In the Second Edition of Servants of Globalization: Migration and Domestic Work, Rhacel Parreñas examines all of the challenging aspects of the lives of migrant Filipino domestic workers. Throughout the interviews that are included in this novel, the author was able to analyze different cases filled with personal struggle and familial support using the perspectives of many determined women across the diaspora, mainly focusing on those to travel to work in Western Countries. In this paper, I will briefly summarize the first three chapters, bringing to light the most important aspects the Parreñas included. I will then discuss the methodology used in her convincing global ethnography, before I include both the advantages and disadvantages to …show more content…
I will expand later on this paper about the arenas of constraint that the author wrote about for migrant workers in the conclusion of the first chapter, as it is a topic that needs to be unpacked greatly.
The second chapter discussed the international division of reproductive labour and the reasons why women may choose to become migrant workers. Often times the common answer of why these Filipina women made the decision to enter the reproductive labour force is one based on both economic and gender inequality reasoning. Gender is now seen as the hidden cause of migration, where women are taking on the role of the income provider and it is a strategy that can “relieve women of their unequal division of labour with men in the family.” (Parreñas, 2015 – pg. 32) Through the three tier system there is honestly no gender-egalitarian way that the division occurs, because their own responsibilities are given to those who are less privileged for less benefits.
Parreñas introduces the dynamic of postmodern familial struggles that inevitably come with being a migrant worker. She introduces briefly the 3 types of transitional families, where members of said family are located in two different locations. (Parreñas, 2015) When one parent is abroad, the father is normally left behind to care for the children and household but those tasks are often taken up by other female
Immigration affects families in many different ways. In the book “Enrique’s Journey” by Sonia Nazario, family is a core element. After Enrique’s mother leaves for the U.S., the whole concept of their family gets distorted. The walking out of Enrique’s father and the abandonment of his grandmother help to disband the family even more. Enrique also threatens to repeat the same mistakes his family made with his daughter when he considers leaving her behind in Honduras. Family is the central theme in Enrique’s Journey because of his relationship and resentment with his mother, the rejection of his father and grandmother, and Enrique’s decision to leave his daughter, Jasmin, behind.
Although his research is not fully based in the Mexican immigrants, it is rather based in a small community of immigrants from Tucuani, this is a work that helps people to understand the transnational life of migrants in general. In fact, being an international student and coming from a country market by immigration, this book also provides an explanation of some for some of my personal experience. For example, when he notices how the first generation and second generation is treated differently when returning home. The first generation is well received and praised when the second generation is treated as arrogant. My country was also greatly impacted by civil war which forced a number of people to immigrate. This book analysis presented several explanations for the reason why first generation keeps the image of their country of origin as “home” that they would always come back and the second not so much. Like Julia, many second generation returning to my country feel happy to return home, but they make people unhappy since they would not let go of the values they learned growing up in a foreign country. I didn’t understand much and I confess that before moving to the US I also consider many of them arrogant. In fact, these views may influence how both generations are treated when returning to their home
The book Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States illustrates the fieldwork of the author Seth M. Holmes by explaining the myriad aspects of migrant workers’ lives in the U.S.—from the politics to the social environments to the physical body. By not only studying, but living, the lives of these migrant workers, Holmes brings the reader a view unseen by the vast majority and provides the opportunity for greater understanding through the intense details of his work. The voices of vastly different characters—real people—are captured and expounded on without judgment but with deep consideration for all factors that contribute to each person’s life, opinions, and knowledge. Ultimately, a picture of intersectionality is painted in the colors of migrants, mothers, fathers, children, doctors, soldiers, executives, the poor, the rich, and more.
The Great Migration was a massive movement of African Americans from the South to the North from 1863 to 1960. The largest spike in this migration occurred from about 1910 to 1920.
Before introducing any major events, or analysis, it’s important to note that this autobiographical work was only made possible with the aid of written documentation, and tales passed on from the family and the community. This is imperative because a great portion of the piece focuses on events that Edwidge didn’t experience first-hand, so she heavily stresses on the details being re-surfaced through friends and family to complete a holistic emigration story. Family history and the involvement of cherishing family moments is often an overlooked form of communication, but without this, this and many other important minority stories would have never been complied in a way where we can now discuss them in a culturally-reflective academic setting, like this course.
In a future that seems so barbaric and unbelievable, many aspects of our society today can be seen. American families work so that they may purchase lawn ornaments which hang from a rack and are perceived as a very beautiful display. These decorations, called SGs or Semplica Girls, are shipped in from the poorest countries in the world. These lawn ornaments exhibited as a sign of wealth are living women working a physically demanding job in order to get minimal compensation that can be put towards providing their family with a better life. In his short story “The Semplica Girl Diaries,” George Saunders uses symbolism to show that the tiny wire that connects Americans to immigrant workers is invisible to some but painful to most.
