The ideal immigrant? Gendered class subjects in Philippine-Canada migration

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 29, Issue 7, 2008, Pages 1265-1285

  Gardiner Barber, Pauline ^a  

^a DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GENDER ROLE; IMMIGRANT POPULATION; IMMIGRATION POLICY; INTERNAL MIGRATION; INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION; LABOR MIGRATION; POPULATION MIGRATION;

ASIA; CANADA; EURASIA; NORTH AMERICA; PHILIPPINES; SOUTHEAST ASIA;

EID: 53449084480     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: 13602241     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436590802386385     Document Type: Article

References (112)

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10. P Gardiner Barber, 'Contradictions of class and consumption when the commodity is labour', Anthropologica, 46, 2004, pp 203-218
11. Barber, 'Envisaging power in Philippine migration: The Janus effect', in J Parpart, S Rai & K Staudt (eds), Rethinking Empowerment: Gender and Development in a Global/Local World, London: Ashgate, 2002, pp 41-60.
12. International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Regional and Country Figures, 2005, at http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/pid/255, accessed 27 April 2008.
13. See J Tyner, 'Global cities and circuits of global labor: The case of Manila, Philippines', in Filipinos in Global Migrations: At Home in the World, Quezon City: Philippine Migration Research Network and Philippine Social Science Council, 2002, pp 60-85.
14. The total was 1 062 567, up by 7.5% from 2005. Statistics are collected for land- and sea-based deployments; 26% of the 2006 total were sea-based. See http://www.poea.gov.ph/html/statistics.html, accessed 17 April 2008.
15. The deployment of women peaked at around 72% of documented land-based workers hired in 2004.
16. The countries were, in order of significance: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Qatar, Taiwan, Singapore, Italy, UK and South Korea. See http://www.poea.gov.ph/html/statistics.html, accessed 17 April 2008.
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30. My research partner is Belinda Leach of the University of Guelph, who will complete comparative research on Trinidad Canada migration pathways. Our research is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2006).
31. For an historical comparison, see R Cohen, Migration and its Enemies: Global Capital, Migrant Labour and the Nation-State, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2006.
32. N De Genova, Race, Space, and 'Illegality' in Mexican Chicago, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005, links the racialised subordination of migrant Mexicans to US 'nativism'.
33. This figure escalated from a preliminary figure of Can $76 million. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/11/24/lebanon-cost.html, accessed 23 April 2008.
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38. For example, J Gonzalez III, Philippine Labour Migration: Critical Dimensions of Public Policy, Manila: De La Salle University Press (ISEAS), 1998. The chronology here mostly follows Gonzalez.
39. Marcos held power from 1965 until his forced resignation in 1986 after a hastily called, rigged election. Corazon Aquino was president from 1986 to 1992, Fidel Ramos from 1992 to 1998, Joseph Estrada from 1998 to 2001, when he too was forced from office after a massive public demonstration. The current president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is embattled by accusations of corruption and voting irregularities. The next presidential election is in 2010.
40. Gonzalez, Philippine Labour Migration.
41. The Philippines was one of the first countries to undergo IMF structural adjustment, receiving nine loans between 1980 and 1999. IMF database at http://ifs.apdi.net/imf, accessed 10 April 2007. After nearly 20 years of these economic liberalisation policies, wealth disparities are as marked as ever. Rural areas have experienced further impoverishment resulting from stalled land reform, poor prices for agricultural products, and serious decline in natural resources, including fish stocks. Urban migration contributes to pressures for infrastructure, housing and services in major centres and continues to lay the foundation for overseas migration.
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43. Gonzalez, Philippine Labour Migration, notes regional concentrations in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, the Americas and Africa through to the mid-1990s. See Note 23.
