The Labor of Care

Filipina Migrants and Transnational Families in the Digital Age

Valerie Francisco-Menchavez

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780252083341, 9780252041723
• eBook ISBN: 9780252050398
• Topic: Sozialwissenschaften
• Subtopic: Asiatisch-Amerikanische Studien

For generations, migration moved in one direction at a time: migrants to host countries, and money to families left behind. The Labor of Care argues that globalization has changed all that. Valerie Francisco-Menchavez spent five years alongside a group of working migrant mothers. Drawing on interviews and up-close collaboration with these women, Francisco-Menchavez looks at the sacrifices, emotional and material consequences, and recasting of roles that emerge from family separation. She pays particular attention to how technologies like Facebook, Skype, and recorded video open up transformative ways of bridging distances while still supporting traditional family dynamics. As she shows, migrants also build communities of care in their host countries. These chosen families provide an essential form of mutual support. What emerges is a fascinating portrait of today's transnational family—sundered, yet inexorably linked over the distances by timeless emotions and new forms of intimacy.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Filipino Transnational Families and New Caring Strategies
• 1 Multidirectional Care in Transnational Families
• 2 Skype Mothers and Facebook Children
• 3 Communities of Care
• 4 Caring Even if It Hurts
• Conclusion: Producing Transnational Families and Possibilities Embedded
• Methodological Appendix
• Appendix A: NYC Interview Guide
• Appendix B: Manila Interview Guide
• Appendix C: Flyer for Diwang Pinay
• Appendix D: Research Questions and Methods Grid
• Appendix E: Research Methods Triangulation Cycle
• Notes
• References
• Index