Migration in developing countries is often seen as a way of development through the stimulation of global currency within the country. Specifically throughout the Philippines, it is more common for migrant workers to be female, resulting in the overall structure and dynamics of these families to change. In the novel, Servants of Globalization, author Rhacel Parreñas addresses how the pre-existing structure of gender expectations and unequal employment opportunities for male and females abroad influence the overall gender patterns and impacts of migration from the Philippines, ultimately affecting the dynamics of families as they become transnational and challenging the pre-existing gender ideologies within the countries.
The article “The Great Human Migration” uses non- historical evidence like archaeological findings or samples of DNA which have proven theories to draw conclusions about human history. Two main theories, the Multi- Regional hypothesis and the Out-of-Africa Theory, have arose to support and explicate the fossil records. Unhistorical evidence, like analyzing DNA, have helped scientists trace heredities all the way back in time. This proved that Homo sapiens have evolved in Africa, almost 200,000 years ago. This evidence
The progression of people into and within the United States has had an essential impact on the nation, both intentionally and unintentionally. Progressions such as The Great Migration and the Second Great Migration are examples of movements that impacted the United States greatly. During these movements, African Americans migrated to flee racism and prejudice in the South, as well as to inquire jobs in industrial cities. They were unable to escape racism, but they were able to infuse their culture into American society. During the twentieth century, economic and political problems led to movements such as The Great Migration and The Second Great Migration which impacted the United States significantly.
Enrique’s Journey focuses and sheds more light and understanding on the aspects and challenges of extreme poverty, family abandonment, systematic issues of an immigration system and what one has to go through in the face of adversity. The book centers on Enrique who starts out as a young boy living in extreme poverty in Honduras with his family. Enrique is an older adolescent, Hispanic, poverty economic status, unemployed most times, and is in a relationship with one child. This case study will further look at Enrique’s personal experiences from a young child up to young adulthood and how that has shaped his development has a person from coming from such difficult environmental circumstances. This will also look at the different environmental perspectives in the micro, mezzo and macro level when pertaining to effects on human behavior.
Stuart Hall offers a distinct way of understanding cultural identity, bringing two facets of cultural identity in terms of a shared culture which refers to the communal identity: the commonness people with a shared history and ancestry might have (223), and a more personal one which refers to what people personally have been through and what they might become (225). The definitions are useful to be used as a lens to scrutinize two diaspora narratives of Indonesian and Mexican migrant workers. A comparison and contrast analysis is assumed to fit the effort on exploring two different texts which certainly offer distinguished and unique characteristics since both narratives have different socio-cultural backgrounds. I argue that since the Mexican migrant workers work and live within their families, they are most likely able to practice, maintain and preserve their Mexican culture. Their homeland culture strongly affects their life in the host country. On the contrary, the Indonesian migrant workers who work alone as individuals
The first study looked at was done by Wai-Man Tang, titled “Effects of Transnational migration on drug use: An ethnographic study of Nepali female heroin users in Hong Kong”. Field research was the method used for data collection. The data collection was on the effects that transitional migration has on drug use, specifically on Nepali female heroin users in Hong Kong. The goal of Tang’s study was to take an ethnographic approach to see how female’s drug use in South Asia is affected by transnational migration and other complex variables, such as gender identity (2015). The data for this study was collected in two different stages. The first stage being semi-structured interviews, where Tang met a few Nepali heroin users at a methadone clinic,
Rhacel Parrenas article, “The Care Crisis in the Philippines: Children and Transnational Families in Global Economy” is an enticing piece regarding the developing issue of migrant care. Throughout the reading, there are several references to the kinds of impacts such work has upon mothers and children in these distinct situations. The article discusses a series of interviews that were conducted with both women who are enrolled in domestic labour, and their children’s shared views on their mother’s decision to work abroad.
Migration is a powerful driving factor of changes in traditional gender roles. For a long time researchers of migratory processes assumed that the absolute majority of labor migrants were represented by men who were defined as the main bread-winner of families whereas women took responsibility for children and domestic duties at home. Traditionally women haven’t been considered as subjects of migration in general or have
Based on the above analyzed two immigration and development theories in Macro and Micro scopes it can be seen that immigration is always a big decision to make and it will encounter a lot of obstacles in the process. Hence, to find a proper work and settle in a new place needs the immigrants to be adaptable and flexible.