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Sacred Journeys, Diasporic Lives: Sociality and the Religious Imagination among Filipinos in the Middle East

Authors:
Sacred'Journeys,'Diasporic'Lives:''Sociality'and'the'Religious'Imagination'
among'Filipinos'in'the'Middle'East.'
Mark'Johnson,'Claudia'Liebelt,'Deirdre'McKay,'Alicia'Pingol'and'Pnina'Werbner'
The$Philippines$is$one$of$the$leading$labour$exporting$countries$in$the$world,$and$Filipino$
migrant$workers$have$been$widely$dispersed$to$localities$in$the$Middle$East,$Europe,$East$
and$Southeast$Asia$and$North$America.$$There$is$now$a$substantial$body$of$work$on$this$vast$
migratory$movement,$much$of$it$focused$on$and$contributing$to$understanding$the$
predicament$of$female$domestic$workers$(Constable$2007,$Parreñas$2003,$Stasiulis$and$
Bakan$2005,$Tyner$2004).$$$This$essay$moves$beyond$the$focus$on$inequalities$associated$
with$Filipino$migrant$labour,$to$attend$to$the$ways$that$those$migrants$transcend$their$
isolation$in$work$contexts$by$seeking$sociality$with$fellow$Filipinos$in$religious$
congregations.$We$ask:$how$does$religion$figure$in$the$social$life$and$imaginings$of$diasporic$
Filipinos,$their$moral$imaginings$and$inscriptions$of$faith$on$sacred$landscapes?$$This$is$
particularly$significant$for$Christian$or$Muslim$migrants$moving$to$countries$that$are$also$
historically$places$of$pilgrimage$holy$to$Christianity$or$Islam.$$Hence,$our$research$focused$
on$these$migrants’$experiences$in$the$Holy$Land,$the$birthplace$of$Christianity,$and$Saudi$
Arabia,$the$birthplace$of$Islam.$$$
Filipinos$are$one$of$the$largest$groups$of$migrants$in$the$Middle$East$(numbering$some$1.5$
million),$making$the$region$home$to$the$largest$population$of$overseas$Filipinos$outside$of$
North$America.$$While$there$is$much$that$might$be$said$about$the$differences$among$
Filipinos$and$their$varied$experiences$living$and$working$in$different$Middle$East$countries,$
our$aim$is$to$highlight$how$attention$to$religion$and$sociality$enables$us$to$reconceptualize$
the$experiences$and$agency$of$lone$Filipino$women$(and$men)$within$this$diaspora.$$1$$
Overseas'Filipino'Workers'and'transnational'relations'of'reproduction'
Filipino$migrants,$women$in$particular,$have$popularly$figured$as$‘maids$to$order’:$$people$
who$leave$the$poverty$of$their$home$country$to$work$as$domestic$servants$in$another$
country$in$pursuit$of$a$better$standard$of$living$for$themselves$and$their$families.$$The$
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
1$First$hand$empirical$research$among$Filipinos$living$and$working$in$the$Middle$East$is$
scarce.$$Research$for$this$project$was$funded$by$the$AHRC$(UK)$Diaspora,$Migration$and$
Identity$programme$and$was$carried$out$by$a$team$of$researchers$based$at$the$Universities$
of$Keele$and$Hull$under$the$direction$of$Pnina$Werbner$and$Mark$Johnson.$$$The$majority$of$
the$ethnographic$research$was$carried$out$by$the$projects’$post‐doctoral$fellows:$$Claudia$
Liebelt$(Keele)$among$Christian$Filipino$migrants$and$their$families$in$Israel$and$the$
Philippines,$and$Alicia$Pingol$(Hull)$among$Muslim$Filipino$migrants$and$their$families$in$
Saudi$Arabia$and$the$Philippines.$$Mark$Johnson$(Hull)$carried$out$additional$ethnographic$
research$on$Muslim$Filipino$migrants$who$have$worked$in$the$Middle$East$while$Deirdre$
McKay$(Keele)$is$conducting$research$with$Christian$Filipino$care$workers$who$have$moved$
on$from$the$Middle$East$to$work$in$the$UK.$$$
substantial$body$of$research$on$this$topic$contextualizes$and$complicates$that$popular$
stereotype$describing$and$theorizing$key$features$of$this$major$form$of$population$
movement$in$the$late$20th$and$early$21st$centuries.$First,$this$literature$situates$Filipino$
