Sumagui, Michelle V.

Anthro 181
Final Project in Anthro 181 Social Anthropology
Topic: Distance Mothering in the Context of Transnationalism and Migration among Filipinos
Medium: Video/AVP
Outline:
I. Introduction
 Begin with how Nancy Scheper-Hughes studied mother love in the context of
poverty and scarcity
o Short introduction: present how looking at the context of poverty and
scarcity can explain mother’s relationship with her child
 Introduce topic: Mothering in the context of transnationalism and migration
among Filipino families
o Focus: relationship between mothers and children over long distances
and the role of communication technology (internet, social media, etc.) in
maintaining this relationship
II. Body
 Long distance mothering and why is it a subject of social anthropology
o Family is a topic of interest in social anthropology
o Theory
o Method
 Working overseas: economic implications
 Transnational family life
o Role of communication technology in maintaining communication and
intimacy in transnational families
III. Conclusion
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Viorela-Ducu-TelegdiCsetri/publication/
325947994_Childhood_and_Parenting_in_Transnational_Settings/links/5b686
01f92851c3a728b74f8/Childhood-and-Parenting-in-Transnational-Settings.pdf#page=89
References:
Scheper-Hughes, N. (1993). Death without weeping. University of California Press.
Parreñas, R. (2005). Long distance intimacy: class, gender and intergenerational relations
between mothers and children in Filipino transnational families. Global networks, 5(4),
317-336. DOI:10.1111/j.1471-0374.2005.00122.x
Fresnoza‐Flot, A. (2009). Migration status and transnational mothering: The case of Filipino
migrants in France. Global networks, 9(2), 252-270. DOI:10.1111/j.1471-
0374.2009.00253.x
Uy-Tioco, C. (2007). Overseas Filipino workers and text messaging: Reinventing transnational
mothering. Continuum, 21(2), 253-265. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304310701269081
Ariate, R. J., Cruz, R., Dimaculangan, J., & Tibayan, C. A. (2015). The role of facebook in
sustaining relationship among families of ofw. Communication Research, 2(1).
 http://lpulaguna.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/7.THE-ROLE-OF-FACEBOOK-IN-
SUSTAINING-RELATIONSHIP-AMONG-FAMILIES-OF-OFW.pdf

Notes:
Distant Mothering in the Context of Transnationalism and Migration among Filipinos
Mothering, mother love and mother-child relationship appear to be universal as earlier studies in
the social sciences suggest. However, we now know that the assumptions made in the West –
viewed from and guided by Western perspective – may not actually be universal and are
inapplicable to other societies with very different context: may it be cultural, political, or
economic.
In this video, we explore mothering from a distance; taking into consideration the context of
Transnationalism and Migration among Filipino mothers who are forced by shortage of labor
market opportunities in the Philippines to work abroad.
But first, we’ll take a look at one remarkable example that demonstrates the seemingly peculiar
mother and child relationship – but taken into consideration the context of which it takes place –
can be completely understood.
In 1993, Nancy Scheper-Hughes published the book Death Without Weeping: The Violence of
Everyday Life in Brazil. In her book, she revealed the shocking indifference of mothers whose
children die in infancy. Scheper-Hughes observed that these mothers, in the shantytown of Alto
do Cruzeiro in Northeast Brazil, stop caring for their infants who seem weak. They believe the
infant is ill-fated so they can only let nature take its course.
What’s noteworthy in Scheper-Hughes’ study is how she examined mother love and maternal
thinking by situating the community of Alto do Cruzeiro within the larger structure of economic
system from which it takes place. Scheper-Hughes investigated the history of slavery; the
sugarcane plantation; the environmental pollution caused by the sugar factory; the Catholic
religion in the place; the lives of the middle class and the elites in Bom Jesus; and even the
political climate in Brazil – all of which affects the culture of the people from the Alto – both
directly and indirectly.
Scheper-Hughes argue that “Mother love is culturally and socially produced” (p.341) and thus, it
may take many different forms and may be expressed in many different ways.
So what can we learn from Scheper-Hughes’s study in relation to mothering in other contexts?
In the recent decades, due to increasing globalization, migration across countries has become
more rampant. This leaves us to wonder “what is mother love like for transnational families?”
Consider the context of the Philippines. Since there are growing number of migrant Filipina
workers in Asia, Europe and America, mothering is a subject of concern in Social Anthropology
as society and culture change – and life ways such as mothering adapt to the new
circumstances.
Rachel Salazar Parrenas (2001) conducted a study on female-headed transnational families by
a series of interviews and observations with Filipina migrant mothers based in Rome and Los
Angeles and using data from other studies that focused on children of migrant mothers.
Parennas (2001) found out that originally, the ideological Filipino family structure entails fathers
as breadwinners and mothers as nurturers. This idea is held even by children of transnational
families whose mothers work abroad and fathers care for the children.
This has negative emotional consequences for both migrant mothers and their children in the
Philippines, as children usually long for mother love and emotional support that they do not
often receive from their father.
Sometimes, mothers even feel loss of intimacy and surreal timelessness. Due to the infrequent
visits to the Philippines, we can see many mothers getting surprised that their children are
already grown-ups when they reunite.
So how do mothers manage the pain of separation? How do they “do” mothering?
Parrenas (2001) found out that Filipina migrant mothers commodify love. To compensate for
their absence, they send material goods to their family in the Philippines. By working abroad,
they are able to ensure that their children receive education; and their material and financial
needs are met. This is how Filipina migrant mothers express their love.
Another study on transnational mothering by Asuncion Freznosa-Flot (2009) also found
providing material goods – or sending gifts and remittances – to their families as one of the
primary strategies of mothers to justify their absence, along with increased communications
such as phone calls and text messaging.
Nowadays, international communication is easier than ever, due to the advancement of
communication technology and widespread use of internet.
In conclusion, we may be wrong in our interpretations on others’ ways especially when we see
them from our own personal viewpoints. It is easy to dismiss the indifference of mothers in the
Alto as cruel without considering the context of poverty and scarcity that shapes their culture. It
is also easy to judge migrant mothers as unloving and materialistic if we do not know their
sacrifices and eagerness to provide. Therefore, social anthropology does not only involve
documentation of societies and cultures but also involves understanding them.
Sympathizing

