs in Hong Kong, this paper conceptually and empirically broadens conversations about how migration becomes a social determinant of health. Moreover, it illustrates how migrant social networks are organized, activated, and mobilized around discourses on state-crafted health policies towards migrant women.
Asia Pacific Social Science Review, 2021
The study examines the experiences, coping strategies, and responses of Filipino migrant domestic... more The study examines the experiences, coping strategies, and responses of Filipino migrant domestic workers (FMDW) to inequalities amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The collected narratives of migrant leaders from Italy, the U.K., and Hong Kong reveal that FMDWs employ their notions, ethics, and practices of care/care work in coping with the structural and social inequalities caused by the pandemic. We argue that the labor of care exhibited by FMDWs goes beyond the dichotomies of paid work and unpaid obligations of social reproduction. A "community of care" is manifested, which fosters community-building and solidarity in response to social exclusion and inequalities brought about by the COVID-19 crisis. The narratives also indicate a dynamic realignment of care circulation, with FMDWs becoming agents of multidirectional care.
International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare, 2021
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of states’ pandemic responses to th... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of states’ pandemic responses to the conditions and vulnerabilities of undocumented Filipino migrants in Italy and the UK. It also explores the role and strategies of migrant organisations in addressing the issues and concerns of undocumented workers.
Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative approaches are used to collect and analyse the narratives of the migrants and migrant organisations. This paper used government reports, policy briefs and documents from international organisations in analysing the socio-political vulnerabilities of undocumented migrants in the context of the global pandemic. In addition, we interviewed leaders of migrant organisations, which are involved in supporting irregular migrants.
Findings – The study reveals that states have exercised a regime of legitimate violence against undocumented workers in Italy and the UK. This regime is imposed not only by the stringent laws and policies that directly and indirectly cause economic, social and even cultural suffering to the migrants but also by the ‘‘symbolic violence’’ manifested in structural and social inequalities, and the exploitative economic order amid the pandemic. Responding to the ‘‘regime of fear’’, migrant organisations provide immediate relief and ‘‘safe spaces’’ for the undocumented workers.
Originality/value – The paper contributes to the ongoing conversation on state practices in regulating migration by framing the conditions of undocumentation as legal violence that structurally deprives irregular migrants access to health care and human rights amid global health crisis.
Feminist Media Studies, 2021
This article examines Baby Ruth Villarama's Sunday Beauty Queen to explore representations that u... more This article examines Baby Ruth Villarama's Sunday Beauty Queen to explore representations that unsettle heteronormative ideas around Filipina domestic workers' bodies and labor. First, I analyze the aesthetics of pageantry in Villarama's camerawork to argue that the film, in visually queering straight cisgender Filipina bodies, challenges scripts of heteropatriarchal portrayal of care labor. By using cinematic "queer time," the documentary troubles the "straight time" of care work as linear flow from left-behind families at homeland to host families at destination countries and back. This dovetails to a discussion of how the labor of care is queered within the homosocial community of migrant Filipina women abroad through the conception of community of care. By queering the labor of care, I unveil forms of queer intimacies and practices that reveal how pageantry and community building produce spaces for non-normative and nonbiological affinities for alternative modalities of care exchange. By looking at the intersections of queer and migration studies, I explore how Villarama's documentary represents spaces and social practices that offer alternative imaginaries of care that exceeds naturalized and normalized understanding of feminized labor diaspora.
Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 2020
Conceptually anchored on lived religion, this paper explores the meanings and experiences of heal... more Conceptually anchored on lived religion, this paper explores the meanings and experiences of health, illness, and healing among Filipino migrant women in Japan as they intersect with their religion. Likewise, it explores the functions and limitations of religion as migrant women face physical and mental health problems caused by work, marital status, and/or dislocation. Using biographical interviews and ethnography, this paper suggests that religion serves as a material and symbolic resource for making sense of health, illness and healing. As a material resource, it offered tangible, informational, and emotional support. It can however become limiting when personalised meanings and practices of religion frame illness based on morality, promote health misinformation, and delay healing and other health- seeking behaviours. Nonetheless, healing as perceived and experienced by Filipino migrant women involves lived religion in their complex meaning making and negotiated in terms of its physiological, spiritual and emotional effects.
Humanities Diliman, 2019
Sacrifice is a fraught concept that both describes and prescribes the fate-playing ventures of ov... more Sacrifice is a fraught concept that both describes and prescribes the fate-playing ventures of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Suffering on behalf of loved ones promises a better life in return; it is also used to serve very different discursive ends: as a state strategy to promote overseas work or as a rhetorical tactic to condemn the government's labor export policy. This paper tracks the trope of sacrifice in the state's and migrant activists' rhetoric and looks at how OFWs receive these meanings and respond to these discourses. The paper then examines Migrante International's campaign, Zero Remittance Day, as a complex political act of withholding that defies the state's remittance-centred strategy of migration-for-development.