migrants$within$capitalist‐dominated$labour$flows$and$distributions$of$global$economic$
power.$The$analysis$highlights$the$growing$dependence$of$the$Philippines$(and$other$
developing$Southern$States)$on$migrants’$remittances,$arguing$that$the$state$creates$and$
then$super‐exploits$a$feminised$and$unskilled$migrant$workforce$(Parreñas$2003,$Pertierra$
1992,$Stasiulis$and$Bakan$2005,$Weekly$2004,$c.f.$Gibson,$Law$and$McKay$2001).$$Second,$it$
explores$critically$the$complex$bureaucratic$structures$and$discursive$practices$that$have$
evolved$within$and$across$sending$and$receiving$states$to$ensure$the$production$of$such$
compliant$and$self‐disciplining$subjects.$By$documenting$the$assemblage$of$discourses$and$
bureaucracies$governing$domestic$worker$migration,$this$literature$has$explained$how$the$
circumstances$of$their$labour$migration$tend$to$negate$workers’$individual$rights$and$curtail$
their$capacity$to$act$collectively$to$change$their$working$conditions.$$Though$attentive$to$the$
way$that$Filipinos$resist$their$oppression$through$‘hidden$transcripts’,$these$Foucault‐
inspired$Feminist$critiques$also$emphasize$the$way$that$everyday$acts$of$resistance$are$
nonetheless$circumscribed$by$the$internalization$of$the$regulatory$ideals$of$the$good$
‘foreign’/’national’$worker$(Constable$1997,$Parreñas$2003,$Tyner$2004).$$Third,$this$
literature$describes$how$broader$structures$of$race,$gender$and$class$are$reproduced$in$
everyday$working$practices$and$intimate$spaces$of$the$employer’s$household.$It$explores$
how$the$incorporation$of$Filipino$domestic$workers$into$a$global$system$of$reproductive$
labour$and$care‐work$causes$migrant$women$from$relatively$poor$countries$to$assume$the$
domestic$and$emotional$labour$of$middle$class$women$in$more$affluent$countries.$Migrants’$
own$children,$in$turn,$are$left$in$the$care$of$husbands,$grandmothers$and$other$relatives$at$
home,$in$the$Philippines,$a$pattern$often$reproduced$from$one$generation$to$another,$with$
daughters$following$their$mothers$into$overseas$migration$(Bakan$1995,$Bakan$and$Stasiulis$
1997,$Barber$1997,$Constable$1997,$Parrenas$2005,$Pingol$2002;$for$a$recent$critique$of$the$
‘care$chain’$literature$from$the$perspective$of$Filipino$migrants$see$McKay$2007).$$$
This$dominant$focus$on$work$and$labour$is$undoubtedly$useful$for$an$understanding$
of$Filipino$migrants$as$a$‘labour$diaspora’,$but$it$is$far$from$sufficient$as$a$full$account$of$
Filipino$migrant$lives.$$A$richly$textured$ethnographic$analysis$of$a$Filipino$diaspora$that$
gives$voice$to$migrant$creativity$and$sociality$beyond$the$workplace$‐$without$ignoring$
suffering$within$it$‐$remains$largely$missing$from$the$literature.$Moreover,$the$focus$on$
migrants’$work$conditions$tends$to$ignore$the$fact$that$‐$despite$being$denied$citizenship$–$
many$Filipinos$become$long‐term$residents$in$many$countries$of$destination.$During$their$
extended$stay$they$develop$complex$cultural$practices$and$networks$of$sociality.$While$
migrants’$affective$and$emotional$lives$and$motivations$are$no$doubt$inflected$by$highly$
constraining$regimes$of$economic,$institutional$and$disciplinary$power,$they$are$neither$
reducible$to,$nor$exhausted$by$them.$$Even$when$they$face$continuous$predicaments$in$
their$work$contexts,$Filipinos$nevertheless$find$ways$of$creating$spaces$for$socialising$and$
celebration$that$deny$their$image$as$culturally$impoverished$‘docile$bodies’.$$$
Beyond'‘Maids'to'Order’:''spiritual'sojourns'in'sacred'places.$
Addressing$these$gaps$in$the$literature$on$Filipino$diaspora,$our$project$has$explored$
migrants’$emotional$and$intellectual$engagement$with$the$social$and$symbolic$geographies$
of$host$countries.$$$Work$in$the$Middle$East$is$often$viewed$as$a$stepping$stone,$and$second$
