The Social Construction of Gendered Migration from the Philippines

Abstract

Despite a considerable amount of research conducted on Asian labor migration, decidedly little attention has focused on the vulnerability and exploitation of women overseas contract workers. This article examines how the social construction of gender influences the migration of Filipina overseas workers and contributes to the increased vulnerability and exploitation of women migrants. In particular, direct and indirect socialization processes, as well as gendered and racial stereotypes, are manifest within the labor recruitment process, helping to channel women migrants into the domestic services and entertainment sectors of this migration flow.