Plaridel, 2019
This article discusses how Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong claim and transf... more This article discusses how Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong claim and transform transnational sites as portrayed in Ani Ema Susanti's 2008 short documentary film Mengusahakan Cinta [Effort for Love] and Moira Zoitl's documentary video series Exchange Square (2007). The films depict how Indonesian and Filipina domestic workers negotiate precarious working and living conditions by deploying forms of intimacy, through their social practices and alternative sexualities, that enable them to gain agency in finding their own community and sense of belonging. This article argues that while their relationship to both private and public spaces in Hong Kong is transformed, these migrant women also actively transgress the borders of private and public spheres and personal and political realms.
International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare, 2019
Purpose Informed by health activism (Zoller, 2005), the purpose of this paper is to explore the c... more Purpose Informed by health activism (Zoller, 2005), the purpose of this paper is to explore the communicative processes of organizations working with women migrants in countries of destination. In particular, it explored the definitions of and explanations for health of organizations, their solutions to disease and illness, as well as, the methods and tactics they use to communicate health. Design/methodology/approach It employed qualitative approach specifically in-depth interviews with leaders or core members of not-for-profit and faith-based organizations working with Filipina migrants in Japan. Field notes from participant observations in formal meetings and informal gatherings were likewise used as data sources. Findings While organizations also recognized physical and spiritual health, they placed strong emphasis on mental well-being. Other than translation service, pastoral care, and shelter, coordinating with other not-for-profit and faith-based organizations, international centers, and governments was solution for addressing illness and disease. Together with face-to-face, digital media were used as method and tactic to communicate within and outside organizations. It likewise found that the organizations included were inclusive such that they also worked with other Filipinos in Japan. Originality/value This paper contributed to migration health literature by discussing the central role of organizations for mental well-being activism, favorable consequences of coordination among organizations to promote access to quality healthcare and information and dual characterization of digital media for organizing publics. Overall, it is one of the few to explore the ways into which organizations communicatively challenge health structures in countries of destination.
Feminist Media Studies, 2019
In Singapore, many middle-class families employ foreign domestic workers (FDWs) to take on care a... more In Singapore, many middle-class families employ foreign domestic workers (FDWs) to take on care and domestic work. In this setup, female FDWs need to be “a part of the family” and “feel at home” to better perform and render intimate labor, but they are structurally displaced and prevented from being fully integrated in both their employer’s homes and in the host country. Ilo Ilo (2013), a debut film by a Singaporean director Anthony Chen, has poignantly portrayed this paradoxical relationship by showing a young boy’s growing affection to his Filipina maid, and how this brief yet enduring bond demonstrates migration’s effects on both the foreign helpers and the middle-class families employing them. This Singaporean family melodrama depicts the affective nature of migration by demonstrating how FDWs are positioned as an intimate yet excluded figure inside the employer’s homes. The contradiction between intimacy and social exclusion seen in the film also simultaneously describes and prescribes the FDW’s place in the host country. The film illustrates the paradox of intimacy and exclusion in the host–guest worker relationship of employers and their maids within the private domains of household and the public discourse on FDWs’ claims in Singapore.
Kritika Kultura, 2019
This article examines how migrant women’s lives are politicized through the work of mourning by a... more This article examines how migrant women’s lives are politicized through the work of mourning by analyzing how grieving over their deaths becomes a way of also claiming accountability to nation-state that deploys its citizen-breadwinners. I employ critical discussions on mourning by Vicente Rafael, Pheng Cheah and Judith Butler to analyze an OFW film and two Southeast Asian novels that present different responses to deaths of Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers: Joel Lamangan’s The Flor Contemplacion Story (1995), Jose Dalisay’s Soledad’s Sister (2008) and Rida Fitria’s Sebongkah Tanah Retak (‘A Lump of Cracked Land,’ 2010). While these texts are different—one is a melodrama, the other a faux-detective novel, the last one a novel inspiratif (‘inspirational novel’)—all three portray how grief becomes an affective economy, in that it reproduces and circulates feelings, like pity, sympathy, rage and reproach, that forges a community to either foster or forestall political action. My reading maps out how the bereavement over migrant women’s lives can lead to a more critical understanding of labor migration’s policies and discourses in the Philippines and Indonesia, opening the possibilities of social activism that not only transforms a national community but also transcends national boundaries among and between Filipina and Indonesian migrant women.
Routledge, 2021
This book explores the politics of gendered labor migration in Southeast Asia through the stories... more This book explores the politics of gendered labor migration in Southeast Asia through the stories and perspectives of Indonesian and Filipina women presented in films, fiction, and performance to show how the emotionality of these texts contribute to the emergence and vitality of women’s social movements in Southeast Asia.
By placing literary and filmic narratives of Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong and Singapore within existing conversations concerning migration policies, the book offers an innovative approach towards examining contemporary issues of Asian migration. Furthermore, through rich ethnographic accounts, the book unpacks themes of belonging and displacement, shame and desire, victimhood and resistance, sacrifice, and grief to show that the stories of Filipina and Indonesian migrant women don't just depict their everyday lives and practices but also reveal how they mediate and make sense of the fraught politics of gendered labor diaspora and globalization. Contributing to the "affective turn" of feminist and transnational scholarship, the book draws insight from the importance and centrality of affect, emotions, and feelings in shaping discourses on women’s subjectivity, labor, and mobility. In addition, the book demonstrates the issues of vulnerability and agency inherent in debates on social exclusion, human rights, development, and nation-building in Southeast Asia.