best,$to$work$in$a$‘Western’$country$such$as$the$USA,$Canada$or$the$UK$(Johnson$1998,$
Liebelt$2008a).$$However,$for$Muslim$and$Christian$Filipinos,$living$and$working$at$the$holy$
centres$or$homelands$of$their$respective$faiths$may$mitigate$the$hardships$of$living$in$exile$
and$the$difficult$working$conditions.$$Filipino$migrants$in$many$parts$of$the$world$talk$about$
the$sacrifices$they$make$in$order$to$support$their$families$and$loved$ones$back$home.$That$
sacrifice$may$take$on$an$altogether$more$religious$dimension$when$‐$as$some$Muslim$
Filipino$workers$do$‐$they$talk$about$their$labour$in$sacred$places,$such$as$Makkah$or$
Madinah,$as$work$whose$reward$is$deemed$not$only$or$primarily$to$come$in$this$life$but$in$
the$life$hereafter.$$So$too,$Christian$Filipinos$describe$their$work$in$Israel$as$enabling$them$
to$come$into$metonymic$contact$with$the$holy$land$and$its$sacred$sites,$and$portray$the$
challenge$of$caring$for$the$elderly$as$part$and$parcel$of$their$ministry$of$spreading$the$
gospel$(Liebelt$2008a).$$
For$migrants,$religion$is$not$simply$about$the$rewards$of$the$afterlife.$Their$varied$religious$
engagements$and$familiarity$with$a$sacred$landscape$may$increase$their$cultural$capital$at$
home.$$Undertaking$the$hajj$or$umrah)exemplifies$this$point.$$Whereas$before,$undertaking$
the$hajj$was$impossible$for$all$but$the$most$affluent$of$Muslim$Filipinos,$one$of$the$positive$
benefits$of$working$in$the$Middle$East,$for$women$as$well$as$men,$is$that$many$have$been$
able$to$fulfil$this$final$pillar$of$Islam.$In$the$process,$they$have$also$increased$both$their$own$
and$their$families$social$standing$and$prestige.$$The$significance$of$the$hajj$for$Muslim$
Filipino$workers$is$attested$to$by$the$fact$that$some$respondents$reported$walking$out$on$
employers$who$prevented$them$from$going$on$pilgrimage.2$But$equally,$there$are$other$
examples$of$employers$who$not$only$allowed$but$positively$encouraged$and$sometimes$
assisted$their$employees$in$making$the$hajj.$
Christian$Filipinos$similarly$can$gain$respect$and$prestige$from$people$at$home$who$
acknowledge$them$as$pilgrims$in$their$journeys$to$‘the$Holy$Land’.$Working$as$caregivers$in$
private$homes,$Filipinos$not$only$learn$Hebrew,$but$get$an$intimate$picture$of$Jewish$culture$
and$religion,$especially$appreciated$as$knowledge$of$Christian$roots$among$evangelical$
Christians.$Catholic$lay$groups$and$independent$evangelical$churches,$formed$by$female$
Filipino$domestic$workers,$organise$Catholic$Block$Rosary$Crusades$in$Tel$Aviv,$pilgrimages$
to$Holy$Sites$in$the$Galilee,$Jerusalem$or$Bethlehem,$and$frequently$engage$in$long‐distance$
philanthropy.$As$with$zamzam$water$from$Makkah,$the$films$and$pictures$taken$and$the$
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
2$$See$Werbner$(1999)$for$a$similar$response$among$Pakistani$migrants$to$the$Gulf.$$$$$
devotional$items$acquired$during$pilgrimages$travel$back$to$the$Philippines,$supporting$
migrants’$claims$that$their$sacred$journeys$have$enhanced$their$spiritual$knowledge$and$
potency.$$
Migrants,$by$establishing$religious$congregations$in$their$places$of$settlement,$create$
community$away$from$home.$$This$is$a$salient$feature$of$migration$often$ignored$in$studies$
of$overseas$Filipinos,$not$all$of$whom$are$religious.$For$those$who$are,$religion$fills$their$lives$
with$social$events,$from$congregational$meetings$and$prayers$to$the$joyful$celebration$of$
ritual$festivals$like$Christmas$or$Eid‐el$Fitr.$$Some$of$these$festivals$may$take$place$in$
churches$or$mosques,$others$in$homes$where$Eid$celebrations,$for$example,$bring$together$
migrant$co‐workers$and$employers$along$with$their$extended$families.$This$regular$and$
