The Labor of Care: Filipina Migrants and Transnational Families in a Digital Age (University of Illinois Press, Spring 2018) is anchored in the experiences and lives of Filipina migrants and their families in the Philippines and the main objective of this book is to make visible all of the forms, roles and definitions of social reproductive labor and care work required in the maintenance of the transnational family; demonstrating just how many people are uniquely affected by migration and separation.
As seen in the June 2017 article by Alex Tizon in The Atlantic Magazine, he writes about Eudocia Tomas Pulido or “Lola”, a domestic worker of 56 years to his Filipino family who immigrated from the Philippines to the US. The article sparked a wide public discussion about Filipino domestic workers. Are they enslaved? Are they despondent? Victims or victors? Through her research and book, Prof. Valerie Francisco-Menchavez speaks to complicating the picture and debates around Filipino women who migrate and work as domestic workers in the US.
The Labor of Care brings the scholarship up to date on the technological advances that enables intimacy for transnational family members, namely with the use of social technologies like Facebook and Skype. It also considers the shifts in gendered work and expectations (for men and women) for families left behind. More importantly, includes how Filipinas like “Lola” create fictive kin and extended family in their new homes and cities in the US. Oftentimes, this horizontal care from and among migrant women redefines their “family” abroad and opens up the possibility of political organizing and solidarity between Filipinas abroad. Broadly, this book is about the labor of care engaged by families who are enduring and thriving in conditions of forced migration and separation.
