MULTINATIONAL MAIDS: MULTISTATE MIGRATION AMONG ASPIRING FILIPINO MIGRANT DOMESTIC WORKERS by Anju Mary Paul A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Public Policy and Sociology) in The University of Michigan 2012 Doctoral Committee: Professor Mary E. Corcoran, Co-Chair Professor Fatma Muge Gocek, Co-Chair Associate Professor Karyn R. Lacy Associate Professor Anthony S. Chen, Northwestern University © Anju Mary Paul 2012 DEDICATION To All the Filipino migrants who shared their life stories with me. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There is no easy way to catalog all of the people and organizations that helped in big ways and small to make this project come to fruition. I am certain that I will inadvertently overlook some of them and so I apologize in advance for that oversight. One of the biggest sources of support was my dissertation committee. My committee members’ steady confidence in my abilities was crucial during the long, dark months I spent writing and editing dissertation chapters. Mary Corcoran and Fatma Müge Göçek will always be the role models I look to when it comes time for me to advise my own students on their theses, dissertations and job market searches. I will always treasure Karyn Lacy’s willingness to let me partner with her own research project, reflecting her trust in my research skills. And there is no one I know who provides more incisive, generous and thoughtful feedback on papers and presentations than Anthony Chen. I thank the day I asked each of them to be on my dissertation committee and they agreed. Other faculty at the University of Michigan were also incredibly supportive during my time as a graduate student: Karin Martin and Dean Yang were my advisors for my third-year paper which formed the basis of my dissertation, and Karin taught me the qualitative research skills that proved so essential in the field; Ann Lin is the reason I started researching Filipino migrant domestic workers in the first place; and David Harding was always willing to read my article drafts and give clear and practical iii feedback. Other UM faculty who unknowingly helped guide my research trajectory were Jason Owen-Smith, Mark Mizruchi, Silvia Pedraza, Al Young Jr. and George Steinmetz. Among UM staff, my heartfelt thanks go first to Michelle Spornhauer who “adopted” me when I joined the joint program in Public Policy and Sociology, and handled all my scholarship applications and other critical paperwork after I moved out of Ann Arbor. Over at Sociology, Jeannie Loughry and Rick Smoke have helped in numerous small ways to make my life a little less crazy. Patricia Preston, meanwhile, was instrumental in my being awarded a National Science Foundation dissertation improvement grant. The National Science Foundation is only one of the institutions I am grateful to for having helped fund my research. I also received various fellowships, scholarships and grants through the Rackham Graduate School at UM: the Rackham Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, the Barbour Scholarship for Asian Women, two Rackham Graduate Student Research Grants, various conference travel grants and block grants. I also received fellowships and grants through the Center for the Education of Women at UM including the Mary Malcolmson Raphael Fellowship. From both the Department of Sociology and the Ford School of Public Policy, I received block grants and fellowships to cover select years in the program and to cover various research and travel expenses. One of my most critical sources of financial support came from the UM Office of Financial Aid’s childcare subsidy for graduate students. That subsidy enabled me to afford full-time daycare for my two children thus allowing me to carve out enough time during the week to work on my research. iv In each of the countries where I conducted research, I was welcomed and assisted by many individuals and organizations and it is not an exaggeration when I say that I could not have written this dissertation without them. In Singapore, my old friends, Mark Puhaindran and Khor Hui Boon, opened their home to me and let me use their spare bedroom while I conducted my fieldwork. The teachers at the Bayanihan Center, the staff and volunteers at HOME and its shelter and maid agency, the volunteers and staff at Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), and the leaders of various Filipino grassroots organizations, displayed incredible generosity, answering all my questions about the situation facing migrant domestic workers in Singapore and suggesting potential interviewees. Special thanks must be given to John Devasayaham at TWC2, Jolovan Wham at HOME and Eberta* at the Philippine consulate in Singapore. In Hong Kong, volunteers at the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants, Abra Tinggian Ilocano Society (ATIS-HK), the Bethune House shelter, Migrante International and the Asian Migrant Centre, and the nuns at the Catholic Center and St. John’s Cathedral were crucial in the success of my recruitment and