recurrent$sharing$of$religious$events$provides$opportunities$for$migrant$workers$who$may$
otherwise$live$relatively$isolated$lives$during$the$week$to$celebrate$in$the$company$of$co‐
religionists$and$fellow$Filipinos,$to$gossip,$joke$and$chat$while$providing$advice$and$mutual$
aid.$$Importantly,$these$ritual$events$can$enjoy$broader$social$sanction$in$the$host$societies.$
Filipino$migrants$are$well$known$for$meeting$and$socializing$in$the$more$secular$contexts$of$
public$parks$and$shopping$malls.$One$of$the$best$documented$examples$of$these$is$the$
Sunday$gathering$of$Filipino$domestic$workers$in$Hong$Kong$(Constable$1997,$McKay$2005).$
Here,$Filipinos,$largely$engaged$in$domestic$work,$routinely$colonize$the$space$of$the$central$
business$district$after$attending$church.$On$the$streets,$in$the$parks,$and$along$the$
pavements,$they$meet,$share$food$and$exchange$news$and$goods$with$fellow$migrants$from$
the$same$village,$town$or$province$in$the$Philippines.$$Their$village$gatherings$recreate$and$
extend$a$sense$of$ethnic$affiliation$and$village$material$and$cultural$economy$in$a$translocal$
space$(McKay$2005).$These$gatherings$are$also$sites$of$political$agency$where$migrants$form$
‘home‐town$associations’$that$engage$in$philanthropy$and$political$action$at$home$and$
support$internal$migration$within$the$Philippines$(McKay$2005,$McKay$and$Brady$2005.)$$$
In$the$Middle$East,$Filipino$migrants$similarly$recreate$the$conviviality$of$home$and$ethnicity$
in$various$ways.$$In$Tel$Aviv,$they$colonise$the$Central$Bus$Station$for$karaoke,$shopping,$
self‐decoration,$clubbing$and$get‐togethers.$$Elsewhere$in$the$Middle$East$where$public$
gatherings$are$more$circumscribed,$informal$and$mixed$groups$of$Muslim$and$Christian$
Filipinos$hire$private$venues$and$congregate$in$makeshift$parks$(designated$kamsa‐kamsa$
because$of$the$five$Riyal$charge),$recreating$‘fiestas’$in$desert$locales.$$Here,$religious$events$
and$congregations,$like$the$more$secular$social$occasions$and$modes$of$exchange$in$Hong$
Kong,$may$help$to$create$and$enhance$a$sense$of$a$shared$home$place$in$diaspora$by$
fostering$close$links$with$particular$places$in$the$Philippines.$$Thus,$for$example,$a$pilgrimage$
group$in$Tel$Aviv‐Jaffa$donates$money$for$building$a$chapel$to$a$specific$congregation$in$
South$Cotabato$in$the$Southern$Philippines,$while$in$Jeddah,$a$group$of$Christian$Filipino$
converts$to$Islam$(referred$to$as$‘reverts’$or$balik)Islam)$sends$money$to$support$the$
building$of$a$mosque$in$their$home$town$in$Luzon.$$
Shared$religious$practice$also$draws$in$co‐religionists$from$other$countries$and$from$other$
parts$of$the$Philippines$in$ways$that$transcend$ethnic$and$village$localities.$Worshiping$
together$simultaneously$creates$and$consolidates$a$wider$sense$of$shared$national$
affiliation$and$of$belonging$to$a$global$community$of$believers.$$Muslim$Filipinos,$for$
example,$both$claim$what$they$regard$as$their$rightful$place$among$the$universal$
community$of$the$faithful,$but$also$routinely$contrast$themselves$as$Muslim$Filipinos$to$
Arab$Muslims.$$For$Muslim$Filipinos$that$distinction$is$often$articulated$in$religious$terms:$$
Arabs$may$have$been$blessed$by$being$the$ones$to$whom$the$Prophet$and$Qu’ran$were$
sent,$and$hence$may$have$more$in$the$way$of$religious$knowledge$and$be$better$informed$
about$appropriate$religious$conduct$and$ritual$practice.$$However,$what$Muslim$Filipinos$
lack$in$the$way$of$head$knowledge$they$more$than$made$up$for$in$terms$of$a$purity$and$
steadfastness$of$heart.$$Just$as$evangelical$Christian$Filipinos$regarded$themselves$as$
missionaries$and$evangelists$in$the$Holy$Land,$some$Muslim$Filipinos$saw$themselves$as$
