Accumulating delay: Filipino Time,COVID-19 and experiences of male returnees in Cebu

Abstract

Unique to this paper is a gendered examination of return migration from the point of view of male return migrants. I analyze the perspectives of repatriated male migrant workers during their return migration in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a discussion of time as “accumulated delay,” I suggest that the (de)constructions of masculinity concerning overseas Filipino workers’ (OFWs) experiences of waiting and delay under repatriation and quarantine can be understood through the theoretical lens of immobility in migration research. I suggest that systemic delays in the circulation of global capital, necessitated by the global health pandemic, challenged migrant men’s cohesive narrative of migrant productivity.

Keywords

return migrants Philippines COVID-19 masculinity overseas Filipino workers Cebu

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abuso

(2020) Longing for home: The plight of labour migrants in the Philippines in the times of COVID-19. LSE Southeast Asia Blog, 16 September. Available at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/seac/2020/09/16/longing-for-home/#:∼:text=in_Southeast_Asia.-,The_reasons_why_many_Filipinos_choose_to_move_away_from,look_elsewhere_for_better_futures.

Acedera

Yeoh

BSA

(2019) ‘Making time’: Long-distance marriages and the temporalities of the transnational family. Current Sociology 67(2): 250–272. DOI: 10.1177/0011392118792927.

Aguilar

Jr FV

(2016) The passing of rice spirits: Cosmology, technology, and gender relations in the colonial Philippines. In: Gin

Tuân

(eds) Early Modern Southeast Asia, 1350-1800. New York: Routledge, pp. 278–293.

Angeles

(2001) The Filipino male as “macho-machunurin”: Bringing men and masculinities in gender and development studies. Kasarinlan: Philippine Journal of Third World Studies 16(1): 9–30. Available at: https://www.journals.upd.edu.ph/index.php/kasarinlan/article/view/1073.

Asis

MMB

(2020) Repatriating Filipino Migrant Workers in the Time of the Pandemic. Report for International Organization for Migration (IOM), Migration Research Series no. 63. Geneva: IOM. Available at: https://publications.iom.int/books/mrs-no-63-repatriating-filipino-migrant-workers-time-pandemic.

Asis

MMB

Huang

Yeoh

BSA

(2004) When the light of the home is abroad: Unskilled female migration and the Filipino family. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 25(2): 198–215. DOI: 10.1111/j.0129-7619.2004.00182.x.

Baas

Yeoh

BSA

(2019) Introduction: Migration studies and critical temporalities. Current Sociology 67(2): 161–168. DOI: 10.1177/0011392118792924.

Batan

(2012) A conceptual exploration of the istambay phenomenon in the Philippines. Philippine Sociological Review 60: 101–130. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43486342.

Bélanger

Silvey

(2020) An im/mobility turn: Power geometries of care and migration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 46(16): 3423–3440. DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2019.1592396.

10.

Bhattacharya

(ed) (2017) Social Reproduction Theory: Remapping Class, Recentering Oppression. London: Pluto Press.

11.

Blanc-Szanton

(1990) Collision of cultures: Historical reformulations of gender in the lowland Visayas, Philippines. In: Atkinson

Errington

(eds) Power and Difference: Gender in Island Southeast Asia. Redwood City: Stanford University Press, pp. 345–383.

12.

Boehm

Hess

Coe

et al. (2011) Children, youth, and the everyday ruptures of migration. In: Coe

Reynolds

Boehm

et al. (eds) Everyday Ruptures: Children, Youth, and Migration in Global Perspective. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, pp. 1–19.

13.

Castles

Miller

(2009) The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World (4^th edn). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

14.

Chan

Piper

(2022) Sanitized boundaries, sanitized homes: COVID-19 and the sporadic hyper-precarity of migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 31(3): 270–291. DOI: 10.1177/01171968221124346.

15.

Connell

(1998) Masculinities and globalization. Men and Masculinities 1(1): 3-23. DOI: 10.1177/1097184X98001001001.

16.

Connell

Messerschmidt

(2005) Hegemonic masculinity: Rethinking the concept. Gender & Society 19(6): 829–859. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27640853.

17.

Cornwall

White

(2000) Men, masculinities and development: Politics, policies and practice. IDS Bulletin 31(2): 1–6. DOI: 10.1111/j.1759-5436.2000.mp31002001.x.

18.

Creswell

Plano Clark

(2011) Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

19.

Cwerner

(2001) The times of migration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 27(1): 7–36. DOI: 10.1080/13691830125283.

20.

Ehrenreich

Hochschild

(2004) Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

21.

Espia

Gera

Hall

(2021a) Local adaptations to central government shortcomings: COVID-19 responses in the cities of Iloilo and Cebu, Philippines. Contemporary Southeast Asia 43(1): 53–62. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27035524.

22.

Espia

JCP

Prieto-Carolino

Espectato

et al. (2021b) Into the unknown: Migration and the politics of identity in four coastal municipalities in Southwest Panay, Philippines. Ocean & Coastal Management 211: 105801. DOI: 10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2021.105801.