Offering an innovative and multidisciplinary approach to analyses of Asian migration, this book will be of interest to academics in the fields of Asian Studies, literary and cultural studies, film studies, gender and women’s studies, and migration studies.
Sentro ng Wikang Filipino - University of the Philippines Diliman, 2020
Anthology of short fiction written by Indonesian migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, Singapore... more Anthology of short fiction written by Indonesian migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, translated to Filipino.
University of the Philippines Press, 2019
Hindi lugar ang siyudad sa aklat na ito kundi isang kondisyon ng posibilidad, isang malawak na pa... more Hindi lugar ang siyudad sa aklat na ito kundi isang kondisyon ng posibilidad, isang malawak na panginoring inaasam puntahan, panahanan, takbuhan at takbuhan papalayo ng mga katawan. At ang Pag-ibig ng mga katawan sa koleksiyong ito—mga mamamayan, turista, migrante’t destiyero—ay hindi lamang mga pangarap, libog, at lunggating nakalakip sa bawat baka-sakali ng pandarayuhan kundi mga pang-araw-araw na pagluluksa’t pagsalag sa dahas ng hangganan ng teritoryo’t teritoryalidad ng kapangyarihan. May “pangako ng ginhawa” sa kondisyonalidad ng Kung ang Siyudad ay Pag-ibig: ipinupusta ng wika ng tula na hindi lamang tayo makahanap ng lugar at “makapagpanibagong-lungsod” kundi makalikha rin ng bagong daigdig na may “mas ginintuang parang, mas makikinang na dagat, at mas mahihiwagang disyerto” para sa ating dinarahuyo’t tinutupok sa mumunti nating sulok sa malupit na mundo.
University of Sto. Tomas Publishing House, Inc., 2010
Tinatalunton ng Corpus ang katawan sa iba't ibang sangandaan ng ating pananalig sa iba't ibang an... more Tinatalunton ng Corpus ang katawan sa iba't ibang sangandaan ng ating pananalig sa iba't ibang anyo ng pag-ibig mula sa lalim ng kinukumpisal na sugat sa palad, sa mga daplis ng bala mula sa digmaan hanggang sa lawak ng blangkong pilas ng papel ng kasaysayan at kaligiran ng kahulugan at diskurso ng wika. Ang lahat ay pagtatangkang makahanap ng korporealidad ang tula: magkabalat ang salita at maghunos bilang panibagong uri ng danas sa harap ng iba't ibang dahas ng dito-at-ngayon ng ating panahon.
Bordered Lives No More: The Humanities and the Post-Covid19 Recovery, 2023
Hulagway: Bahay ng Salita, Balai ng Gunita, 2022
Banwa at Layag: Antolohiya ng mga Kuwentong Paglalakbay ng mga Pilipino sa Ibayong Dagat, 2023
Gender, Islam and Sexuality in Contemporary Indonesia, 2023
This chapter examines how malu, as an affect of Indonesian women’s migration, shape the problemat... more This chapter examines how malu, as an affect of Indonesian women’s migration, shape the problematic representation of Indonesian migrant domestic workers in their home country. By analyzing the Indonesian state rhetoric in news reports, popular culture and mass media portrayals and migrant activist statements, I argue that shame not only reinforces several problematic discourses on morality and sexuality on Indonesian migrant women, but also aggravates their precarious role and place in their home and host countries. To counter these dominant narratives of shame and shaming, I probe and focus on the possibilities opened up by Indonesian migrant domestic workers themselves as they write, publish and circulate their own stories in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore as part of the emerging cultural production of Sastra Buruh Migran Indonesia or Indonesian Migrant Workers Literature. These anthologies of short stories offer diverse ways in which Indonesian domestic workers receive, mediate and transgress the meanings of shame and the operations of shaming in their practice of sexuality in their everyday lives abroad. Through these literary works, I analyze the themes of subscription and subversions of malu in: 1.) how they deal with instances of shame and shaming in their portrayal of their daily lives in these stories; and 2.) how they express through fiction their resistance to moral impositions on their body by narrating their encounter and practice of queer sexual identities and interracial intimacies in transnational spaces. Through migrant women’s own understanding of what counts as malu, I argue that the stories that they tell present a complex negotiation of their precariousness, as they exhibit instances of agency that go beyond traditional gendered notions of malu upheld back home.
This dissertation studies the complex interplay of emotions and discourses in stories of Filipina... more This dissertation studies the complex interplay of emotions and discourses in stories of Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong and Singapore. Rather than conceptualizing affect as either symptom of subjection or sign of agency in migrant women’s subjectivity, my research project examines how emotions expressed in fiction and films of Filipina and Indonesian migrant women not only reflect but are also responses to the underlying conditions that describe and prescribe their role in their homeland and host countries.
This research project intervenes into migration debates through emotion and affectivity studies by looking at affect as expressions of condition and capacity. In my study, the emotions in these literary and visual narratives illustrate not just how migrant women are affected but also how they affect prevailing discourses on labor diaspora. I frame my discussion through two concepts of affectivity: Raymond William’s structure of feelings to explain how their emotions are produced by structural conditions of migration and Sara Ahmed’s affective economy to examine how these feelings are reproduced and circulated as discourses to support or challenge those structural conditions. Using this framework, my dissertation tracks the tropes of displacement, suffering, sacrifice and grief in literary and visual narratives of Filipina and Indonesian migrant women to demonstrate how emotions both sustain and subvert national, cultural and gendered discourses that interpellate their roles as migrant women workers.
