International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue VI, June 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186
Peachy G. Domingo
Department of Social Sciences, College of Arts and Social Sciences
Central Luzon State University
Abstract: The global movement of people which coincided with the globalization of the market economy resulted into the feminization of overseas migrate, on given the higher demands for female migrant workers from the low-income developing countries such as the Philippines. This has changed the landscape of overseas migration in the country since the 1970s where the bulk of overseas migrant workers were males as triggered by the oil boom in the Middle East (Ducanes, 2015). This paper examines the social dimension of transnational migration as experienced by Filipina overseas migrant returnees by understanding the motivations for temporary overseas migration, the factors associated with return migration, their narratives of transnational migration and their self-assessment of the impact of migration on their well-being.
Qualitative interviews were conducted among seven (7) Filipina migrant returnees from Nueva Ecija. Results revealed the interplay of gender, migration and family in relation to push and pull migration. Likewise, the transnational experiences of these migrant returnees demonstrate the resiliency and agency of women in the context of development and transnational migration.
I. INTRODUCTION
The global movement of people or what we call international migration is associated with development in two ways. First, a developmental orientation of international labor migration evaluates its socioeconomic consequences on national economies, communities and households (Goss 1995) through overseas migrants’ remittances. The increase of South-North migration has been accompanied by increase in money remitted by migrants to developing countries (De Haas 2005). Remittance is a major factor in integrating societies together economically and socially (Orozco 2002). A functionalist approach to international migration predicts that remittances will stimulate economic growth (Goss 1995) and will eventually improve income inequality in the country of origin. Second, the increased participation of women in the labor force among developed societies resulted to the feminization of overseas migration engendered by the increased demands for female migrant workers from the low-income developing countries such as the Philippines to fulfill the carework duties vacated by women from the developed world as a requisite to their participation in the labor force. So, the demand for carework and domestic works resulted to the gendering of international migration globally. In the