23.

Fajardo

(2008) Transportation: Translating Filipino and Filipino American tomboy masculinities through global migration and seafaring. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 14(2-3): 403–424. DOI: 10.1215/10642684-2007-039.

24.

Fouron

Schiller

(2001) All in the family: Gender, transnational migration, and the nation‐state. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 7(4): 539–582. DOI: 10.1080/1070289X.2001.9962678.

25.

Francisco-Menchavez

(2018) The Labor of Care: Filipina Migrants and Transnational Families in the Digital Age. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.

26.

Francisco-Menchavez

(2020) All in the family: Transnational families and stepwise migration strategies. Geographical Research 58(4): 377–387. DOI: 10.1111/1745-5871.12416.

27.

Galam

(2020) Futures on hold: The Covid-19 pandemic, international seafaring and the immobility of aspiring Filipino seafarers. LSE Southeast Asia Blog, 22 September. Available at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/seac/2020/09/22/futures-on-hold/.

28.

Galam

(2018) An exercise in futurity: Servitude as pathway to young Filipino men’s education-to-work transition. Journal of Youth Studies 21(8): 1045–1060. DOI: 10.1080/13676261.2018.1442920.

29.

Gonzales

(2022) 1.7M Filipinos have been repatriated amid pandemic — OWWA. Inquirer.net, 18 March. Available at: https://globalnation.inquirer.net/203101/1-7m-filipinos-have-been-repatriated-amid-pandemic-owwa.

30.

Guevarra

(2009) Marketing Dreams, Manufacturing Heroes: The Transnational Labor Brokering of Filipino Workers. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

31.

Hapal

(2021) The Philippines’ COVID-19 response: Securitising the pandemic and disciplining the pasaway. Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 40(2): 224–244. DOI: 10.1177/1868103421994261.

32.

Hoang

Zhang

(2023) Migrant immobilities beyond the pandemic: Changing migration patterns and aspirations. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 32(2): 362–370. DOI: 10.1177/01171968231182032.

33.

Huang

Yeoh

BSA

Lam

(2008) Asian transnational families in transition: The liminality of simultaneity. International Migration 46(4): 3–13. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2435.2008.00469.x.

34.

Illo

(1989) Who heads the household? Women in households in the Philippines. In: Torres

(ed) The Filipino Woman in Focus: A Book of Readings. Bangkok: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), pp. 244–266.

35.

International Organization for Migration (IOM) (2021) COVID-19 Impact Assessment on Returned Overseas Filipino Workers. Report for IOM, May. Makati: IOM Philippines Country Office. Available at: https://dtm.iom.int/reports/covid-19-impact-assessment-returned-overseas-filipino-workers.

36.

Isaac

(2021) Filipino Time: Affective Worlds and Contracted Labor. New York: Fordham University Press.

37.

Johnson

(2017) Gendering pastoral power: Masculinity, affective labour and competitive bonds of solidarity among Filipino migrant men in Saudi Arabia. Gender, Place & Culture 24(6): 823–833. DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2015.1090411.

38.

Kang

Latoja

MCG

(2022) COVID-19 and overseas Filipino workers: Return migration and reintegration into the home country—the Philippine case. Working paper for Asian Development Bank (ADB), ADB Southeast Asia Working Paper Series no. 21, February. Available at: https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/767846/sewp-021-covid-19-ofws-return-migration-reintegration.pdf.

39.

Lam

Yeoh

BSA

(2018) Migrant mothers, left-behind fathers: The negotiation of gender subjectivities in Indonesia and the Philippines. Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 25(1): 104–117. DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2016.1249349.

40.

Lan

(2003) Maid or madam? Filipina migrant workers and the continuity of domestic labor. Gender and Society 17(2): 187–208. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3594687.

41.

Lan

(2022) Shifting borders and migrant workers’ im/mobility: The case of Taiwan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 31(3): 225–246. DOI: 10.1177/01171968221127495.

42.

Liao

KAS

(2020) Operation ‘Bring Them Home’: Learning from the large-scale repatriation of overseas Filipino workers in times of crisis. Asian Population Studies 16(3): 310–330. DOI: 10.1080/17441730.2020.1811511.

43.

Margold

(1995) Narratives of masculinity and transnational migration: Filipino workers in the Middle East. In: Ong

Peletz

(eds) Bewitching Women, Pious Men: Gender and Body Politics in Southeast Asia. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 274–298.

44.

Marx

(2000) Capital. London: Electric Book Company.

45.

McKay

(2011) Re-masculinizing the hero: Filipino migrant men and gender privilege. Working paper for Asia Research Institute (ARI), Working paper no. 172, December. Available at: https://ari.nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/201112-WSP-172.pdf.

46.

McKay

(2007) Filipino sea men: Constructing masculinities in an ethnic labour niche. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 33(4): 617–633. DOI: 10.1080/13691830701265461.