eagerness
1. Nancy Scheper-Hughes studied mother love in the context of poverty and scarcity
a. Short summary of Scheper-Hughes’ study
i. Nancy used field work (method) and did multi-sited ethnography
1. Ethnography (by Malinowski) explain history
2. Explain ethnography
a. Malinowski video
3. Multi-sited ethnography
a. ://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/1897105/
mod_resource/content/1/George%20Marcus_Etnography
%20in%20off%20world.pdf
ii. Noteworthy in Nancy’s study: her narrative, and she situates the
community within the larger structure of history, political and economic
systems, as well as religion, scarcity poverty and all in the shantytown of
Alto do Cruzeiro
 iii. So what can we learn from this when we explore mothering in other
societies? In completely different contexts?
b. Mothering in the context of transnationalism and migration among Filipino
families
i. Why is this a subject of interest in social anthropology?
1. Because it’s about family and relationships which is influenced by
economic, political and cultural facets
a. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/about/social-
anthropology#:~:text=Social%20Anthropology%20is
%20the%20comparative,religious%2C%20political%20and
%20economic%20arrangements.

MOTHERING FROM A DISTANCE: EMOTIONS, GENDER, AND INTERGENERATIONAL RELATIONS IN

FILIPINO TRANSNATIONAL FAMILIES
- greater labor market opportunities
- the Philippines has seen the formation of a growing number of female-headed transnational
families.' These families are households with core members living in at least two nation-states
and in which the mother works in another country while some or all of her dependents reside in
the Philippines
- This article analyzes the emotional consequences of geographical distance in female-headed
transnational families and examines the mechanisms by which mothers and children cope with
them.
- pain of family separation
o How are these feelings negotiated in the social reproduction of the transnational family?
2 Moreover, how are these feelings influenced by gender ideologies of mothering?
- The practice of mothering from a distance or "transnational mothering," as Pierrette Hondagneu
Sotelo and Emestine Avila have called it, ruptures the ideological foundation of the Filipino
family
- The practice of mothering from a distance or "transnational mothering," as Pierrette
HondagneuSotelo and Emestine Avila have called it, ruptures the ideological foundation of the
Filipino family
- This article examines gender and intergenerational relations through the lens of emotion.
- As Arlie Hochschild has shown, emotions do not exist in a vacuum. Instead, they exist in the
context of social structures in society
- " emotions are determined by ideologies,5 and in the Filipino family, as in many other families,
the ideology of woman as nurturer is a central determinant of the emotional needs and
expectations of its members.6
- “Transnational” - the family, operate through the regular circulation of goods, resources,
individuals, and information across national borders.s
- the ideology of women as caretakers continues to constrain the productive labor activities of
women in myriad ways including their sex segregation in jobs resembling "wife-and-mother
roles." T
- Emotional labor is expected in traditional female occupations such as paid domestic work.
- METHODOLOGY
o based primarily on open-ended interviews that I collected with female domestic
workers in Rome and Los Angeles:
 I based my study on these two cities because they are two main destinations of
Filipina migrants.
 Rome in 1995 and 1996, Los Angeles 1996
 chain and snowball referrals
o Second, I look at writings of children featured in the transnational monthly Tinig Filipino.
o I rely on the earlier cited survey conducted by Victoria Paz Cruz with more than 300
children who are growing up with absentee migrant parents in the Philippines and her
attached supplementary survey of more than ninety guardians.
- assesses the effects of the prolonged absence of migrant parents on children
- Emotional strains of transnational mothering include feelings of anxiety, helplessness, loss, guilt,
and the burden of loneliness.
o Mothers negotiate these emotional strains in three central ways: the commodification
of love; the repression of emotional strains; and the rationalization of distance, that is,
they use regulation communication to ease distance.
o In general, individual women use all three coping mechanisms, although not always