performing$da’wah,)calling$non‐believers$to$revert$and$return$to$Islam$(balik)Islam),$and$
fellow$believers,$among$them$Arab$Muslims,$to$renew$their$faith$and$examine$their$heart.$$$$$$$$
The$idea$of$membership$in$a$universal$community$of$believers$is$important$in$establishing$a$
language$of$shared$ethics$across$divisions$of$status$and$power.$$This$is$especially$so$in$
situations$for$lone$migrant$workers$who$have$little$recourse$to$employment$and$citizen$or$
residential$rights$and$little$or$nothing$in$the$form$of$collective$representation.$$$For$such$
people,$religion$may$be$an$important$means$of$making$and$pressing$moral$claims$both$on$
fellow$workers$$‐$to$socialize,$to$exchange,$to$share$‐$and$on$employers,$even$if$it$is$only$to$
persuade$them$to$allow$their$employees$to$participate$in,$if$not$take$time$off$work$for$
shared$religious$events.$For$some$migrant$workers,$religion$was$the$primary$language$for$
talking$about$and$defending$one’s$sense$of$self$and$personhood.$Religion$offered$a$means$
of$expressing$social$agency$in$those$diasporic$situations$where$they$might$otherwise$be$
forced$to$comply$with$and$bear$the$everyday$humiliations$of$subordination$and$difficult$
working$conditions$in$exchange$for$a$relatively$small$sum$of$money$to$send$home.$$$$$
Migrants$engaged$religion$to$express$their$agency$in$a$variety$of$ways.$Muslim$Filipinos$had$
recourse$to$a$form$of$lamentation$where$emotional$outpouring$in$the$form$of$cries,$tears$
and$sobs$in$‘public’$spaces$within$the$home$or$work$place$are$accompanied$by$the$pointed$
and$vocal$recitation$of$Qu’ranic$versus$in$the$presence$of$their$Arab$employers.$$Filipino$
domestic$workers$caring$for$elderly$Jews$have$learned$about$and$drawn$parallels$between$
Jewish$sufferings$and$experiences$of$exile$and$their$own$diaspora$experiences.$This$learning$
enable$one$group$to$declare$to$state$policymakers,$‘We$are$the$Jews$of$today’$(Liebelt$
2008b).$
Religion$shapes$the$expectations$and$experiences$of$particular$places$and$host$societies$for$
both$Christian$and$Muslim$Filipino$migrants.$$While$a$religious$stress$on$self‐sacrifice,$
endurance$and$good$works$can,$paradoxically,$reinforce$and$consolidate$dominant$
discourses$that$produce$docile$and$disciplined$bodies,$religion$can,$at$the$same$time,$
facilitate$social$networks$and$mobilisation$against$exploitation$by$enabling$new$forms$of$
sociality.$Religion$is$thus$an$important$symbolic$resource$for$people$in$the$struggle$for$
recognition$and$rights$both$at$home$and$abroad.$Framing$forms$of$sociality$and$social$action$
within$a$moral$discourse$among$an$imagined$universal$community$of$believers$not$only$
helps$migrants$to$make$longer$sojourns$bearable,$but$also$opens$up$ways$of$negotiating$a$
sense$of$belonging$and$cultural$citizenship$in$host$nations.$$$
Conclusion'
The$centrality$of$religion$in$the$study$of$migration$and$diaspora$is$by$no$means$new.$$
Religion$has$been$a$focus$of$much$recent$research$on$new$diasporas$in$the$West,$and$their$
claims$to$citizenship$(Warner$and$Wittner$1998).$$Our$goal,$however,$is$not$simply$to$extend$
religion$as$the$primary$analytical$lens$through$which$to$understand$the$social$lives$and$
movements$of$another$diaspora,$that$of$Filipino$migrant$workers.$$Rather$the$broader$
analytical$and$political$purpose$of$our$research$has$been$to$frame$the$experience$of$lone$
migrants,$particularly$domestic$workers,$through$an$alternative$discourse$that$does$not$
simply$reduce$them$to$docile$bodies$or$vulnerable$victims.$Instead,$we$highlight$migrants’$
volitional$movements$to$and$creative$engagements$with$places$and$landscapes$that$may$be$
sacred$or$secular$and$sometimes$an$alternating$combination$of$both.$$Filipinos,$we$show,$
like$other$migrant$groups,$also$engage$in$processes$of$community$formation,$networking$
