Global Filipinos: Migrants' Lives in the Virtual Village

265 Pages·2012·2.25 MB·English

by  Deirdre Mckay

GLOBAL(cid:1)FILIPINOS
TRACKING GLOBALIZATION
Robert J. Foster, editor
Editorial advisory board:
Mohammed Bamyeh
Lisa Cartwright
Randall Halle
GLOBAL
FILIPINOS
Migrants’ Lives
in the Virtual Village
DEIRDRE(cid:1)McKAY
Indiana University Press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
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Bloomington, Indiana 47404-3797 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
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© 2012 by Deirdre McKay
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, elec-
tronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information
storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The
Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the
only exception to this prohibition.
• The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McKay, Deirdre, [date]
Global Filipinos : migrants’ lives in the virtual village / Deirdre McKay.
p. cm. — (Tracking globalization)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-00212-9 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-253-00205-1
(pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-253-00222-8 (electronic book) 1. Filipinos—
Employment—Foreign countries. 2. Foreign workers, Philippine—Foreign
countries. 3. Migrant labor—Philippines—Haliap. 4. Globalization—Social
aspects—Philippines—Haliap. 5. Haliap (Philippines)—Social conditions.
6. Haliap (Philippines)—Economic conditions. I. Title.
HD5856.P6M45 2012
331.6'2599—dc23
2012000165
1 2 3 4 5 17 16 15 14 13 12
James George Brett (1929–1998)
in memoriam
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
On Transliteration xi
Introduction: The Parade 1
1 ◆ Finding the Village 18
2 ◆ Becoming a Global Kind of Woman 41
3 ◆ Failing to Progress 64
4 ◆ New Territories 97
5 ◆ Haunted by Images 128
6 ◆ Moving On 151
7 ◆ Come What May 179
Conclusion: The Virtual Village 198
On Affect: A Methodological Note 215
Notes 219
Bibliography 227
Index 237
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My deepest debts are to my friends in my field site of Haliap who have gener-
ously shared their triumphs and frustrations with me over many years. Keeping
their real names confidential and blurring some of their identifying details is
the least I can do to protect their privacy; this precludes a roll call of all my key
respondents here. I offer my friends who have chosen to be known as Angelina
and Luis, and their extended families, special thanks for agreeing to let me retell
what I have learned of their stories to a wider public.
While doing fieldwork in the Philippines, I have had the good fortune to be
sustained by my own much wider network of friends and family too. They have
shown me the myriad ways one can be and become Filipino. In Baguio City,
Professor June Prill-Brett advised me on my project and showed me the flex-
ibility of Filipino kinship firsthand, adopting me into her family. I owe much
to her hospitality and that of her husband, the late James Brett, and to Heather,
Sigrid, James Jr., Wrenolph Panganiban, and their families. My colleague and
collaborator Padmapani Perez continues to be a source of sustenance, both
intellectual and culinary. Padma’s comments on “villagizing” in American colo-
nial history helped me identify key themes in this book. In Sagada, Mountain
Province, I enjoyed the hospitality and friendship of Teresita Malecdan Baldo,
Mayor Thomas Killip, and the Cangbay family, and in Kiangan, Ifugao, the
Sakai family gave me a base from which to travel.
My research has also been shaped by an overlapping and equally impor-
tant set of academic connections. Anthropologists Villia Jefremovas, Joachim
Voss, and Susan Russell introduced me to Philippine fieldwork, while Harold
Conklin and the late William Henry Scott helped me comprehend the com-
plexities of history in my field sites. Visiting Research Associate positions at the
University of the Philippines Baguio supported my research and introduced me
to Carol Brady, Ben Tapang, Del Tolentino, and Lorelei Mendoza. In Manila,
Jun Aguilar made me welcome at Ateneo de Manila University, and Maruja
Asis and the Scalabrini Migration Centre encouraged my work. In Canada,
Fay Cohen, Tania Li, Jennifer Leith, and Arthur Hansen supervised my initial
fieldwork as part of a larger project at Dalhousie University. At the University
of British Columbia (UBC), Terry McGee, Gerry Pratt, Derek Gregory, Tineke
Hellwig, and Maureen Reed advised me when I returned to the Philippines to