THE WOMAN POSING WITH A POSTER OF THE BASIC SIX

FOOD GROUPS

ANALYZING GENDER AND MIGRATION THROUGH VISUAL

TEXTS

OUTLINE

• THE NEO-COLONIAL AND GLOBALIZED BODY

• DOMESTIC WORKERS

• MAIL-ORDER BRIDES

• ENTERTAINERS

STUDY APPROACH

• Look and analyze images

• Study data

• Understand how these migrants are “constructed”

• How can we say that these bodies are globalized neo-colonial bodies?

THE NEO-COLONIAL AND GLOBALIZED BODY

APPENDIX, PAGE 1

APPENDIX, PAGE 1

Arasula Mina, Pertama Agency

Mary Jane Ramos

Marissa Pao, Maids Online, Lebanon

Elma Nisperos

Maids.com

Maplemaids.com

Housewarmers.com

Ourmaids,com

DEFINING REPRODUCTIVE LABOR (from Parrenas)

• Labor needed to sustain the productive labor force;

• Household chores

• Care of elderly, adults and youth

• Socialization of children

• Maintenance of social ties in the family

STUDYING REPRODUCTIVE LABOR

We take into account:

Racial Division

Globalization

Feminization of labor

INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER OF CARETAKING

• Three-tier transfer of reproductive labor

• Class privileged women hire Filipina domestic workers

• Filipina domestic workers hire the services of poorer women

RACIAL DIVISION OF REPRODUCTIVE LABOR

(NAKANO)

• Hierarchichal and interdependent relationship

• Interlocks the race and class status of women

• … in its distribution in the formal and informal labor market

GLOBALIZATION

• Movement of manufacturing production to newly industrialized countries

• Multinational corporations maintain central operations in new economic centers

Italy and Los Angeles

• Average day worker US$1,229

• Caregivers $778/mth• Some pay $5000 to

enter Italy w/o visa

• Mainly live in workers -- $350 a week

• Caregivers $425/week

CONTRADICTIONS IN THE MIDDLE

• Conflicting class mobility• Increase and decrease in class status• Pain of family separation -- loss, guilt and

loneliness• Caring for someone else’s family• The Patriarchal nuclear household at both

ends

HONG KONG

• 1995 -- 120,000 “foreign domestic workers” or FDF from the Philippines out of a total 150,000

• Majority are single

• 25-35

HONG KONG -- COMPARISONS

• Filipinas are compared to:• Muijai -- a type of bondservant;

usually “bought” when they are 8 years old

• Sohei -- a type of spinster amah; paid to do housework; 1920s; collapse of silk industry

HONG KONG --MISCONCEPTIONS

• Filipinas are perceived to:• Exhibit a lack of discipline and dedication• Be deserving of the harsh discipline and

punishment they receive• Uniquely dangerous and morally suspect

compared to the idealized Chinese DW• Problem stems at being “foreign.”

HONG KONG -- HISTORY

• 1970s -- a few hundreds working for expats

• 1980s -- many Chinese women started working; young and middle aged families wanted Filipina maids with “Western” culture

• 1980s -- legislation was passed -- short-term contracts

HONG KONG -- employers’ view

• Relationship was more professional than with Chinese maids

• Filipinas came to be viewed as “public nuisance”

• Filipinas “just don’t act like servants.”

• Chastity, Sexuality and Familial Devotion

HONG KONG ---SEXUALITY

• Sexuality and Clothing -- too stylish, colorful, provocative, “cheap”

• Lack of commitment to families indicating willingness to do anything for money

• Moral position in the social system is poorly articulated and therefore threatens Hong Kong’s moral order

HONG KONG -- CLASS IDENTITY

• Ambiguity

• High educational attainment

• Uniforms, dress codes, curfews and rules dictate spatial boundaries -- delineate and reinforce social distinctions

HONG KONG -- JEALOUSY AND PHYSICAL ABUSE

• 7th century Tang Encyclopdia Yiwen leiju, cites jealous women in history

• In history and literature, jealousy provoked wives to punish their husbands or rivals

• 1993 -- 18months -- 293 complaints of maltreatment

• Women beaten, slapped, pinched and burned

CANADA

• Have to live in homes of employers for a minimum of two years out of a three-year period;

• Legally classified as temporary workers, subject to deportation upon termination of contracted labor as live-in domestics

CANADA -- CONTRADICTIONS

• United Nations Human Development Index (1990) lists Canada as the “best country in the world to live.”

• Yet, social services, rights of immigrants and minorities, working women’s access to public health care has been in continual decline

CANADA -- history of domestic labor

• From 1955 to mid-1970s -- Carribean women

• 1980s --recruitment from the Philippines to undercut the organizing campaigns of the Carribean women

• 1981 -- Foreign Domestic Movement policy

• 1992 --est. of Live-in Caregiver Program

FILIPINAS IN CANADA

• 14 out of 25 came from working in the Middle East, Asia and Europe;

• Considered in a racist stereotype to be “good servants”

• Single greatest feature of the domestic worker’s ability to negotiate is the ability to live out

• 18 of 25 said very important to send money

CANADA SPACES

• 16 of 24 had a basement room

• 16 of 23 had their own telephone

• 18 of 25 had no locks in their doors

• 16 of 23 wanted changes in the domestic requirement

CANADA -- GOALS

• Sending money home (10 of 20)• Bringing family to Canada (6 of

20)• Educating their children.• Improving their standard of living• Gaining a better job

NANNIES DIRECT

• My dear fellow Filipino, Working in Canada is much easier. I have freedom and respect as a person…I am very thankful to Nannies Direct. Jennifer

SIKLAB CAMPAIGN

• National alliance of Filipino migrant workers

• Rally, January 13, 2006• Deliver of over 1000 signed petitions

calling for a stop to deportations• Reasons for non-completion of 2 years --

cancer, pregnancy, forced by abusive husband

MIGRANT ORGANIZING IN CANADA

Areas of Concern:

Economic marginalization

Systematic Racism

Sectoral Issues

Youth

2003 alone -- 1,811 caregivers entered

TAIWAN

• 1990s -- Taiwan started receiving foreign domestic workers

• 110,000, 90% of whom are from the Philippines and Indonesia

TAIWAN (Lan, 2003)

• Structural continuity between unpaid household labor and paid domestic work;

• Migrant women become transnational breadwinners but remain burdened by gendered duties;

• Bargaining with the interchange between monetary value and emotional value

TAIWAN -- CHOICES

• Gainful domestic work

• Being unpaid housewives

• International marriages to escape the status of being an “old maid.”