and$moral$obligation.$These$enable$them$to$win$recognition$and$distinction$among$fellow$
migrants$and$those$left$at$home,$to$recreate$a$universe$of$conviviality$and$sociality,$and$to$
re‐centre$their$place$of$work$within$an$imagined$global$ecumene$of$open$boundaries$and$
constant$movement.$$
Further'Reading'
'
Constable,$N.$(2007)$Maid)to)Order)in)Hong)Kong.)Stories)of)Migrant)Worker,)2nd)Edition.))
Ithaca,$Cornell$University$Press.$
$
Liebelt,$C.$(2008)$On$Sentimental$Orientalists,$Christian$Zionists,$and$‘Working$Class$
Cosmopolitans’:$Filipina$Domestic$Workers’$Journeys$to$Israel$and$Beyond,$Critical)Asian)
Studies,$40(4).$
$
McKay,$ D.$ (2007)$ ‘Sending$ Dollars$ Shows$ Feeling’$ –$ Emotions$ and$ Economies$ in$ Filipino$
Migration,$Mobilities$2(2),)175–194.$
$
Parreñas,$R.$S.$(2001)$Servants)of)Globalization:)Women,)Migration)and)Domestic)Work,)
Stanford,$Stanford$University$Press.$
$
Pingol,$Alicia.$(2001)$Remaking)Masculinities,$Quezon$City,$University$of$the$Philippines‐
University$Center$for$Women’s$Studies.$
$
Tyner,$J.$A.$(2004)$Made)in)the)Philippines.)Gendered)discourses)and)the)making)of)migrants,$
London,$Routledge.$
$
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... For example, in 2007, alongside Mark Johnson as a Co-Investigator, Werbner received a large grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to study the "Sociality, Caring, and the Religious Imagination in the Filipina Diaspora", a project in which I became her research assistant. The project's main aim was to go beyond the dominant trope in the literature of the Filipina 'maid to order', stressing the agentive aspects of migration to 'holy' places such as Jerusalem, Mecca or Medina (Johnson et al. 2010). The project proposal started from Werbner's view of diasporic belonging as created and maintained through aesthetic, sensual and embodied norms and codes, such as food, styles, taste and clothing. ...
... Tweed's finding that religious sociality functioned to create a home away from home-'intensify joy and confront suffering' (Tweed 2006, p. 54)-resonated with our own findings among Filipino domestic workers, who often socialized in churches, prayer or bible reading groups, or set out on pilgrimage tours during their days off work. As a project team, we wrote about the sacred journeys and diasporic lives of Filipinos in the Middle East (Johnson et al. 2010), focusing on diasporic Filipinos' moral imaginings, the role of religious practices and sociality in their everyday lives, and their sacralization of spaces in their destination countries, which they experienced as spiritually loaded for them. ...
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Dedicated to the memory of Pnina Werbner, this essay revisits Werbner’s ethnographic and conceptual work on the relationship between diaspora and religion through a close reading of her book on Imagined Diasporas among Manchester Muslims and her later engagements with the concept of diaspora with respect to religion and the background of her work on African and Filipino labour diasporas in the West. It argues that many of Werbner’s insights remain pertinent today, not least because in many European contexts Muslim-background citizens and non-citizens remain excluded from full belonging and are still forced to engage in constant perspectival manoeuvring similar to Werbner’s earlier interlocutors. While the notion of diaspora has lost much of its earlier conceptual verve, in its Werbnerian reading, I argue, it may still offer a scholarly tool for analysing the multiple imaginations, belongings, and ambiguities of migrants’ and religious minorities’ self-representations and complex lives.
