Katrina Navallo | Kyoto University (original) (raw)

Seminar papers by Katrina Navallo

Note: This paper is unpublished and submitted as a requirement for my masters subject in 2013.

Conference Presentations by Katrina Navallo

This study looks into the opportunities and challenges of caring for the Japanese elderly in the ... more This study looks into the opportunities and challenges of caring for the Japanese elderly in the Philippines as a social and economic activity. The author conducted visits and observation in a private nursing home that cares for Japanese elderly clients. It is a preliminary study that approaches the situation from a Philippine perspective and provides an overview of the opportunities and challenges in transnational care.

Book reviews by Katrina Navallo

Interracial romance in the intimate spaces of hostess bars in Japan Although it does not specific... more Interracial romance in the intimate spaces of hostess bars in Japan Although it does not specifically deal with romance, Faier's account of the interracial marriages between Filipina women and Japanese men in rural Japan contributes to the literature of intimacy and commodification of love situated in a migration context. The book views this phenomenon through an analysis of individual desires, mediated by a cultural encounter that materialized into migration, marriage, and family making in Japan. It explores meanings of performing Filipina-ness while simultaneously being held against the standard of the ii oyomesan, or the ideal image of the traditional wife in Japan. Veering away from hypergamy as a frame for analysis, Faier situates the everyday relational dynamics and performance of intimacy within unequal relations of power, as being in part, influenced by the historical colonial encounters of Japan (as the colonizer) and the Philippines (as the colonized). In this particular context, she elaborates less on the macro forces that wield power, but link how these shape the more quotidian, daily encounters occurring between the individual subjects of focus, the Filipina women and the Japanese men. The study uses ethnography, which brought Faier to a two-year stay in central Kiso in the rural portions of Nagano, Japan. The village had a community of Filipina wives, which were introduced into the community through mediated matchmaking or kokusai omiai kekkon, and through intimate encounters as entertainers in local Filipina hostess bars. Situating the migration of Filipina women to Japan as part of the series of migration waves that started from the Philippines to the United States, and to the subsequent rise of the economic and entertainment industry in 1980s Japan, her analysis spans the migrant Filipinas' aspirations that begin in the Philippines, to Japan, and to an imagination of their American dreams in the United States (although none of her informants managed to reach the US at the time of her fieldwork). Their experiences commonly suggest a restlessness to move (that is also explored in many accounts of migrant Filipino experiences abroad [Aguilar 2014; Amrith 2016]), and their unfulfilled dreams of an American life, in contrast to the reality of rural life they arrived at in Japan. The book is filled with stories of the Filipinas and their Japanese husbands and families. As most of her subjects in the study were former entertainers, she explored how they managed and resisted the initial attachment of unconventional images associated with the nature of their work, and the subsequent ways they remake themselves as proper brides and wives to Japanese men. The issues within the domestic sphere reveal the ongoing tensions between being Filipinas and becoming ii oyomesan, and how the Filipina wives resort to complying with the expectations of being the latter to manage and ease the tensions at home. However, as their narratives reveal, the moment they were out of watching eyes, they return to their old ways and practices as a reminder that despite becoming and embodying an ii oyomesan, they are still Filipinas. What strike the most are the apparent skewed understanding of the " domestication " of the Filipina entertainer-turned-wife, regarded as subversion of her Filipino roots for the Japanese husband, while for the Filipina, it is merely an accommodation of her new roles in a Japanese family. For instance, cooking Japanese meal, sitting in a seiza manner, using ohashi instead of the fingers or spoon and fork for eating, and speaking fluent