The first chapter problematizes the inherent contradictions of social exclusion in intimate women’s work inside private and public spaces of their host countries through the politics of hospitality in my reading of two films set in Singapore and Hong Kong, Anthony Chen’s Ilo Ilo (2013) and Lola Amarla’s Minggu Pagi di Victoria Park (‘Sunday Morning at Victoria Park,’ 2010).
The second chapter focuses on the affects of shame and patience to discuss the politics of suffering in two short story collections of Indonesian domestic workers: Forum Lingkar Pena Hong Kong’s Menaklukkan Ketakutan di Ranah Rantau (‘Overcoming Fear in Foreign Shores,’ 2013) and BMI Singapura’s Ketika Pena BMI Menari (‘When Indonesian Migrant Workers’ Pens Dance,’ 2012).
The third chapter analyzes the notion of sacrifice as a form of affective economy by looking at how ideas of suffering for the greater good is central to the Philippine state’s rhetoric of migration for development. I analyze how the discourse of sacrifice is reproduced, circulated and challenged in two films on Filipina domestic workers: Rory Quintos’ Anak (‘Child,’ 2000) and Mes de Guzman’s Balikbayan Box (2006).
In the last chapter, I examine the political effects of mourning over migrant women’s death in my reading of three texts: Joel Lamangan’s The Flor Contemplacion Story (1995), Jose Dalisay’s Soledad’s Sister (2008) and Rida Fitria’s Sebongkah Tanah Retak (‘A Lump of Cracked Land,’ 2010). These film and novels demonstrate how social activism borne out of grief not only transforms national community and but also transcends national boundaries among Filipina and Indonesian migrant women.
In many of the women’s narratives of Southeast Asian migration, the anxieties of mobility are exp... more In many of the women’s narratives of Southeast Asian migration, the anxieties of mobility are expressed through the feelings of shame, either in predominant affective expressions of the Indonesian word, malu, or the Tagalog term, hiya. The constant sexualized portrayal of tenaga kerja wanita (domestic worker) in mass media and popular culture as wanita jalang (bad woman) or wanita tuna susila (woman without morals) become markers of malu, shame and shaming according to gendered moral codes as Indonesian women navigate transnational spaces. Hiya among Filipina women comes out from uneasy encounter and anxious identification with their middle class kababayans (fellow countrymen) tourists, itinerants and white-collared immigrants, who feel humiliated in these Asian global cities because the image of Filipina domestic workers dominate their national identity. In this presentation, I will talk about how malu and hiya, as affects of Southeast Asian migration, illustrate how the enduring ideologies of highly stratified class division and gendered moral discourses shape the problematic politics of labor migration in Indonesia and the Philippines. By analyzing the state rhetoric of these two governments, news reports, media portrayals and migrant activist statements, I argue that shame not only props up the politics of the dominant hero-and-victim narratives on migrant women experience, but also serves to reinforce problematic gender and class discourses on their role and place in their home and homeland. This presentation also looks at the films about Filipina and Indonesian migrant women and the short stories, personal testimonies and blogs that they themselves write to understand how they receive, mediate and subvert ideas of shame and shaming. Through migrant women’s own understanding of what counts as malu and hiya, I argue that their narratives present a complex negotiation of their precariousness and, at the same time, mobility that go beyond traditional class and gender politics upheld and observed back home.
Labor migration has been central in conversations on diversity and multiculturalism in Asia, espe... more Labor migration has been central in conversations on diversity and multiculturalism in Asia, especially in cosmopolitan cities like Singapore and Hong Kong. This is particularly striking for example in how foreign domestic workers (FDW) enter and transform the private and public spaces of these city-states. In both Hong Kong and Singapore, Filipinas and Indonesians comprise the majority of FDWs and they occupy both these territories’ private and public realms in ways that contribute and also challenge notions of diversity and belongingness. In this paper, I examine the affective relationships of Filipina and Indonesian migrant women to public and intimate spaces of these city-states by looking at its visual representations in the films: Eric Khoo’s No Day Off (2006), Moira Zoitl’s Exchange Square (2007), Lola Amaria’s Minggu Pagi di Victoria Park (2010), and Anthony Chen’s Ilo Ilo (2013). By using the concept of hospitality, I examine how these films portray the changing ideas of diversity in terms of the politics of social inclusion and exclusion of FDWs to both the intimate spaces of their workplace and public spaces of their rest day. Through this, I demonstrate how these films depict the FDWs’ attempt to find a sense of belongingness and forge their own communities that create different sense of diversity in these cosmopolitan cities.
For both the Philippine state and the Filipina migrants, sacrifice describes the condition of suf... more For both the Philippine state and the Filipina migrants, sacrifice describes the condition of suffering for and in behalf of others that also promises something in return, a better life afterwards for one’s home and homeland. However, sacrifice is also a fraught concept that the nation-state and its critics use to very different discursive ends. This paper tracks the trope of sacrifice and the ways in which national, cultural and sexual discourses produce and shape the various and varying discourses that sustain, for better or worse, the Filipino labor migrants’ relations to the Philippines as a nation and as a state. I examine the similarities and disjunctures of sacrifice in the rhetoric and practices of Philippine state and Filipino migrant activists.
