Biological Remittance Among Migrant Workers: Social Ramifications in the Philippines and Indonesia

Abstract

The huge amount of remittance transfers has brought migration studies to the fore in the public and private discourse on global development. Since the time migration studies occupied a space in the academe, most research has been devoted to remittances in cash and their use. Prior to the mid-nineties, the debate about the concept of migrants’ ‘remittance’ has not entailed other forms of remittances other than remittances in cash. This research explores another form of remittance, that is, biological remittance. This research firstly explores how migrant populations handle ‘biological remittance’ in their societies, and secondly compares the experiences of female migrant workers in two countries with distinct cultural and religious mores. We collected empirical information from two countries: Indonesia and the Philippines. A total of 38 respondents (17 from the Philippines and 21 from Indonesia) were selected for this study by using the snowball technique. While all the respondents, irrespective of countries of origin, face ordeals coping with their situation, Indonesians bear more psychological burden than the Filipinos. This research has crucial implications for scholars, researchers and policy-makers alike.