Gender and Philippine transnational migration : tracing the impacts 'home'

Abstract

This thesis explores the experiences and implications of transnational parenting: on the individual men and women engaging in transnational migration; on the children they leave behind in their countries of origin; and (broadly) on their 'home' societies. Expanded notions of development and citizenship frame the examination of migration: a transnational lens highlights the importance of the social networks and relationships migrants create and maintain across geographic and cultural borders. Qualitative fieldwork and interviews with Filipino mothers and fathers working in Doha, Qatar are used to assess the gendered nature of transnational caregiving. The findings from this study tentatively suggest few differences between long distance mothering and fathering, and that with careful monitoring and additional 'parenting work' the situation can be of limited risk to the children involved. There is no doubt of the presence of a 'culture of migration' in the Philippines, which the state fosters to serve its own developmental needs, seemingly at the expense of the individuals who face the pain and challenges of living in transnational nuclear families.