The politics of victimhood and the affects of suffering in the short story anthologies written by... more The politics of victimhood and the affects of suffering in the short story anthologies written by Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore reveal how Indonesian migrant women are not only subjugated by the precarious conditions of their transnational labor, but they are also compelled to feel that they are personally responsible for their own suffering. Their short stories repeat the tropes of shame, patience, and even luck at their doubled vulnerability: first for being in a vulnerable
predicament and then a second time to be accountable for their own vulnerability. Collectively, these affects demonstrate not only how they express their subjectivity and exercise their agency given their plight, but they also document the fraught politics of their victimhood.
Likhaan: The Journal of Contemporary Philippine Literature 3:107-17, 2008
Marahil ito na ang aking huling liham. Pagkatapos mo itong mabasa, mangyari lamang na ito'y lamuk... more Marahil ito na ang aking huling liham. Pagkatapos mo itong mabasa, mangyari lamang na ito'y lamukusi't bilutin at saka ilublob sa lalim ng ilog nang ito'y matunaw, magsatubig at umagos.
Under the Storm: An Anthology of Contemporary Philippine Poetry, edited by Khavn Dela Cruz and Joel Toledo. Quezon City: The Antithesis Collective Publishing Co. (244-247), 2011
Like/Unlike: Kuwentong Facebook Status at Politika ng Agam-Agam, 2014
Remembering/Rethinking EDSA, edited by Caroline Hau and JPaul Manzanilla. Manila: Anvil Publising, Inc. (307-308)., 2016
This contribution examines malu (shame) as an effect of Indonesian women's migration, illustratin... more This contribution examines malu (shame) as an effect of Indonesian women's migration, illustrating how gendered moral discourses shape the problematic politics of labour migration in the country. It argues that shame not only reinforces several problematic gender and moral discourses imposed on Indonesian migrant women but also heightens their precarious role and place in their home and host countries. This essay probes into the possibilities opened by Indonesian migrant domestic workers themselves as they write, publish and circulate their own stories in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan as part of the emerging cultural production of Sastra Buruh Migran Indonesia, Indonesian Migrant Workers' Literature. It makes an innovative contribution to this collection by analysing how, in five short fiction anthologies of Indonesian migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, instances of shame and shaming matter in the representation of their daily lives and how they narrate their encounters and practices of queer sexual identities and interracial intimacies in transnational spaces. Through migrant women's understanding of what counts as malu, I argue that their stories present a more complex negotiation of their precariousness, as they exhibit instances of agency and mobility that go beyond traditional gender discourses upheld back home. Keywords Hong Kong • Indonesia • Migrant women's fiction • Sexuality • Shame • Subversions The continuous rise of the number of women leaving Indonesia to work as domestic workers in their richer Asian neighbours like Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan has not only revived the economy and propelled the development of the country; these women's apparent upward social mobility has also brought about crucial shifts in the ways relations of gender and sexuality are perceived and discussed back home. The Indonesian government hails them as pahlawan devisa or wira kiriman wang
This dissertation studies the complex interplay of emotions and discourses in stories of Filipina... more This dissertation studies the complex interplay of emotions and discourses in stories of Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong and Singapore. Rather than conceptualizing affect as either symptom of subjection or sign of agency in migrant women’s subjectivity, my research project examines how emotions expressed in fiction and films of Filipina and Indonesian migrant women not only reflect but are also responses to the underlying conditions that describe and prescribe their role in their homeland and host countries. This research project intervenes into migration debates through emotion and affectivity studies by looking at affect as expressions of condition and capacity. In my study, the emotions in these literary and visual narratives illustrate not just how migrant women are affected but also how they affect prevailing discourses on labor diaspora. I frame my discussion through two concepts of affectivity: Raymond William’s structure of feelings to explain how their emotions are produced by structural conditions of migration and Sara Ahmed’s affective economy to examine how these feelings are reproduced and circulated as discourses to support or challenge those structural conditions. Using this framework, my dissertation tracks the tropes of displacement, suffering, sacrifice and grief in literary and visual narratives of Filipina and Indonesian migrant women to demonstrate how emotions both sustain and subvert national, cultural and gendered discourses that interpellate their roles as migrant women workers. The first chapter problematizes the inherent contradictions of social exclusion in intimate women’s work inside private and public spaces of their host countries through the politics of hospitality in my reading of two films set in Singapore and Hong Kong, Anthony Chen’s Ilo Ilo (2013) and Lola Amarla’s Minggu Pagi di Victoria Park (‘Sunday Morning at Victoria Park,’ 2010). The second chapter focuses on the affects of shame and patience to discuss the politics of suffering in two short story collections of Indonesian domestic workers: Forum Lingkar Pena Hong Kong’s Menaklukkan Ketakutan di Ranah Rantau (‘Overcoming Fear in Foreign Shores,’ 2013) and BMI Singapura’s Ketika Pena BMI Menari (‘When Indonesian Migrant Workers’ Pens Dance,’ 2012). The third chapter analyzes the notion of sacrifice as a form of affective economy by looking at how ideas of suffering for the greater good is central to the Philippine state’s rhetoric of migration for development. I analyze how the discourse of sacrifice is reproduced, circulated and challenged in two films on Filipina domestic workers: Rory Quintos’ Anak (‘Child,’ 2000) and Mes de Guzman’s Balikbayan Box (2006). In the last chapter, I examine the political effects of mourning over migrant women’s death in my reading of three texts: Joel Lamangan’s The Flor Contemplacion Story (1995), Jose Dalisay’s Soledad’s Sister (2008) and Rida Fitria’s Sebongkah Tanah Retak (‘A Lump of Cracked Land,’ 2010). These film and novels demonstrate how social activism borne out of grief not only transforms national community and but also transcends national boundaries among Filipina and Indonesian migrant women.published_or_final_versionComparative LiteratureDoctoralDoctor of Philosoph