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46. Constable, Maid to Order in Hong Kong
47. Groves & Chang, 'Romancing resistance and resisting romance'
48. Agathangelou, The Global Political Economy of Desire, Violence and Insecurity in Mediterranean Nation States
49. Anderson, Doing the Dirty Work?
50. Chin, In Service and Servitude
51. Ehrenreich & Hochschild, Global Woman
52. and Parreñas, Servants of Globalization.
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56. G Pratt, Working Feminism, Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2004
57. E Zontini, 'Resisting Fortress Europe: The everyday politics of female transnational migrants, Focaal, 51, 2008, pp 13-27.
58. For example, the Commission of Filipinos Overseas (CFO) has a mandate to promote the benefits of Filipino workers abroad. Dante Ang, CFO Chairman, visited Canada in April 200, sponsored by a Halifax-based recruitment agency. Halifax has a relatively small immigrant population. In the whole Atlantic region, Citizenship and Immigration Canada: Atlantic Canada Facts and Figures, 2006, shows the annual flow of foreign workers for 2006 to be 3094. The Philippines was the third top source country at 10.7% (330 people), after the UK (12%, or 317 persons) and the USA (22%, or 686 persons). The recruitment company sees potential in recruiting Filipino workers to regional labour markets. Since provincial employers complain about the shortage of local workers as a result of outmigration from the Atlantic provinces to Canada's booming energy-driven economy in Alberta, Filipinos will presumably replace local workers. The company sponsoring Ang's visit is sta.ed by new immigrants to Canada from the Philippines. Companies set up by diasporic nationals are able to mobilise social networks and policy translation more effectively than companies without such transnational experience.
59. I Bagasao, 'Migration and development: The Philippine experience', in S Mambo & D Ratha (eds), Remittances: Development Impact and Future Prospects, Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005, pp 133-142.
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62. K Laurie, "Gender and Philippine transnational migration: Tracing the impacts "home', MA thesis, St. Mary's University, Halifax, 2008
63. and R Parreñas, 'Long distance intimacy: Class, gender and intergeneration relations between mother and children in Filipino transnational families', Global Networks, 5 (4), 2005, pp 317-336.
64. Two cases shaped migration politics during the 1995 presidential elections. Flor Contemplacion was executed in Singapore for a crime many Filipinos believed she was not guilty of. In the United Arab Emirates, Sara Balabagan also received a death sentence, subsequently converted to lashings and a jail term, for killing her male employer whom she claimed was attempting to rape her. The Ramos administration hastily recrafted migration policy to address widespread protests about over-reliance on migration. He was re-elected for a second term.
65. J Tyner, Made in the Philippines: Gendered Discourses and the Making of Migrants, London: Routledge/Curzon, 2005.
66. J Bach & M Solomon, 'Labours of globalization: Emergent state responses', New Global Studies, forthcoming, 2008
67. and Bello, The Anti-development State.
68. http://www.poea.gov.ph/, accessed 17 April 2008.
69. Barber, 'Cell phones, complicity, and class politics in the Philippine labor diaspora'
70. Pratt, Working Feminism
71. and Zontini, 'Resisting Fortress Europe'.
72. This line of reasoning is also taken up by Tyner, Made in the Philippines.
73. D Stasiulis & A Bakan, Negotiating Citizenship: Migrant Women in Canada and the Global System, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005
74. and Pratt, Working Feminism.
75. Ibid.
76. SIKLAB is an abbreviation of Sulong, Itaguyod ang Karapatan ng mga Manggagawa sa Labas ng Bansa [Advance and Uphold the Rights and Welfare of Overseas Filipino Workers]. SIKLAB network members are active in several Canadian cities.
77. SIKLAB Canada, 'Advocacy groups critical of changes in Canada's migration policy', Bulatlat, VII (7), 18-24 March 2007.
78. G Pratt, 'From registered nurse to registered nanny: Discursive geographies of Filipina domestic workers in Vancouver, BC', in T Barnes, J Peck, E Sheppard & A Tickell (eds), Reading Economic Geography, On-line Blackwell Publishing, pp 375-388, at http://www3.interscience,wiley.com/cgi-bin/bookhome/117881217/, accessed 14 January 2008.
