Muge F. Gocek Anju Mary Paul University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Interview-based research, conducted in 2008 by the co-principal investigator with 95 Filipino migrant domestic workers in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Singapore, revealed that a multi-state international migration pattern was adopted by many aspiring migrants. These migrants consciously worked their way up a hierarchy of destination countries, accumulating capital in the process, so that they could eventually secure an entry visa into their preferred country in the West. Such a ?stepwise international migration? trajectory was a means for these migrants to increase their savings, gain the necessary work experience to qualify for jobs in more preferred countries, build their network of overseas contacts, and thereby ease the process of applying for visas to their desired destination. These preliminary findings raise several questions: (1) How widespread is the practice of stepwise international migration among migrants who managed to gain entry into the top destination countries such as the United States and Canada? (2) What distinguishes the successful stepwise migrant from other types of migrants? (3) How do stepwise migrants go about accumulating the necessary resources to support their entry into their preferred destination? Are some resources more useful than others? (4) How much influence do the immigration policy regimes of individual countries have in shaping the multi-state trajectories of prospective stepwise migrants? In order to answer these questions, 200 surveys and 70 in-depth interviews will be conducted with Filipino immigrants in three sites in the United States and Canada--San Francisco, New York City, and Toronto. The findings from this study will extend our knowledge of migration patterns by highlighting one that differs from more traditional patterns in its number of stages, temporal range, hierarchical nature, intentionality, and dynamic nature. This study also will shed light on a new type of migrant--the stepwise migrant--to add to our existing categories of the "sojourner" and the "settler" migrant.
Broader Impacts: This study's findings will provide an insight into how migrants choose among destination options, and how a country can try to improve its standing among prospective immigrants. Thus this study can inform immigration programs that seek to encourage highly skilled immigrants to settle down in a country, rather than keep moving. In other words, it can help craft policies to turn stepwise migrants into permanent settlers. Findings from this research will be disseminated broadly within the academic community via professional conferences and peer-reviewed publications, and also will be shared with Filipino immigrant communities in the above research sites through local Filipino grassroots organizations.
This project was a follow-up to a 2008 study of the international migration patterns of Filipino migrant domestic workers (MDWs). This earlier study was conducted in Asia and involved in-depth interviews with 95 former, current and prospective MDWs about their migration strategies and destination decisions. These interviews revealed an emergent strategy of "multistate migration" among capital-constrained migrants who were unable to directly enter their preferred destination country on their first attempt to leave the Philippines. These MDWs had chosen to work in other easier-to-enter countries instead but were using their time in these "stepping stone" countries to save up some money, build their work experience so they could re-apply for jobs in more-preferred destinations (often countries in the West) in the future. The goal of the current NSF-funded study was to assess the popularity of this multistate migration trajectory among Filipino MDWs who had managed to gain access to the West. In-depth interviews were conducted with Filipinos migrants working as domestic workers in Canada and the United States between 2010 and 2011. The interviews revealed that the vast majority of interviewees in Canada were indeed multistate migrants, having worked for several years in at least one intermediate country (most often Hong Kong) before securing a work permit to enter Canada. This finding matched national-level statistics collected from the Philippine and Canadian governments which hinted at a similar pattern of multistate migration among the 10,000+ Filipino migrant domestic workers entering Canada annually in recent years. In contrast, less than 30% of Filipino interviewees in the US could be classified as multistate migrants, largely because the US lacks an established program to issue short-term visas to MDWs to enter the country thus removing it from the list of potential labor markets for these migrants. This finding highlights the critical importance of macro-structural factors (such as the existence of open labor markets overseas) that are necessary pre-conditions for multistate migration to occur. From this research, a multi-level theoretical model of multistate migration was developed. At the macro-level, this model includes: (1) The increasingly strict barriers to permanent entry imposed by these migrants’ preferred destination countries which are often in the West; (2) The growing demand for paid domestic workers in high-income countries around the world which has pushed these countries’ governments to set up specific labor importation programs to bring in foreign domestic workers on short-term work visas; and (3) The emergence of a transnational labor market for migrant domestic workers which allows them to leverage the capital they have acquired while working in one overseas market to secure a better-paying job in another overseas market. At the meso-level, multistate migration is fostered in part by the growing community of overseas Filipinos who provide substantive migration assistance to their relatives and friends in the home country and, once they are already overseas, advise them about the merits of new destination countries to move on to, and also encourage the adoption of a stepwise migration trajectory in order to reach their preferred destination. The withholding of help by overseas migrant contacts can also at times encourage aspiring migrants to undertake a multistate migration trajectory, if they find themselves unable to muster up enough resources to support a direct migration to their preferred destination. At the meso-level, there is also the mushrooming for-profit migration industry within the Philippines and elsewhere which serves as a migration booster, gatekeeper and traffic warden, helping aspiring migrants secure overseas jobs but at increasingly exorbitant prices, and thus directing migrants towards selected destinations and away from others. Lastly, at the micro-level, multistate migration is a byproduct of an under-recognized side-effect of migration: The acquisition of additional capital (human, social, financial and cultural) which expands an individual migrant’s capacity for agentic action, including further migrations to more-preferred but harder-to-enter destinations. These findings speak to the agency of low-capital migrants to overcome the structural constraints imposed on them. At the same time, the findings speak to the limits of this agency. There is still a "Matthew Effect" occurring even among agentic, aspiring multistae migrants. In general, the migrants who are successful at multistate migration are those who are better educated, with fewer dependents calling on them to remit their overseas earnings, and those with overseas contacts who can loan them money or directly connect them with foreign employers. These differences have a direct impact on the amount of capital prospective multistate migrants start out with, and how much capital they can acquire while working overseas.
