Social Discourses on Filipino Women Migrants

Abstract

Since the introduction of the overseas employment policy by the Philippine government in 1974, the practice of ‘mag-abroad’ or ‘working abroad’ has become socially diffused. In this essay, I explore some ways in which Philippine society has positioned Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) as ‘heroes’ who bring money into the Philippines while simultaneously casting migration as a ‘social problem’. The latter discourse has become particularly significant since the feminization of migration in the 1980s.