interviewing efforts. These individuals were always willing to sit down with me to explain the history of migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong and point me to potential interviewees. In particular, Vanessa* at the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants, Joseph Lourdes at the Mission for Filipino Migrant Workers and Carrie* from ATIS-HK deserve special thanks for their warmth and generosity throughout my stay in Hong Kong. In the Philippines, where I was most at sea, I received the most help. I stayed at a women’s hostel run by the non-profit PGX Global Exchange in Quezon City and all the * Not her real name v staff there were so warm and helpful to this first-time visitor to the Philippines. The staff at the Scalabrini Migration Center, the Kalungan Migration Center, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the Center for Migrant Advocacy and the Azizah International Manpower Services recruitment agency, were also amazingly kind and generous with both their time and knowledge. My special thanks go out to Fabio Baggio from the Scalabrini Migration Center, Imelda Rebate at the Kanlungan Center for Migrant Workers, Bernice Roldan at Unlad Kabayan and Madam Azizah from the Azizah International Manpower Services agency. In Canada, there is one person who deserves most of my thanks: Marcie* from the Migrante International office in Toronto. Other NGO activists and lawyers who were kind enough and patient enough to answer all my questions include Virginie Francoeur from the West Coast Domestic Workers’ Association, Rafael Fabregas from Mamann, Sandaluk Immigration Lawyers and Marco Luciano from Migrante International. I am also grateful to Statistics Canada and Citizenship and Immigration Canada for the unpublished data and information they shared with me regarding Canada’s live-in caregiver program. In the United States, I received help from Filipino organizations on both coasts. In New York City, I am deeply grateful to the staff and volunteers of Kabalikat, Damayan, the National Domestic Workers Alliance and FiRENYC. In particular, I am grateful to Lainey*, Mindy* and Jocelyn* from the first two of these organizations for trusting me with their stories and giving me access to their organizations. Valerie Francisco from the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center was also very generous and open in answering my at-times naïve questions about the history of Filipino migrant domestic vi workers in New York City even as she was studying them herself. Officials at the US Department of Homeland Security and the State Department were also helpful in answering my requests for immigration statistics. On the West Coast, I received help Roberto Q. De Lara at the Philippine Center Management Board in San Francisco, Alberto Donato Duero at the Philippine consulate in Los Angeles, Ester Aure-Novero and Luisa Balatbat from the West Bay Pilipino Multiservice Center, Mara Ibarra at the Filipino Community Center. The organizations that were critical in my recruitment efforts included the Filipino Community Center, Filipino Advocates for Justice, the West Bay Pilipino Mulitservice Center and Philippine Forum, all of which were based in San Francisco. For my interviews and surveys with Filipino nurses in the US, I am grateful to several individuals: Carlos Espinosa at Trinity College’s Trinfo Café, Mikhael H. Borgonos and his extended family, and Michael Villacarlos and his family, the office bearers of the Philippines Nurses Association (PNA) of Northern California, the PNA Greater Sacramento Area Chapter, and the PNA New Jersey Chapter who all helped to advertise my study and give me some background to the history of Filipino nurses in the US. I never traveled to Italy but I did receive very useful assistance from two Italian academics in the US. Both Giuliana Palma from Trinity College and Francesca Degiuli from CUNY – Staten Island helped provide me with background information about the immigration and labor policies of the Italian government especially as it pertains to foreign domestic workers. Giuliana in particular helped locate and translate journal articles in Italian that were of great use to me. vii I also benefited greatly from conversations with the broader community of migration scholars. As a doctoral student, I cannot begin to describe the confidence boost I received when these academics treated me like an equal and my ideas like they had merit. My heartfelt thanks go out to Jørgen Carling from the International Peace Research Institute in Norway, Steven J. Gold from Michigan State University, David Mackenzie from the World Bank, Nicholas Van Hear from the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, Matthew Sullivan from Kansas State University and Hein De Haas from the International Migration Institute. Within the UM community of graduate students, I have been blessed with supportive friends who helped review my chapter drafts and give me honest, constructive feedback even when they had plenty of their own work to juggle.