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.
One’s commitment of immigrating to a new country for a better life indicates that oneself is ready to risk the life given to them by facing many hardships along the way. In the novel Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario, Enrique does exactly that, risking his own life at the age of seventeen in order to reunite with his mother who left him when he was five in order to obtain a better job in the US and give Enrique and his older sister everything she thought they deserved. Nazario utilizes an emotional appeal and metaphors to inform readers of the arduous situations migrants experience on their long and tiring journey in search of a family member and a better future.
Thomas Jefferson believed that expanding westward was the key to a healthy nation. Forty percent of the population lived in trans -Appalachian west. Most people had left their homes from the East for a economic opportunity.
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.
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.
This large disparity in pay encourages the discerning idea that children living in the Third World might be better off without a mother physically with them. Survival is dependent on funds for necessities rather than love and affection. When mothers can’t provide both money and affection for their family simultaneously, they face reality and choose one. And while it may be sad, the obvious choice is that which will nourish their family more effectively, money. While these mothers choose to move to First world countries, no other wants to abandon their children, Hochschild says, “most [mothers] feel the separation acutely, expressing guilt and remorse to the researchers who interview them” (Hochschild 21). However, economic predicaments coerce these choices. Hochschild depicts these economically coerced choices by sharing the story Rowena Bautista a Filipino mother who left her own children to nanny two new children in the United States. By choosing to provide for her family Rowena has consequently missed watching her children grow up. She has even missed holidays with her children, and in turn, the bond between her and her children suffers. While First World mothers are returning to work to provide for their children, Third World immigrant caregivers are filling
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.
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
Perez, a third generation of Mexican migrant worker in the United States. Different aforementioned backgrounds bring the two narratives to share some distinct points which influence how they cultivate their cultures. To manage a brief and clear discussion, a comparison and contrast overview is presented first to open the discussion of the cultural identities of the Indonesian and Mexican migrant worker’s diaspora narratives. A further discussion on the cultural identity of both narratives, then,
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.