Filipino migrant worker organisations, social capital and disaster resilience: An Aotearoa-New Zealand case study

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that access to social capital, and particularly linking capital can significantly enhance the resilience of minoritized and vulnerable communities impacted by disasters. Understanding levels and types of access to social capital within such communities before disasters occur is an important part of disaster risk management policy and planning. Migrant worker communities, however, remain an understudied group in general, and there are very few published findings concerned with the 3.5 million Filipino migrant workers who primarily live in high-income host countries. This article contributes to addressing this gap with an Aotearoa-New Zealand qualitative case study that aims to increase understanding of the social capital accessed pre-disaster by members of Filipino migrant worker organisations in the Canterbury region. Interview and focus group data indicated that worker organisations facilitated access to local Filipino migrant worker networks, contributing to consistently high reliance on bonding capital, but less access to bridging or linking capital. This trend is linked to the precarious immigration status afforded by temporary work visas, which increased the vulnerability of participants. Only one organisation provided access to the linking capital required to mitigate this vulnerability. Factors influencing the capacity of organisations to develop linking capital appeared to include establishment objectives, length of time since establishment and support from government and industry groups. These findings emphasize the valuable role that migrant worker organisations can play in mitigating disaster risks, through providing connections that facilitate support and resourcing from authorities and industry bodies.