Gender, Migration, and Reproductive Labor in Visual Texts

1. THE WOMAN POSING WITH A POSTER OF THE BASIC SIX FOOD GROUPS ANALYZING GENDER AND MIGRATION THROUGH VISUAL TEXTS

2. OUTLINE • THE NEO-COLONIAL AND GLOBALIZED BODY • DOMESTIC WORKERS • MAIL-ORDER BRIDES • ENTERTAINERS

3. STUDY APPROACH • Look and analyze images • Study data • Understand how these migrants are “constructed” • How can we say that these bodies are globalized neo-colonial bodies?

4. THE NEO-COLONIAL AND GLOBALIZED BODY

5. APPENDIX, PAGE 1

7. Arasula Mina, Pertama Agency

8. Mary Jane Ramos

9. Marissa Pao, Maids Online, Lebanon

10. Elma Nisperos

11. Maids.com

12. Maplemaids.com

13. Housewarmers.com

14. Ourmaids,com

15. DEFINING REPRODUCTIVE LABOR (from Parrenas) • Labor needed to sustain the productive labor force; • Household chores • Care of elderly, adults and youth • Socialization of children • Maintenance of social ties in the family

16. STUDYING REPRODUCTIVE LABOR We take into account: Racial Division Globalization Feminization of labor

17. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER OF CARETAKING • Three-tier transfer of reproductive labor • Class privileged women hire Filipina domestic workers • Filipina domestic workers hire the services of poorer women

18. RACIAL DIVISION OF REPRODUCTIVE LABOR (NAKANO) • Hierarchichal and interdependent relationship • Interlocks the race and class status of women • … in its distribution in the formal and informal labor market

19. GLOBALIZATION • Movement of manufacturing production to newly industrialized countries • Multinational corporations maintain central operations in new economic centers

20. Average day worker US$1,229 Caregivers $778/mth Some pay $5000 to enter Italy w/o visa Mainly live in workers -- $350 a week Caregivers $425/week Italy and Los Angeles

21. CONTRADICTIONS IN THE MIDDLE • Conflicting class mobility • Increase and decrease in class status • Pain of family separation -- loss, guilt and loneliness • Caring for someone else’s family • The Patriarchal nuclear household at both ends

23. HONG KONG • 1995 -- 120,000 “foreign domestic workers” or FDF from the Philippines out of a total 150,000 • Majority are single • 25-35

24. HONG KONG -- COMPARISONS • Filipinas are compared to: • Muijai -- a type of bondservant; usually “bought” when they are 8 years old • Sohei -- a type of spinster amah; paid to do housework; 1920s; collapse of silk industry

25. HONG KONG --MISCONCEPTIONS • Filipinas are perceived to: • Exhibit a lack of discipline and dedication • Be deserving of the harsh discipline and punishment they receive • Uniquely dangerous and morally suspect compared to the idealized Chinese DW • Problem stems at being “foreign.”

26. HONG KONG -- HISTORY • 1970s -- a few hundreds working for expats • 1980s -- many Chinese women started working; young and middle aged families wanted Filipina maids with “Western” culture • 1980s -- legislation was passed -- short-term contracts

27. HONG KONG -- employers’ view • Relationship was more professional than with Chinese maids • Filipinas came to be viewed as “public nuisance” • Filipinas “just don’t act like servants.” • Chastity, Sexuality and Familial Devotion

28. HONG KONG ---SEXUALITY • Sexuality and Clothing -- too stylish, colorful, provocative, “cheap” • Lack of commitment to families indicating willingness to do anything for money • Moral position in the social system is poorly articulated and therefore threatens Hong Kong’s moral order

29. HONG KONG -- CLASS IDENTITY • Ambiguity • High educational attainment • Uniforms, dress codes, curfews and rules dictate spatial boundaries -- delineate and reinforce social distinctions

30. HONG KONG -- JEALOUSY AND PHYSICAL ABUSE • 7th century Tang Encyclopdia Yiwen leiju, cites jealous women in history • In history and literature, jealousy provoked wives to punish their husbands or rivals • 1993 -- 18months -- 293 complaints of maltreatment • Women beaten, slapped, pinched and burned

46. CANADA • Have to live in homes of employers for a minimum of two years out of a three-year period; • Legally classified as temporary workers, subject to deportation upon termination of contracted labor as live-in domestics

47. CANADA -- CONTRADICTIONS • United Nations Human Development Index (1990) lists Canada as the “best country in the world to live.” • Yet, social services, rights of immigrants and minorities, working women’s access to public health care has been in continual decline

48. CANADA -- history of domestic labor • From 1955 to mid-1970s -- Carribean women • 1980s --recruitment from the Philippines to undercut the organizing campaigns of the Carribean women • 1981 -- Foreign Domestic Movement policy • 1992 --est. of Live-in Caregiver Program

49. FILIPINAS IN CANADA • 14 out of 25 came from working in the Middle East, Asia and Europe; • Considered in a racist stereotype to be “good servants” • Single greatest feature of the domestic worker’s ability to negotiate is the ability to live out • 18 of 25 said very important to send money

50. CANADA SPACES • 16 of 24 had a basement room • 16 of 23 had their own telephone • 18 of 25 had no locks in their doors • 16 of 23 wanted changes in the domestic requirement