Mothering from a distance: Emotions, Gender, and Inter-generational

Relations in Filipino Transnational Families by Rhacel Salazar Parreas

Key Concepts:

Transnational Mothering(Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and Ernestine Avila)- the

practice of mothering from a distance; ruptures the ideological foundation of
the Filipino family.

Structural causes and effects of transnational families to the Filipino ideology

and parenting culture.

A kind of Globalization that paves way to the denationalization of the

economy demands which eventually lead to migrating of our workers for
greener pastures to have a sustainable middle-class life.

The Reconstitution of mothering led by female migrants from the Philippines is

stalled by traditional ideologies of family life.

The family not being a collective unit.

The gender division of labor in the Filipino nuclear family.

Responses and sentiments of youth with migrating mothers; answers and

sentiments of Filipina workers in Rome and Los Angeles to open-ended
questions asked to them.

METHODOLOGY

The researcher utilized the use of purposive sampling thru the inclusion of open-
ended interviews with the aid of tape-recording and transcribing. She got samples of
female domestic workers in Rome and Los Angeles as a total of 72 interviews were
conducted in Tagalog or Taglish and then translated to English for a period of five
months in Rome and six months in Los Angeles. There was also a survey conducted
for 212 high school and college students with international migrant parents and 90
with internal migrant parents living elsewhere in the Philippines.

* Yes, I think the methodology was appropriate to capture the objectives of the
study as she was able to analyze the emotional consequences of geographical
distances among members of the family, most especially in female-headed
transnational families. Although like any other study, Ms. Parreas study can still be
improved or supplemented with other would-be studies catering to the need of
analyzing the most basic component of a society.

I would suggest that a further study needs to be done in other parts of the world
since every geographical location of an OFW and every detail that happens there can
actually have an impact on these OFWs dealings with their families back home.
Moreover, various kinds of sampling (mostly of the qualitative nature) should be
applied in such studies since the lives of the families left back home are the ones that
are primarily affected by this mode of mothering and/or parenting.

Furthermore, there should also be studies that should be conducted that would
cater to the analysis and what ought to be done in relation to the well-being and
development of the Filipino psyche-his culture, work, ethics, providing for the family,
labor traditions, among others.
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