Transnational Migration, Diaspora and Religion: Inscribing Identity through the Sacred (the Filipino Diaspora in New Zealand and Singapore) A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology By Josefina Socorro Flores Tondo Social and Political Sciences University of Canterbury 2012 i Table of Contents Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................ 1 Abstract .............................................................................................................. 5 Introduction: mobility, migration and diaspora ........................................... 8 Diaspora historical context and development ............................................. 11 Thesis objectives and goals ............................................................................ 20 Thesis organisation plan ................................................................................. 25 Chapter One: Exploring Filipino fiesta celebrations Overseas ................. 29 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 29 The discourse on Filipino migration and diaspora .......................................... 31 Conceptual framework on migration and diaspora ........................................ 41 1) Various kinds of migrants and transnational communities exist .......... 43 2) Some migration flows are explained by social network theories of migration ............................................................................................... 45 3) Mobile peoples transplant, adapt and develop cultural practices as they settle ............................................................................................... 50 4) Migrant diaspora practices are representations of the homeland's historical context .................................................................................... 52 5) Migration and diaspora challenge long held notions of identity and place .......................................................................................................... 53 6) Some migration processes are influenced and supported by cultural dispositions .............................................................................................. 56 7) Diasporas construct identity through ritual performance and homeland symbols as a home and place-making activity ...................... 57 Methodology: an ethnography of the 'natives' away from 'native land'.......... 61 Chapter 2: The Philippines: A Migrant Nation .......................................... 71 Introduction .................................................................................................... 71 Important facts about the Philippines ............................................................. 72 Historical development of Filipino Migration ............................................... 75 Filipino migration to New Zealand and Singapore ........................................ 81 New Zealand: history, migration and biculturalism ................................... 82 New Zealand - Philippines relations ......................................................... 84 New Zealand immigration policy ............................................................. 87 ii Filipinos in New Zealand .......................................................................... 91 Singapore: history and development ............................................................ 93 Singapore immigration policy .................................................................. 95 Singapore - Philippines relations and the Flor Contemplacion saga .....101 Filipino migration to Singapore ...............................................................103 Migration, the Philippine economy and migrant stereotypes ......................105 Chapter 3: Colonial history, Catholicism and local cultures ....................108 Introduction: beginning with the present ....................................................108 Exploring the genesis of the Philippine Islands and people .......................111 Western "discovery" of the archipelago .....................................................119 Colonisation and Catholicism in the islands ..............................................121 The principalia, reduccion and the pueblo (town) fiestas .........................122 Colonial economic transitions ....................................................................126 Friar ascendancy in colonial structures and institutions ............................129 Widening the composition of the elite class ...............................................131 Contesting realms in the pueblo ..................................................................135 U.S. colonial administration .......................................................................144 Summary and conclusion ............................................................................151 Chapter 4: The Filipino family and Folk religious traditions .................153 Introduction ..................................................................................................153 Filipino lowland cosmology and folk Christianity ......................................156 Filipino family and sacred icons ..................................................................170 Popular devotions and the fiesta ...................................................................173 Filipino lowland cosmology and the fiesta ritual ........................................185 1) Santacruzan ............................................................................................192 2) Ati-atihan fiesta ......................................................................................196 3) Sinulog fiesta ..........................................................................................198 4) Simbang Gabi novena masses ...............................................................202 Ritual and key symbols .................................................................................205 Summary and conclusion .............................................................................212 Chapter 5: Filipinos in New Zealand ...........................................................215 Introduction ..................................................................................................215 Diasporic beginnings: appropriating the NZ "barbie" ................................218 Cultural encounters: living with difference .................................................227 Diaspora growth ...........................................................................................232 Filipino identifying characteristics and group identities .............................239 Filipino transnational migration and the family ..........................................243 The ‘Pinoy” identity, family, regionalism and class distinction .................246 iii Folk Christianity, agency, luck (swerte) and destiny (kapalaran) .............252 Homeland remembrance and home 'reconstruction' through the sacred ... 258 Religious icons and the Filipino home and culture .................................... 262 Diasporic inclusion and exclusion in the Church and public space ........... 266 Summary and conclusion ............................................................................ 274 Chapter 6: The Santacruzan and Santo Niño- Sinulog Fiesta in NZ .......279 Introduction ..................................................................................................279 Filipino community gathering and fiestas ...................................................286 Santacruzan and Flores de Mayo in Christchurch and Auckland ..............288 Santo Niño-Sinulog Fiesta in Christchurch: the icon and the bride ...........304 Santo Niño-Sinulog Fiesta in Auckland ......................................................314 Nine-day Novena Masses before the fiesta ................................................317 Fiesta Day liturgy ritual ..............................................................................324 Sacred - secular connections ........................................................................333 Summary and conclusion ............................................................................341 Chapter 7: Filipinos in Singapore, the Lion City of Asia .........................350 Introduction ..................................................................................................350 Migrant social networks and religious spaces .............................................353 Social capital, family and folk Christianity ................................................358 1) Uniqueness of destiny ..........................................................................360 2) God's plan and human cooperation .....................................................362 3) A sister's familial duty .........................................................................363 4) Transnational family and belonging ...................................................365 5) Filipino family values and religious icons ..........................................367 6) Just a day for church and prayer ..........................................................370 7) Domination, astuteness and prayer ......................................................371 8) The unlucky ones .................................................................................373