Roderick G Galam

NAVIGATING LIVES: The Spatiotemporality of the Gender Identity, Agency and Subjectivity of Filipino Seamen’s Wives Roderick G Galam A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Social Sciences Cardiff University December 2011 DECLARATION This work has not been previously accepted in substance for any degree and is not concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed: Roderick Galam (candidate) Date: 07 December 2011 STATEMENT 1 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD. Signed: Roderick Galam (candidate) Date: 07 December 2011 STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references. Signed: Roderick Galam (candidate) Date: 07 December 2011 STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed: Roderick Galam (candidate) Date: 07 December 2011 ii Acknowledgements I could not have written this thesis were it not for the women (and their husbands) who gave generously of their time and who opened both their homes and their lives to me. I thank them for the kindness they showed to a stranger who came asking them to share their stories. They have my deep and tender respect. I also thank all those who assisted me in my fieldwork. Although they must remain unnamed, their help does not go unacknowledged. I owe an enormous debt to the Nippon Foundation and the Seafarers International Research Centre for a postgraduate fellowship that enabled me to pursue this study. I thank Mick Bloor and Nick Bailey for their guidance and for their comments that improved the thesis. For reading parts of it, I thank Filomeno Aguilar Jr, Raul Pertierra, Alicia Pingol, Olivia Swift and Xiang Biao. Liezel Longboan commented on an early draft of chapter two, and Jabeth Dacanay and Jean Pia went over this work‘s policy recommendations. I also thank Professor Sarah Cunningham-Burley and Dr Emma Renold for their very charitable comments and their contribution to the post-thesis life of this work. While in Quezon City, Teret de Villa gave me a wonderful place to stay, and she and Janeth Etang provided wonderful company. I thank them as well as Raquel Avante, Lorina Calingasan, Portia Dimabuyu and Dedet Vargas for their enduring friendship. I thank the staff of the libraries of the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippine Social Science Council, Scalabrini Migration Center, University of the Philippines Diliman Main Library and the libraries of UP Diliman‘s Asian Center, College of Education, College of Law, School of Economics, and School of Labor and Industrial Relations for access to their collection. Robert Galam reviewed some tables and Piya Constantino did the maps. I thank them for their creative and technical assistance. I am indebted to poet and fictionist Linda Bulong for help with translating into Ilokano my research information sheet. iii Finally, I thank my wife, Marilyn, for everything and I mean everything, and Gabrielle, Daniel and Jacob for carrying me on their young shoulders. They scribbled, wrote and drew on my notes—superimposing their presence on what I was doing, and sat on my lap while I wrote, their profound way of reminding me of time I did not spend with them, of things that surely were far more important. My debts to my dungngos are many and inestimable, my gratitude profound, my love beyond language. This work is dedicated to them. The strengths of this thesis are due to all I have named. I alone bear responsibility for its shortcomings. iv Abstract This thesis looks at international labour migration from the point of view of those who are ‗left behind‘. It focuses on the experiences of Filipino women married to Filipino seamen and specifically examines the spatiality and temporality of their gender identity, agency and subjectivity. Through the concept of social imaginary, it reconceptualises the role of these women in migration and considers them to play a more active role in migration processes than is suggested by the label ‗left behind‘. How the women were constrained by and creatively responded to their material and social relations not least those obtaining in the alternating absence and presence of their husbands is approached from a generative theory of subject formation. The spatiotemporality of these women‘s gender identity, subjectivity and agency is elaborated through critical analyses of aspects of their experiences and lives: ‗on being on their own‘, routine and the temporal organization of family life, ‗imagined communion‘ and intimacy, and autonomy. These analyses show the embeddedness of the women in material and social contexts including ties of reciprocity and indebtedness. They demonstrate the mutual implication of space and time, show their navigation of the spatial and temporal dimensions of their lives, as well as link the women‘s subjective and personal experiences to wider social and political narratives. The