79. Philippine women and men arriving in Canada under the LCP are considered 'professional' caregivers. Applicants must be functional in English or French and hold the equivalent of a Canadian high school education, plus six months of full-time training or 12 months (six months of which are continuous) of full-time paid employment in a related field. This experience must be within three years prior to application for the visa. Applicants must also secure a written employment contract, undergo medical tests and navigate Philippine exit visa requirements. Many migrants who target Canada submit to specialised 'caregiver' training offered by an elite stratum of recruitment agencies (sometimes owned by diasporic Filipinos) that promises ease of placement and assistance with visa processing at home and abroad. The fees charged vary but are always burdensome for emigrants, who are typically deeply in debt - to relatives or money lending agents. Loan agents present in most migrant sending communities are called 5/6ers - meaning borrow 5000 pesos, pay back 6000. But the Philippine state now attempts more stringent regulation of the recruitment sector, mainly in response to political mobilisations from disgruntled migrants and their families. Despite regulation, placement fees remain problematically uneven. Even licensed agencies commit fee violations.
80. The State of the Live-in Caregiver Program in Manila, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Manila, January 2005.
81. P Gardiner Barber, 'Cell phones, complicity, and class politics in the Philippine labor diaspora'.
82. See Constable, Maid to Order in Hong Kong
83. Groves & Chang, 'Romancing resistance and resisting romance'
84. Agathangelou, The Global Political Economy of Desire, Violence and Insecurity in Mediterranean Nation States
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86. Chin, In Service and Servitude
87. Ehrenreich & Hochschild, Global Woman
88. Parreñas, Servants of Globalization
89. Macklin, 'On the inside looking in'
90. and Stasiulis & Bakan, Negotiating Citizenship.
91. All these qualities have been critically subjected to analysis by research on how women workers are 'disciplined' for and in the global labour force.
92. See the works cited above.
93. M Tobias, Philippine Star, 2 March 2008.
94. A Macklin, 'Public entrance/private member', in J Fudge & B Cossman (eds), Privatisation, Feminism and Law, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002, pp 219-264.
95. The POEA website lists agreements with Manitoba, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. See http://www.poea.gov.ph/, accessed 17 April 2008. Agreements are under discussion with Alberta and New Brunswick (as of March 2008).
96. CBC Radio Documentary, 6 January 2008.
97. Year-end Report, Cumulative Stats, 2005, 2007, Manila: Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2007.
98. In April 2008 extensions were proposed for workers in certain types of high-demand occupations, both skilled and unskilled.
99. L Aiken, J Buchan et al, 'Trends in international nurse migration,' Health Affairs, 23 (3), 2004, pp 69-77.
100. S Bach, 'International migration of health workers: Labour and social issues', Working Paper 209, Geneva: International Labour Office, 2003.
101. J Tan, F Sanchez & V Balanon, 'The Philippine phenomenon of nursing medics: Why Filipino doctors are becoming nurses', mimeo, 2004.
102. J Tan, 'The mass migration of Filipino health professionals: Who pays? Who benefits? What can be done!', paper presented at the International Metropolis Conference, Melbourne, 2007.
103. P Abinales & D Amoroso, State and Society in the Philippines, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.
104. Ibid, p 31.
105. Tan et al, 'The Philippine phenomenon of nursing medics'.
106. Ibid. The Canadian province of Saskatchewan holds an MOU with the Philippines and is concluding arrangements to import a second group of over 300 nurses later in 2008.
107. The situation has been described as a violation of human rights in US immigration policy, with a call for revised moral and ethical frameworks to guide US immigration policy.
108. See D Drebdahl & K Dorcy, 'Exclusive inclusion: The violation of human rights and US immigration policy', Advances in Nursing Science, 30 (4), 2007, pp 290-302.
109. Z Bauman, Globalization: The Human Consequences, New York: Columbia University Press, 1998
110. and Bauman, Wasted Lives: Modernity and its Outcasts, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004.
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112. Dobrowolsky, '(In)security and citizenship'.