Mental Health, Religion & Culture, Sep 1, 2020
ABSTRACT Conceptually anchored on lived religion, this paper explores the meanings and experience... more ABSTRACT Conceptually anchored on lived religion, this paper explores the meanings and experiences of health, illness, and healing among Filipino migrant women in Japan as they intersect with their religion. Likewise, it explores the functions and limitations of religion as migrant women face physical and mental health problems caused by work, marital status, and/or dislocation. Using biographical interviews and ethnography, this paper suggests that religion serves as a material and symbolic resource for making sense of health, illness and healing. As a material resource, it offered tangible, informational, and emotional support. It can however become limiting when personalised meanings and practices of religion frame illness based on morality, promote health misinformation, and delay healing and other health-seeking behaviours. Nonetheless, healing as perceived and experienced by Filipino migrant women involves lived religion in their complex meaning making and negotiated in terms of its physiological, spiritual and emotional effects.
Communication and the public, Jun 2, 2023
Informed by Communication Infrastructure Theory (CIT), this article explores the ways community o... more Informed by Communication Infrastructure Theory (CIT), this article explores the ways community organizations and ethnic media serve as communicative resources and form into storytelling networks with different health-enhancing purposes for Filipina household service workers (FHSWs) in Hong Kong (HK). Using key informant interviews with print and broadcast media, non-governmental organizations, and faith-based organizations in HK, it found that cancer, stroke, and depression were shared concerns among FHSWs. Community organizations and ethnic media explained these concerns based on work and labor conditions. As communicative resources, they provided health information, offered tangible support, and campaigned to employers and governments. In discussing social media for health, community organizations highlighted accessibility, whereas ethnic media focused on journalistic practices. Overall, this article highlights ethnic media and community organizations as key but often overlooked publics in health communication and the importance of further incorporating temporality in CIT-informed research for migrant health. Implications to public health campaigns and health reporting are discussed.
Journal of POPULATION and SOCIAL STUDIES (Online), Oct 31, 2021
This paper explores the relationship between the social networks of Filipino migrant domestic wor... more This paper explores the relationship between the social networks of Filipino migrant domestic workers (FMDWs) in Hong Kong and the accessibility of health resources, especially for migrant women. This study primarily draws evidence from ethnographic interviews with 20 FMDWs in Hong Kong. Likewise, this analysis also relied on field notes from participant observations during formal meetings and informal activities. This paper reveals that FMDWs strategically use their strong and weak ties in managing risks and accessing resources for their health and well-being by deciding among their social network who and what to share regarding health concerns. They conscientiously negotiate their rights and opportunities with their employers, who can also provide access to social and institutional resources. Finally, FMDWs participate in conversations and discourses on health-related policies of their home and host countries with their social network. By focusing on the social networks of FMDWs in Hong Kong, this paper conceptually and empirically broadens conversations about how migration becomes a social determinant of health. Moreover, it illustrates how migrant social networks are organized, activated, and mobilized around discourses on state-crafted health policies towards migrant women.
Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, Feb 5, 2022
Mobility has been historically tied to conceptions of cosmopolitanism, bringing forward imaginari... more Mobility has been historically tied to conceptions of cosmopolitanism, bringing forward imaginaries of belonging-in-the-world and going beyond the narrow limits of parochial allegiances into embracing virtues of openness as global citizens shaped by the experience crossing borders and encounter with the Other. Despite dominant ideas about cosmopolitans as elite itinerants of middle-class intellectuals, artists, tourists, expatriates and capitalists, global migration with its entailing forms of mobilities from below-economic migrants, transmigrants, refugees, exiles-has redefined the term to include forms of minor and vernacular cosmopolitanisms that emerge among the migrant underclass. However, just like these forms of mobilities, these types of cosmopolitanism are also bound and shaped by class, gender and ethnicity. This paper explores versions of cosmopolitanism from below in the stories of Mia Alvar in her book, In the Country, that center on female domestic workers from the Philippines. Through the transnational itineraries of these border-crossing women protagonists in contemporary Filipino fiction, the article examines the intersections and contradictions of class, gender and race in cosmopolitan imaginaries of mobilities in Southeast Asia.
