Globalization Through the Eyes of a Child

In Children of Global Migration, Rhacel Parreñas explores transnational families in the Philippines.  She finds that although gender norms are broken by a migrant mother leaving the country to work, the household still makes every attempt to maintain the expected rules of gender.  As a result, the children of these workers pick up on this and expect it, sometimes repeating the cycle themselves. 

While a book about gender performance, this is also a book about globalization.  She goes beyond looking at how globalization has harmed the economy of a country, and examines the affect Filipino families.  Children miss time with their parents, because the mother is away and many fathers will not step outside the traditional roles of masculinity to nurture the child.  There is a continuous cycle that will continue to force women to work outside of their home countries due to low wages and poor state sponsored family support services.  This cycle reminds me of Marx’s critique of capitalism when he talks about exploitation, expansion, and overproduction. 

When working at the hospital, then were quite a few Filipino women in my department (4 of whom I worked closely with).  They were all born and educated in the Philippines, but came here to look for work.  They have told me stories about how horrible the pay is and how overworked the workers are.  They could barely squeak out an existence there, so they moved their families here.  Those who are married to Filipino men, found work before their husbands, and their stories of gender roles are similar to what Parreñas has found in her study.  I remember one of my coworkers telling me that she did not see her mom very much growing up.  At the time, I did not follow up on the question, but now I wonder if her mother was a migrant worker.  It amazes me that the ideas of gender performance are so strong that they overcome such difficult circumstances to keep them intact.