Organizer: Stephen Graw, International Rice Research Institute
Chair: Mark Selden, Binghamton University
Discussant: Shelley Feldman, Cornell University
Recognizing the significance of transnational labor migration and capital flows, this panel draws on contemporary debates exploring the development effects of overseas work and remittance transfers to open a conversation among panelists about the diverse expressions and consequences of the movement of people and money. How, for example, do we explain the complexity of the global circulation of capital and labor and the role of often ambivalent state policies and national norms on this circulation? How are particular agricultural practices, household strategies, and productive capacities shaped by both the availability of or dependence on remittance income or on the loss of family labor? What methodological strategies enable us to examine people’s diverse expressions and relations to place, normative expectations of productive capacity, kin networks, and community formation? Sobieszczyk applies organizational network theory to examine how the Thai state’s construction of "legal" or "illegal" migrants determines domestic recruitment and foreign labor experiences. Gamburd’s ethnographic study compares young women’s overseas migration and reentry in two culturally distinct Sri Lankan villages to argue that as overseas labor becomes increasingly feminized, traditional local gender roles are challenged and transformed. Graw’s Philippines study uses agrarian household data to examine the impact of remittances on food security and the transformation of family farms, challenging the utility of statist definitions of "farm" and "rural" as productive and spatial categories in the global era. Departing from the empirical focus of much migration research, Asis contrasts meanings, motivations and desires among Filipino overseas workers with the political and media construction of those workers.
Revisiting Meanings and Motivations in Migration Studies
Maruja M. B. Asis, University of the Philippines
For the state and for countless Filipinos, overseas employment has become an important strategy for survival or mobility. The continuing migration of Filipino workers since the 1970s has been variously explained in terms of the structural weaknesses of the Philippine economy, the active participation of the state in deploying Filipino workers, the facilitating role of the migration industry, and the role of social networks in expanding the distribution of kin members in various parts of the world. Social forces act on individual decisions and behaviors, but taking the perspective of the individual is essential in understanding migration, particularly those aspects that seem incomprehensible (e.g., why Filipinos continue to go abroad despite knowing the dangers of migration). Bringing in the perspective of the individual involves an examination of the meanings and motivations people hold about migration. What kinds of meanings do people attach to overseas migration? What attractions and perils do they perceive about going abroad? What do these migration-related perceptions say about the life-goals of Filipinos, particularly their concept of the "good life"? These questions will be explored in this paper. The first section will review migration theories and the place of the individual in these theories. The second section will address the key questions using data drawn from studies of migrant-sending countries and various interviews with Filipino migrants. The third section will discuss the links between "personal" views and "national" concerns, particularly those articulated by state policies, advocates and the popular media.
Female Labor Migration: Global Links and Local Changes in Two Sri Lankan Communities
Michele Gamburd, Portland State University
This paper on the migration of domestic servants from Sri Lanka to the Middle East examines the ongoing and sometimes painful transformations in local understandings of family, gender roles, class status, and work brought about by women’s involvement in the global economy. Data includes experiences of households from two different communities in Southern Sri Lanka: a Sinhala-speaking Buddhist village and a Tamil-speaking Muslim village. Couching a discussion of local data in the context of national policies and statistical information, I compare villagers’ migration strategies, agency fees, money lending arrangements, and use of remittances (to buy land, build houses, and support daily consumption needs). In the Muslim village, matrilocal residence patterns, a higher original standard of living, and the migration of unmarried women seeking to build dowry houses enabled investment practices exceeding those found in the Sinhala village. Strict Muslim norms about female virginity hampered single Muslim migrants’ efforts to marry in a way not paralleled in the Sinhala community. In both communities, flux in gender roles accompanied women’s increasingly visible activities as breadwinners and wage-earners. By examining the micro-processes of social change, this paper explores how Sri Lanka’s growing integration into the global economy affects individuals and households differently in two ethnic communities.
Some Observations on Overseas Work and the Future of Filipino Rice Production
Stephen Graw, International Rice Research Institute
Overseas remittances, increasingly coming from women’s labor, are a crucial resource for agrarian households in developing countries like the Philippines. What are the effects of remittances on household differentiation and household members’ continuing commitment to agricultural production, and on their choice to engage in non-farm work or economic innovation? Among lowland Filipino rice farmers, who are the producers of the nation’s staple cereal, answers to these questions vitally concern national food security. Using surveys and interviews with recipient farming households in three provinces, I examine: (1) households’ disposal of remittances; (2) their commitment to rice production and investment in production innovations; (3) changes in household status; and (4) transformations in the gendered household division of labor, both on and off the farm. The secular downtrend in the profitability of rice and the poor salaries and working conditions for most Filipino labor, largely responsible for the flight to overseas work, provide the context for my analyses. Initial findings indicate that archaic, exorbitant credit relations, lack of effective cooperatives, and an aversion to labor market entry by returned men and women migrants all inhibit household economic development, despite remittances. Hence remittances are likely not a source of sustainable gains for rice producers. I conclude with considerations of how this outcome is related to state development policies aimed at agricultural self-sufficiency and globally competitive industrial capabilities.