The Philippines is a major contributor to the transnational motherhood phenomena and the chain of care in North American and other western countries. The Philippines has built through globalization strong remittance relationships between the west and the global south, so much that national identities are being shaped around transnational motherhood. Arlie Russell Hochschild conducts numerous interviews with Filipino migrant mothers to understand the painstaking experience of living and working in Western households as caregivers.
Quotes:
“As rich nations become richer and poor nations become poorer, this one-way flow of talent and training continuously widens the gap between the two” pg 35
A migrant mother “you have to believe me when I say that it was like I was having intense psychological problems. I would catch myself gazing at nothing, thinking about my child” pg 37
“When such children were asked whether they would also migrate when they grew up, leaving their own children in the care of others, they all said no.” pg 38
“the more time and energy she gives the children she is paid to love, the less time and energy she can give her own children. But is love itself also a resource? And if it is a resource, can children have a right to it?” pg 38
These quotes highlight the more ethical battles each migrant mother faces, and it describes the difficult relationship mothers and their children are put through because of globalization, and a one-way force of resources flow and money flow. The countries that give up their mothers are thus raising vulnerable children. The system is unjust and it must be corrected, motherhood shouldn’t have a price.
The Philippine’s is by no means alone it doing this since there are numerous Latina countries, South Asian countries and some African countries joining the care industry. The growing demand for care work is shaping the way families are structured, mothers are becoming more absent in families as it becomes customary for the mother to travel for better-paying jobs and the possibility of immigration to a western country. It is important to recognize that motherhood has been claimed as useable or package-able service now outside the home. Using women to provide care work outside of their own house and to accept that women can mother another child because of her inherent biological mothering capacities is another debate that brings to question what gender and sex have to do with care work? This paper challenges the reader to recognize the injustice in assuming care work as a women’s role and judging motherhood as something own-able/ sell-able. It questions the role of nation-building in families, and how globalization works from small scales to higher scales.
Keywords: Globalization, motherhood, transnational motherhood, care-chain, migration
Author: Savita Bhabhi
Thank you for sharing this in your blog posts. The ever changing economies, national structures, and geopolitical posturing between countries in the Global North and the Global South are some of the many causes of Philippine human migration. As evidence of bearing the uneven social consequences of a globalizing economy, high levels of human labor export are weaved into the social fabric of Philippine society. Transnational caregiving becomes a vantage point to articulate the fusion of mobility and immobility in an era of transnationalism. Examining the social and emotional impacts of transnational motherhood on the family members left behind will provide an integral angle to how these global movements affect family relations. As international migration and global political economic structures…