Paper Sample on Issues Facing Migrants

Introduction

Through her book Children of Global Migration: Transnational Families and Gendered Woes, Parreñas Rhacel investigates how gender duties are arranged in Filipino households with at least one parent working abroad (Parreñas, 2005). She pays keen attention to children to get their reactions and feelings towards their parents’ migration. Rhacel paints two distinct pictures of how a complete Filipino household has been idealized and on the other hand, how a transnational family in the same country is widely disparaged for being incomplete (Parreñas, 2005). Additionally, Rhacel contends that despite the possibility of changing gender roles in transnational families, these families maintain the functions of the father as the head, bread-winner, and disciplinarian of the house, and the mother as the nurturer (Parreñas, 2005). The same principle is extended to their children. This essay summarizes the three main themes used in the book and the author’s success in presenting them, as well as her contribution in this work to our understanding of transnational migration issues.

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Cultural Beliefs

It is clear in Rhacel’s work that class differences in transnational families largely influence gender relations within those families, specifically when it comes to the division of roles. For instance, in low-income transnational families where the mother works abroad, the division of gender roles were firmly followed, with fathers regularly declining to take care of their kids or perform other household duties (Salazar Parreñas, 2008). They feared that their main role as the “head and pillar of the house” was at risk of collapse from their working wives who were probably earning more income than themselves. Hence their refusal to work on duties they considered as “feminine” (Salazar Parreñas, 2008). However, fathers who cemented their role as the main family provider before their wives' departure were more likely to embrace the “feminine” duties. They felt a sense of security since they had proved their masculinity by providing their families with shelter and financial security for future needs. Hence, gender roles are more adaptable inside privileged homes since fathers do not have to demonstrate their manliness.

Stigma Against Women

Rhacel concisely depicts the encounters of mothers who migrate abroad in search of jobs to provide for their families (Parreñas, 2005). She states that the majority of these migrants are single mothers. Their focus compared to other migrating women is an indication of the lack of support offered to single mothers and proof of their stigmatization (Parreñas, 2005). The stigmatization is evident from the nuclear family that cares for their children while the mothers are away working. These relatives regularly blame the single mothers for being a "humiliation" to their families and are angry about the way that they are caring for their children. With an absent dad, and relatives that have a negative assessment of them, single mums are expected to be everything to their children. This prompts a scenario where migrant single mums are demonized both for being a single parent and for being a transient mother (Salazar Parreñas, 2008). They are at the same time defamed for being in desperate conditions and for relocating because of these conditions.

Improved Living Standards

Other than providing their children with essential needs such as education and health care, the migrant parents that Rhacel interviewed also highlighted their urge to own a house and offer their children a better life as reasons for migrating (Parreñas, 2005). This thinking is impacted by philosophies that empower commercialization and advance the middle-class family as the ideal life. Hence, an oddity rises where families must upset the ideal of the family unit to pick up the idea of working-class family life (Parreñas. 2014). Parents migrate with the expectation that the move will be brief and that when they return to their native homes, they will have changed their family's status to the middle-class (Parreñas, 2014). At the end of the day, they consider transnational to be life as a venturing stone to having a more agreeable life that fulfills gender norms. The kids in transnational families share the same perspective. In this way, the gender limit intersections that frequently accompany transnational family life are viewed as an impermanent penance to guarantee working-class status later on.

Conclusion

Children of Global Migration is an in-depth examination of how gender theories profile the perceptions of people both in the public and private circles towards transnational families. Rhacel does a good job presenting how transnational families handle the division of gender roles and how children are adversely affected by their constant desires for the "ideal" family unit. Nonetheless, the book comes up short on a solid investigation of how class contrasts both in the Philippines and around the world affect these gender prospects of migrant parents. Moreover, Rhacel botches the chance to additionally fortify her examination of gender relations in transnational families by not investigating matters such as the role of the middle-class ideal in developing transnational families, the contrasts among lower and working-class families' gender job adaptability et cetera. In any case, Rhacel’s book is still a superb work for any individual who needs to investigate how the division of gender roles affects families in a worldwide setting. Those searching for a more intersectional examination of this issue should enhance this book with other writings on transnational families.

References

Parreñas, R. S. (2005). Children of global migration: Transnational families and gendered woes. Stanford University Press.
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=pi_MYmo4qi0C&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=Parre%C3%B1as,+R.+S.+(2005).+Children+of+global+migration:+Transnational+families+and+gendered+woes.+Stanford+University+Press.+&ots=pg-uURE5cs&sig=jSpuWXlTyc7nw3eStkG_GO3clZA

Salazar Parreñas, R. (2008). Transnational fathering: Gendered conflicts, distant disciplining, and emotional gaps. Journal of ethnic and migration studies, 34(7), 1057-1072. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13691830802230356

Parreñas, R. S. (2014). The intimate labor of transnational communication. Families, Relationships, and Societies, 3(3), 425-442.
https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tpp/frs/2014/00000003/00000003/art00007.