International journal of human rights in healthcare, Nov 28, 2019
Purpose-Informed by health activism (Zoller, 2005), the purpose of this paper is to explore the c... more Purpose-Informed by health activism (Zoller, 2005), the purpose of this paper is to explore the communicative processes of organizations working with women migrants in countries of destination. In particular, it explored the definitions of and explanations for health of organizations, their solutions to disease and illness, as well as, the methods and tactics they use to communicate health. Design/methodology/approach-It employed qualitative approach specifically in-depth interviews with leaders or core members of not-for-profit and faith-based organizations working with Filipina migrants in Japan. Field notes from participant observations in formal meetings and informal gatherings were likewise used as data sources. Findings-While organizations also recognized physical and spiritual health, they placed strong emphasis on mental well-being. Other than translation service, pastoral care, and shelter, coordinating with other not-forprofit and faith-based organizations, international centers, and governments was solution for addressing illness and disease. Together with face-to-face, digital media were used as method and tactic to communicate within and outside organizations. It likewise found that the organizations included were inclusive such that they also worked with other Filipinos in Japan. Originality/value-This paper contributed to migration health literature by discussing the central role of organizations for mental well-being activism, favorable consequences of coordination among organizations to promote access to quality healthcare and information and dual characterization of digital media for organizing publics. Overall, it is one of the few to explore the ways into which organizations communicatively challenge health structures in countries of destination.
Feminist Media Studies, Sep 6, 2018
In Singapore, many middle-class families employ foreign domestic workers (FDWs) to take on care a... more In Singapore, many middle-class families employ foreign domestic workers (FDWs) to take on care and domestic work. In this setup, female FDWs need to be "a part of the family" and "feel at home" to better perform and render intimate labor, but they are structurally displaced and prevented from being fully integrated in both their employer's homes and in the host country. Ilo Ilo (2013), a debut film by a Singaporean director Anthony Chen, has poignantly portrayed this paradoxical relationship by showing a young boy's growing affection to his Filipina maid, and how this brief yet enduring bond demonstrates migration's effects on both the foreign helpers and the middle-class families employing them. This Singaporean family melodrama depicts the affective nature of migration by demonstrating how FDWs are positioned as an intimate yet excluded figure inside the employer's homes. The contradiction between intimacy and social exclusion seen in the film also simultaneously describes and prescribes the FDW's place in the host country. The film illustrates the paradox of intimacy and exclusion in the host-guest worker relationship of employers and their maids within the private domains of household and the public discourse on FDWs' claims in Singapore.
Plaridel, 2017
Brocka Philippines offers a very complex narrative of how cinema becomes a technology that both r... more Brocka Philippines offers a very complex narrative of how cinema becomes a technology that both reproduces and contests national fantasies of development. Tolentino locates it in the body of works of Lino Brocka, examining the socioeconomic and historical conditions for many of the dominant themes in the political cinema of the filmmaker, while also juxtaposing it against Martial Law's image-machines of nation-building. The book title's use of "Marcos-Brocka" to name a particular historicocultural conjuncture of Philippine politics and cinema may at first glance appear to be a provocative strategy borne out of auteurism that is still dominant in contemporary film scholarship. However, the deployment of these names to discuss and explore failed modernity and development projects and the role of national cinema in the Third World are much more complicated than what auteur theory or criticism provide. In fact, in the early chapters of the book, the author rejects the author-centric methods to analyze Brocka's works, and instead looks at the filmmaker and his corpus as both "incidental and integral" in understanding the often fraught relationship of Brocka's films and the Martial Law regime (Tolentino, 2014). For Joel David (2017), this has dire consequences in examining "manifold quirks and contradictions" that the director and his films present in Tolentino's seemingly neat narrative that "effectively positions Brocka as
International journal of human rights in healthcare, Jun 10, 2021
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of states’ pandemic responses to the ... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of states’ pandemic responses to the conditions and vulnerabilities of undocumented Filipino migrants in Italy and the UK. It also explores the role and strategies of migrant organisations in addressing the issues and concerns of undocumented workers. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative approaches are used to collect and analyse the narratives of the migrants and migrant organisations. This paper used government reports, policy briefs and documents from international organisations in analysing the socio-political vulnerabilities of undocumented migrants in the context of the global pandemic. In addition, we interviewed leaders of migrant organisations, which are involved in supporting irregular migrants. Findings The study reveals that states have exercised a regime of legitimate violence against undocumented workers in Italy and the UK. This regime is imposed not only by the stringent laws and policies that directly and indirectly cause economic, social and even cultural suffering to the migrants but also by the “symbolic violence” manifested in structural and social inequalities, and the exploitative economic order amid the pandemic. Responding to the “regime of fear”, migrant organisations provide immediate relief and “safe spaces” for the undocumented workers. Originality/value The paper contributes to the ongoing conversation on state practices in regulating migration by framing the conditions of undocumentation as legal violence that structurally deprives irregular migrants access to health care and human rights amid global health crisis.