What does it take to care for strangers? Amrith's ethnographic account of the lives of Filipino n... more What does it take to care for strangers? Amrith's ethnographic account of the lives of Filipino nurses in Singapore provides an understanding of migrant care workers' subjectivities while negotiating their individualities and positions within their migration journeys. The book explores the interactions between the Filipino/a nurses and their Singaporean patients and wards, the construction of their image as professionals vis-à-vis the stereotyped image of Filipino migrants in Singapore as domestic workers, the ambivalences and anxieties they experience given the host society's expectations of a nurse as a care worker, and how they maintain their ties to the homeland through the mediation of technology and place making. An important start is to understand the immigration context in Singapore, which is premised on a very hierarchical categorization of migrants based on their earning salaries. Types P, Q, and S are granted to mid-level skilled workers and above, while R (or work permit) is specifically issued to migrant workers with technical education and skills qualification, and whose monthly basic salary is not more than S$2,000. 1 Migrant nurses are able to enter the country with an S pass, while domestic workers and other low-skilled migrants are given the R work permit, which have restrictions on the length of stay and change of employer, and imposes deportation upon getting pregnant. Thus, the acquisition of a type of visa tends to create segregations amongst immigrants even from the same racial group, as visa type dictates the range of liberties individual migrants can enjoy in Singapore. This class categorization of immigrants is reinforced in the Filipino migrants' treatment of each other, as emphasized in the book. This discrimination is deep-seated in the traditional images of a care worker and the host society's perception of nursing work, which is often associated with the characterizations of domestic servanthood (as katulong or domestic worker). In the Philippines, nurses occupy a respected position within the professional sector, while domestic helpers often have lower educational attainment and lack formal training, and are in the informal sector. In chapter 4, " Just Carers: Understandings of Medical Labour " , the narratives reflect that this ambivalence in the role of the nurse as a care worker often creates anxiety in the Filipino nurse, who strives to legitimize her being a " professional " and not " just " a care worker. These anxieties are exemplified by nurses overtly distancing themselves from compatriot domestic workers, not sharing the same public spaces where the latter normally go on their days off, and not associating with the political activism in which domestic workers were quite active in Singapore. Despite their status and privileges, 2 Filipino nurses in Singapore are often confronted with a rest-lessness to move. Aguilar likens the migration journey of most Filipino workers to that of a " secular pilgrimage, " where in the process of migrating, " the sense of place " , as is exactly stated by Anguilar, " has no fixity " , and it is a continuous negotiation of their position within the structural organization 1 Brenda Yeoh and Weiqian Lin, " Rapid Growth in Singapore's Immigrant Population Brings Policy Changes, " The Online Journal of the Migration Policy Institute (2012). Accessed 21 July 2017. URL: http://www.migrationpo-licy.org/article/rapid-growth-singapores-immigrant-population-brings-policy-challenges. 2 Filipino nurses' entry to Singapore under the S visa allows them certain entitlements, such as ability to bring family members, which R permit holders are not entitled to.

This review essay situates the two books that look at the phenomenon of migration, and situates i... more This review essay situates the two books that look at the phenomenon of migration, and situates it within family and kinship studies in the Philippines.

Perhaps one of the most popular, contemporary images of international adoption is that of Angelin... more Perhaps one of the most popular, contemporary images of international adoption is that of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s six kids, three of whom are adoptees from Cambodia, Vietnam, and Ethiopia. Their story foregrounds the phenomenon of global family making, which, as defined by Catherine Choy in her new book, Global Families: A History of Asian International Adoption in America, involves “the decisions made and actions taken by people who create and sustain a family by consciously crossing national and often racial borders” (9). Choy explores the historical background of international adoption in the United States and uncovers a multifaceted phenomenon that looks beyond US foreign relations and cultural imperialism to include a broader and deeper understanding of how migration, race, global family making, identity-making, and intimacy converged to shape the dynamics of international adoption.

Papers by Katrina Navallo

International Journal of Asian Studies, 2018

Social transformations journal of the global south, Mar 19, 2015

Perhaps one of the more popular, contemporary images of international adoption is that of Angelin... more Perhaps one of the more popular, contemporary images of international adoption is that of Angelina Jolie's family of six kids, three of whom are adoptees from Cambodia, Vietnam, and Ethiopia. eir story foregrounds the phenomenon of international adoption through the framework of global family making, which, as de ned by Catherine Choy in her new book, Global Families: A History of Asian International Adoption in America, involves "the decisions made and actions taken by people who create and sustain a family by consciously crossing national and often racial borders" (9). Choy explores the historical background of international adoption in the United States and uncovers a multifaceted phenomenon that looks beyond US foreign relations and cultural imperialism to include a broader and deeper understanding of how migration, race, global family making, identity making, and intimacy converge to shape the dynamics of international adoption. International adoption in the United States came to prominence after the Second World War, which saw the rise of orphans and mixedrace children born to American servicemen and Asian, European, and African women. In particular, the reception of mixed-race children from Korea and Japan (biracial individuals are called "hafu," meaning half-Japanese) proved unfavorable because of prejudice against cross-cultural marriages. e American media highlighted this discrimination as an expression of a "backward" Asian society, while they rescued mixed-race children and provided them a better life through adoption in the more prosperous United States. Choy sees this as a awed re ection of a "progressive" American society, who also

Routledge eBooks, Mar 20, 2023

New Frontiers in Japanese Studies