47.

Medina

BTG

(1991) The Filipino Family: A Text with Selected Readings. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press.

48.

Meeus

(2012) How to ‘catch’ floating populations? Research and the fixing of migration in space and time. Ethnic and Racial Studies 35(10): 1775–1793. DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2012.659272.

49.

Ortiga

Liao

KAS

(2021) When a pandemic disrupts the export of people. Items: Insights from the Social Sciences, 05 August. Available at: https://items.ssrc.org/covid-19-and-the-social-sciences/covid-19-fieldnotes/when-a-pandemic-disrupts-the-export-of-people/#:∼:text=Much_like_the_reports_of,remittances%2C_labor_shortages_and_surpluses.

50.

Ortiga

Macabasag

RLA

(2021a) Understanding international immobility through internal migration: “Left behind” nurses in the Philippines. International Migration Review 55(2): 460–481. DOI: 10.1177/0197918320952042.

51.

Ortiga

Macabasag

RLA

(2021b) Temporality and acquiescent immobility among aspiring nurse migrants in the Philippines. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 47(9): 1976–1993. DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2020.1788380.

52.

Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) (n.d.) Repatriation assistance program. Available at: https://owwa.gov.ph/?page_id=1435# (accessed 22 March 2024).

53.

Paligutan

(2022) Lured by the American Dream: Filipino Servants in the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, 1952–1970. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.

54.

Palinkas

Horwitz

Green

et al. (2015) Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research. Administration and Policy in Mental Health Services Research 42: 533–544. DOI: 10.1007/s10488-013-0528-y.

55.

Parreñas

(2001) Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration, and Domestic Work. Redwood City: Stanford University Press.

56.

Pingol

(2001) Remaking Masculinities: Identity, Power, and Gender Dynamics in Families with Migrant Wives and Househusbands. Quezon City: UP Center for Women’s Studies.

57.

Pingol

(2004) When gender identities become a choice. In: Sobritchea

(ed) Gender, Culture & Society: Selected Readings in Women’s Studies in the Philippines. Seoul: Ewha Womans University Press, pp. 67–88.

58.

Republic Act No. 8042: An Act to Institute the Policies of Overseas Employment and Establish a Higher Standard of Protection and Promotion of the Welfare of Migrant Workers, their Families and Overseas Filipinos in Distress, and for Other Purposes (1995) Available at: https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1995/06/07/republic-act-no-8042-2/.

59.

Robertson

(2014) Time and temporary migration: The case of temporary graduate workers and working holiday makers in Australia. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 40(12): 1915–1933. DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2013.876896.

60.

Rodriguez

(2010) Migrants for Export: How the Philippine State Brokers Labor to the World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

61.

Rubio

Green

(2011) Filipino men’s roles and their correlates: Development of the Filipino adherence to masculinity expectations scale. Culture, Society and Masculinities 3(2): 77–102. Available at: https://www.proquest.com/docview/900315864?sourcetype=ScholarlyJournals.

62.

Saguin

(2020) Returning broke and broken? Return migration, reintegration and transnational social protection in the Philippines. Migration and Development 9(3): 352–368. DOI: 10.1080/21632324.2020.1787100.

63.

Salazar

(2021) Immobility: The relational and experiential qualities of an ambiguous concept. Transfers 11(3): 3–21. DOI: 10.3167/TRANS.2021.110302.

64.

Schewel

(2020) Understanding immobility: Moving beyond the mobility bias in migration studies. International Migration Review 54(2): 328–355. DOI: 10.1177/0197918319831952.

65.

Spitzer

Piper

(2014) Retrenched and returned: Filipino migrant workers during times of crisis. Sociology 48(5): 1007–1023. DOI: 10.1177/0038038514540579.

66.

Suzuki

(2020) The Philippines’ response to COVID-19: Limits of state capacity. Center for Southeast Asian Studies Newsletter , 23 June. Available at: https://covid-19chronicles.cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/post-046-html/.

67.

Tadiar

NXM

(1997) Domestic bodies of the Philippines. Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 12(2): 153–191. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41056964.

68.

Teehankee

(2022) Duterte’s pandemic populism: Strongman leadership, weak state capacity, and the politics of deployment in the Philippines. Working paper for United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), WIDER Working paper no. 2022/63, June. Available at: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2022-63-Duterte-pandemic-populism-strongman-leadership-weak-state-capacity-politics-deployment-Philippines.pdf.

69.

Tungohan

Banerjee

Chu

et al. (2015) After the live-in caregiver program: Filipina caregivers’ experiences of graduated and uneven citizenship. Canadian Ethnic Studies 47(1): 87–105. DOI: 10.1353/ces.2015.0008.

70.

Yeoh

BSA

Somaiah

Lam

et al. (2020) Doing family in “times of migration”: Care temporalities and gender politics in Southeast Asia. Annals of the American Association of Geographers 110(6): 1709–1725. DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2020.1723397.