Kritika Kultura, Dec 17, 2021
This paper examines how migrant women's lives are politicized through the work of mourning by ana... more This paper examines how migrant women's lives are politicized through the work of mourning by analyzing how grieving over their deaths becomes a way of also claiming accountability from a nation-state that deploys its citizen-breadwinners. I employ critical discussions on mourning by Vicente Rafael, Pheng Cheah, and Judith Butler to analyze an OFW film and two Southeast Asian novels that present different responses to deaths of Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers:
This book explores the politics of gendered labor migration in Southeast Asia through the stories... more This book explores the politics of gendered labor migration in Southeast Asia through the stories and perspectives of Indonesian and Filipina women presented in films, fiction, and performance to show how the emotionality of these texts contribute to the emergence and vitality of women's social movements in Southeast Asia. By placing literary and filmic narratives of Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong and Singapore within existing conversations concerning migration policies, the book offers an innovative approach towards examining contemporary issues of Asian migration. Furthermore, through rich ethnographic accounts intersecting with textual and visual analyses, the book unpacks themes of belonging and displacement, shame and desire, victimhood and resistance, sacrifice, and grief to show that the stories of Filipina and Indonesian migrant women don't just depict their everyday lives and practices but also reveal how they mediate and make sense of the fraught politics of gendered labor diaspora and globalization. Contributing to the "affective turn" of feminist and transnational scholarship, the book draws insight from the importance and centrality of affect, emotions, and feelings in shaping discourses on women's subjectivity, labor, and mobility. In addition, the book demonstrates the issues of vulnerability and agency inherent in debates on social exclusion, human rights, development, and nation-building in Southeast Asia. Offering an innovative and multidisciplinary approach to analyses of Asian migration, this book will be of interest to academics in the fields of Asian Studies, literary and cultural studies, film studies, gender and women's studies, and migration studies.
Likhaan: The Journal of Contemporary Philippine Literature, 2018
Mahirap matagpuan ang sarili sa gitna ng dilim ng gubat.
This book explores the politics of gendered labor migration in Southeast Asia through the stories... more This book explores the politics of gendered labor migration in Southeast Asia through the stories and perspectives of Indonesian and Filipina women presented in films, fiction, and performance to show how the emotionality of these texts contribute to the emergence and vitality of women’s social movements in Southeast Asia. By placing literary and filmic narratives of Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong and Singapore within existing conversations concerning migration policies, the book offers an innovative approach towards examining contemporary issues of Asian migration. Furthermore, through rich ethnographic accounts, the book unpacks themes of belonging and displacement, shame and desire, victimhood and resistance, sacrifice, and grief to show that the stories of Filipina and Indonesian migrant women don't just depict their everyday lives and practices but also reveal how they mediate and make sense of the fraught politics of gendered labor diaspora and globalization. Contributing to the "affective turn" of feminist and transnational scholarship, the book draws insight from the importance and centrality of affect, emotions, and feelings in shaping discourses on women’s subjectivity, labor, and mobility. In addition, the book demonstrates the issues of vulnerability and agency inherent in debates on social exclusion, human rights, development, and nation-building in Southeast Asia. Offering an innovative and multidisciplinary approach to analyses of Asian migration, this book will be of interest to academics in the fields of Asian Studies, literary and cultural studies, film studies, gender and women’s studies, and migration studies.
Communication and the Public
Informed by Communication Infrastructure Theory (CIT), this article explores the ways community o... more Informed by Communication Infrastructure Theory (CIT), this article explores the ways community organizations and ethnic media serve as communicative resources and form into storytelling networks with different health-enhancing purposes for Filipina household service workers (FHSWs) in Hong Kong (HK). Using key informant interviews with print and broadcast media, non-governmental organizations, and faith-based organizations in HK, it found that cancer, stroke, and depression were shared concerns among FHSWs. Community organizations and ethnic media explained these concerns based on work and labor conditions. As communicative resources, they provided health information, offered tangible support, and campaigned to employers and governments. In discussing social media for health, community organizations highlighted accessibility, whereas ethnic media focused on journalistic practices. Overall, this article highlights ethnic media and community organizations as key but often overlooked ...
Plaridel, 2019
This article discusses how Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong claim and transf... more This article discusses how Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong claim and transform transnational sites as portrayed in Ani Ema Susanti's 2008 short documentary film Mengusahakan Cinta [Effort for Love] and Moira Zoitl's documentary video series Exchange Square (2007). The films depict how Indonesian and Filipina domestic workers negotiate precarious working and living conditions by deploying forms of intimacy, through their social practices and alternative sexualities, that enable them to gain agency in finding their own community and sense of belonging. This article argues that while their relationship to both private and public spaces in Hong Kong is transformed, these migrant women also actively transgress the borders of private and public spheres and personal and political realms.
Asia-pacific Social Science Review, 2021
The study examines the experiences, coping strategies, and responses of Filipino migrant domestic... more The study examines the experiences, coping strategies, and responses of Filipino migrant domestic workers (FMDW) to inequalities amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The collected narratives of migrant leaders from Italy, the U.K., and Hong Kong reveal that FMDWs employ their notions, ethics, and practices of care/care work in coping with the structural and social inequalities caused by the pandemic. We argue that the labor of care exhibited by FMDWs goes beyond the dichotomies of paid work and unpaid obligations of social reproduction. A "community of care" is manifested, which fosters community-building and solidarity in response to social exclusion and inequalities brought about by the COVID-19 crisis. The narratives also indicate a dynamic realignment of care circulation, with FMDWs becoming agents of multidirectional care.