consciously. For the most part, they justify their decision to leave their children behind
in the Philippines by highlighting the material gains of the family
- surreal timelessness
- Knowing that they have missed the growing years of children, mothers admit experiencing loss
of intimacy in transnational families. In general, a surreal timelessness is felt during separation
that is suddenly catapulted back to reality the moment the family reunites.
o , this pain is usually aggravated by caretaking tasks of domestic work. Taking care of
children is not just taking care of children when, in the process of doing so, one cannot
take care of one's own children
- Commodifying love
o In the field, I often heard women say: "I buy everything that my children need" or "I give
them everything they want." Transnational parents knowingly or unknowingly have the
urge to overcompensate for their absence with material goods.
o As a result, she has come to rely on commodities to establish concrete ties of familial
dependency
- By working outside of the Philippines, parents obtain the financial resources that they need to
ensure that their children eat daily meals of meat and rice, attend college, and have secure
housing.
o The education of children is a marker of material security for migrant parents. It is a
central motivating factor for migration.
- repressing the emotional tensions in transnational families.
o lingering over the painful sacrifice of separation only intensifies the emotional hardships
of providing the family with material security.
o struggle to amend this loss by regularly keeping in contact with their children in the
Philippines.
- rationalization of transnational distance
- Three central conflicts p
o First, children disagree with their mothers that commodities are sufficient markers of
love. Second, they do not believe that their mothers recognize the sacrifices that
children have made toward the successful maintenance of the family. Finally, although
they appreciate the efforts of migrant mothers to show affection and care, they still
question the extent of their efforts.
- In contrast to other Asian countries, the Philippines has a more egalitarian gender structure
o For example, the kinship system is bilateral and women have a comparable level of
educational attainment to men.42 Moreover, women have a high rate of participation in
the productive labor force
- In fact, the denial of maternal love is regarded as child abuse in the diaspora. As a domestic
worker states: "Just [by] leaving [children] in the custody of fathers or relatives, we have already
abused them. We have denied them their right of a motherly love and care."45 In the
Philippines, transnational households are considered "abnormal," called '"broken homes," and
therefore viewed as a social and cultural tragedy.46 Transnational households are considered
"broken" because the maintenance of this household diverges from traditional expectations of
cohabitation in the family; they do not meet the traditional division of labor in the family, and
they swerve from traditional practices of socialization in the family. The socialization of children
is expected to come from direct parental supervision as well as from other adults, but the
geographic distance in transnational households impedes the ability of mothers to provide
direct supervision to their children.47
o The outmigration of women, including many mothers, broke down this traditional
division of labor, leaving many to wonder how one could leave fathers the primary
parent responsible for reproducing the family. Such an "abnormal" arrangement clearly
illustrates that the Filipino family is in fact now "broken" because it no longer fits the
ideal nuclear household model.
- traditional gender norms in the family.
o Mother as nurturer:
o Father as breadwinner:
- Notably, the ideological construction of the family controls not just the opinions of children but
also their feelings and emotions concerning family separation
- The gender expectation of mothers to provide emotional care and "maternalove" is what is
denied of more and more children in the Philippines
- The question then concerns whether fathers in the Philippines are able to provide the "maternal
love" sorely missing from their children's lives, if women are capable of assisting them with their
ideologically prescribed role as the income producer. Unfortunately, fathers seem to avoid this
responsibility. As I have noted, fathers are less apt to care for their children than are other
female relatives.
-