Lives in Transition

Denise L. Spitzer, PhD Canada Research Chair in Gender, Migration & HealthUniversity of Ottawa

with

Sara Torres, Aimee Beboso, Noreen Berkes, Caridad Bernardino, Avegaile Calzado, and Josephine Pallard,

16th International Metropolis ConferenceAzores, PortugalSeptember 13, 2011

Filipino Youth in Canada

Imagine That….

You are a 16 year old Filipino

You haven’t seen your mother for 5 years

You’ve been living a comfortable life due to mother’s remittances

Awaiting the moment the family is reunited on Canadian soil

Mariana I thought it was going to be grand. Like, really better

than the Philippines, and it was actually! By coming here,

compared to the Philippines is just, it seems new.

Everything looks new here. And clean and, [chuckles]

and better.

Then….

You arrive at your mother’s basement apartment

Your clothes and possessions look dated

Your fluent English is poorly understood

You turn to your mother who is a beloved stranger

Introduction

Common elements of the transition of the children of Filipino former-LCP workers

14 Youth

Average 6.5 years separation

Range 2.5 to 16 years

social class / social status

racialized minority status

gender and familial roles

self & family: continuity and change

social class/ social status

Walter

“[My Mom came to Canada] to be able to provide our needs so we could have a better future. Because my Mom didn’t think of coming here… she was going to be a principal in her school where she was teaching, but she got approved here in Canada so she came here instead because she knows we’re going to have a better future.

Celina the law says that even though you are like PhD or whatever way

back in other countries still you need to start here from the scratch … There are person [sic] who are gonna get frustrated because they’re thinking that they will have an easier life here in Canada but from the moment they arrive here they will not be able to work the same kind of job … way back in that place. … because like, even though you are like PhD, or engineer, doctors way back in other country where you came from then you gonna be able to do like, pizza, pizza delivery, and then you gonna go housekeeping, cleaner, sort of job like, like not white collar job anymore.

racialized minority status

Walter

…because they ask you: “Where are you from?” And then

you answer them and they’re like, “Where’s that?” They

don’t know it. [- -] But here [in Ottawa] when you suggest

Philippines, they know it, but there, no. They’re like:

“Where’s that?” “Asia.” And then they’re like, “So you’re

Asian then?” And you’re like, “Yes.”

Tomasina

You know when I am talking about the cliques

and stuff? Some of like the black kids have

their own one, the Asian ones and the white

ones. And sometimes they are together. Some

of them are the popular ones, sometimes they

are white or Spanish or Filipino. But just,

limited. They have their own cliques. It's hard.

ConstanzaEven now that they have kids they still act like they’re

teenagers. So it’s, it’s very different. They have to have nice

cars even though they’re going to have so much owing and

stuff like that … So I don’t, I don’t like to hang out with my

peers and my own culture. I know it sounds weird but I just

don’t like the way they present themselves … with them it’s

like money, money, money, money’s first. Because there’s

not much money back home and, they see a lot here and

goes over (sic) their head, yeah.

gender & familial roles

Mariana

In the Philippines I sort of acted like their guardian, and,

even here, when they need something they go to me, they

don't go to my mom or my dad directly, so that's just how it

works now, I can't really change it….

Mariana

It was, like I felt that, even though we talk

every day, she missed a whole lot. When she

wasn't around, it made it seem like she

doesn't, like she assumes that she knows me,

and I assume that I know her, but, it didn't

really feel that way. Even now, even now I feel

like she really doesn't know me that well.

Thomasina

All the times that she was not there, there was a gap. She

don't know things that happened. So we, we can't talk

about it, because she doesn't know it. It, it's kind of

awkward if we talk about it and she is left alone…

Well...not to worry her but I don't want her to feel like

outcast because all of us experienced the same thing

except for her. You know? So I don't want her to feel

that...feel that she is left out.

Self & family:

self & family: continuity &

change

Mariana

It seems like I want more every day. Just more of

everything. Like material things and non-material things

as well. Like, I want to be, I want to be someone. I want

to be successful. I have a goal now, like after a couple of

years, I want to be this person, so I think that Canada

changed me that way.

WalterLike my other brother got a car right and they have

all jobs and they help, they help to, to in our house to

be able to pay like all our bills.

[Interviewer: Do you help out as well?]

Um, yeah I do, like I pay the cable and the internet.

Alyin

Working, working. We will see each

other when we go to bed. Yeah like

that, always busy because we have a

lot, we have all jobs here.

Conclusion

Some thoughts about…

Gender ideologies

Self-abnegation, filial behaviour

Bio-power

Impact on young men?

Family as corporate unit

Remittances

Mutual aid

Obrigada!