thesis concludes with a synthesis of and further reflection on the implications of the main arguments of the study. This includes a discussion of some specific strategies employed by the women to negotiate their spatiotemporal locations: ‗waiting game‘, ‗mental choreography‘ and ‗gender negotiation‘. Finally, it reflects on the study‘s theoretical, empirical, methodological and policy contributions. v Table of Contents Declaration ii Acknowledgements iii Abstract v Table of Contents vi List of Tables and Figures ix Chapter 1 Introduction: Spaces and Times of Hope 1 Chapter 2 Migration, Women ‘Left Behind’ and 11 the Spatiotemporality of Subjectification 2.1 In the Absence of Their Husbands: 14 Women Left Behind 2.2 Wives of Seafarers 26 2.3 A Prolegomenon to the Spatiotemporality of Subjectivity 29 2.4 A Generative Paradigm of Subjectification 35 Conclusion 41 Chapter 3 Bringing ‘Left-Behind’ Women into View 44 3.1 Research Questions 44 3.2 Method 45 3.3 Fieldwork Site 47 3.4 Sampling Strategy 52 3.5 Profile of Women and Their Husbands 53 3.6 Transcription and Analysis of Interviews 58 3.7 Fieldwork Relations 62 3.8 Reflections on Doing Home Ethnography 71 Conclusion 75 Chapter 4 Histories and Dreams 78 4.1 A History of Migration 78 4.2 International Contract Labour Migration 88 from the Philippines 4.3 Filipino Seafarers: The World Shipping Industry‘s 92 ‗Crews of Convenience‘? 4.4 Migrant Imaginaries: ‗Naimbag a Biag‘ [good life] 99 and Cultures of Migration 4.5 Sacrificing Wives 100 Conclusion 112 vi Chapter 5 On Their Own 115 5.1 On Their Own: Wives Who Are Not Yet Mothers 116 5.2 Becoming A Single Parent: The Burden of Responsibility 118 5.3 Nabatian‘: Left Behind With Something 133 5.4 Doing A ‗Man‘s Job‘ 136 5.5 Liberating Surrender 138 Discussion and Conclusion 139 Chapter 6 The Temporal Organization of Family Life 143 6.1 The Domestic Organization of Temporality 144 6.2 The Script of Life: When Husbands are Away 148 6.3 When Husbands are Home: Shared Time and Time Out 164 6.4 Getting Used To: 175 Departure and the Temporal Boundaries of Adjustment Conclusion 179 Chapter 7 Imagined Communion and the Intimacy of Absence 183 7.1 The Political Economy of Telecommunications 184 in the Philippines 7.2 Co-Presence: Bringing the Absent Father Home 195 7.3 Missing Husbands 207 7.4 The Persistence of Absence 212 Conclusion 218 Chapter 8 Antinomies of Autonomy 223 8.1 When the blessed meek learn to talk back‘: 225 Respect, Wives and Mothers-in-Law 8.2 Becoming the Allottee and Control of the Purse 231 8.3 Autonomy, Identity and Work 235 8.4 Separation and Dependence 247 8.5 The Meaning and Significance of a House 249 Conclusion 260 Chapter 9 Narrating Navigated Lives 266 9.1 Migration and Navigation 268 9.2 Lifetimes: Women, Routine and Horizon 273 9.3 Spatial Becomings: Cultures of Relatedness 277 9.4 Boundaries: Sites of Passages 281 9.5 Migration, Navigation and Experience 287 9.6 Migration and Subjectification 293 9.7 Conclusion: Reflections on the Thesis‘ Contributions 295 Bibliography 301 Appendices Appendix 1. Research Participant Information Sheet 1-A. English Version 336 1-B. Ilokano Version 338 vii Appendix 2. Informed Consent Form 341 Appendix 3. Participant Socio-Demographic Information Sheet 342 Appendix 4. Interview Guide 344 Appendix 5 Profile of Interviewees 346 Appendix 6 Interview Quotations in Ilokano 6-A. Interview Extracts Quoted in Chapter 7 350 (Ilokano original) 6-B. Interview Extracts Quoted in Chapter 8 352 (Ilokano original) viii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Tables Table 3.1 Distribution of Wives According to Husband‘s Rank 54 Table 3.2 Age Distribution of Wives and Husbands 55 Table 3.3 Employment and Economic Activities Profile of Participants 55 Table 4.1 Number and Proportion of Filipino Labourers 84 Migrating from the Philippines to Hawaii, 1915-1931 Table 4.2 Distribution of Overseas Contract Workers from San Gabriel, 87 by Region and Country (as of 2009) Table 4.3 Number of Deployed Filipino Seafarers 1960s-2009 94 Table 4.4 Deployment of Seafarers by Top Ten Occupation, 2007-2009 96 Table 4.5 Monthly On-Board Salary of Ratings, According to 99 Nationality and Type of Vessel (in US $) Table 4.6 Salary Scale of San Gabriel Local Government Employees 108 Table 4.7 Salary of Filipino Seamen According to Position 109 Table 7.1 Cellular Mobile Subscribers in Selected ASEAN Countries, 187 1990-2005 Figures Figure 3.1. Map of Ilocos Norte and Northwestern Luzon, Philippines 48 Figure 4.1a The Luneta Seafarers‘ Centre 95 Figure 4.1b A close-up of booths at seaman‘s market 95 Figure 4.2 A vehicle going around the streets of Manila 97 Figure 4.3 A giant billboard close to Manila‘s international airport 98 Figure 4.4 A poor family‘s house, San Gabriel 101 Figure 4.5 The House of a Hawaii/US immigrant.

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