... Despite these inequalities, my data suggests that social relations were a vital aspect of making migrants human again and represented a shared ethics across divisions of power. In common with research findings by Johnson et al. (2010), I found that despite existing relations of dependence and power, migrants were able to express a certain social agency through their community activities -at least some of the time. ...
... Nationality is not only a signifier of ethnicity but in certain situations, it can determine community membership or differential treatment by other migrants. In this respect, while migrants community activities were clearly marked by relations of dependence and hierarchy, it would be wrong to dismiss them as spaces that reinforce migrants' image as 'culturally impoverished docile bodies' (Johnson et al. 2010: 219) who are living a 'bare life' (Agamben 1998) without rights and obligations. On the contrary, within these spaces of difference, migrants are able to exert a certain degree of social agency by identifying with other members of the same group. ...
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This thesis is based on an ethnographic study of the lives of Sub-Saharan African migrants residing in Morocco. Over the past two decades, an increasing number of these migrants live in the urban centres of the country, mostly without migration status and with very limited access to formal employment, social services and legal protection. While many of these migrants wish to move on to another country, return to their home countries or, in some cases, settle permanently in Morocco, most are unable to do so and are 'stuck' in a situation of 'forced immobility' for indeterminate periods of time. The study describes how migrants narrate their particular migratory trajectories to Morocco, their arrival in the country, their dealings with fellow migrants and their efforts to survive. It analyses the processes by which they become alienated in space and time from their existential quest for a better life. While in Morocco, migrants' lives are focused on the present and their social relations are often marked by hierarchical and exploitative structures of dependence. These circumstances make them question their feelings of belonging, their values and their ideas about themselves and the meaning of migration as an existential quest. Drawing on Albert Camus' idea of the absurd, migrants' feelings of alienation are compared with an absurd situation, in which old values lose their meanings in an apparently senseless world. Rather than approaching migrants as passive victims or hopeless individuals, the study seeks to explore how migrants' lives in liminal times and spaces are shaped by the various strategies they employ in an attempt to take control of their own destiny. Social theories of waiting and time are used in this context to highlight how migrants' action - or inaction - can be understood as purposeful from their own perspective. From an existential point of view, waiting for onward migration constitutes a kind of revolt against the absurd conditions they are facing in forced immobility and gives at least some meaning to their lives. The thesis is framed against conventional discourses of transit migration, which conceive of migrants in Morocco as criminal trespassers of borders or else as victims who have little choice over their actions. This discourse often serves as a justification for increasingly restrictive migration policies and measures to control and prevent migrants from settling or moving through countries bordering the European Union. The thesis argues that the 'transit migrant' is a normative and political construct that does not reflect the reality of migrants coming to Morocco. Furthermore, policies designed to control migrants' movement and stay do nothing to improve their situation in Morocco but rather contribute to their increasing marginalisation. The thesis also draws attention to problems with the relief-based nature of much short-term humanitarian aid granted to migrants in Morocco, showing how these type of activities do not address or take into account migrants' complicated relation to the present.
... Instead, adopting practices and dress equated with purdah 'possessed an agency of its own; an agency that women hoped they could sustain or replicate upon returning home' (Siriwardane, 2014, p. 18). In the Gulf, too, becoming more pious enabled some female domestic workers to legitimize time away from their employer's home to attend religious gatherings, escape isolated working conditions and connect with other women engaged in the domestic sector (Johnson, Liebelt, McKay, Pingol, & Werbner, 2010). ...
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This article examines the utilization of female Muslim factory workers, in a North Indian woodworking industry, as domestic labour in the homes of their employers. The ethnography illustrates the importance of considering hidden forms of domestic-sector employment where workers are coopted into domestic tasks. The illumination of ‘coopted domestic labour’ has implications for understanding the breadth and scope of the sector and contributes to debates around its regulation, definition, growth and feminization. Female Muslim factory workers did not see ‘coopted domestic labour’ as a livelihood ‘choice’ but as exploitation enabled through employers’ tactics, such as the use of advance payments, forms of ‘neo-bondage’, and through structural continuity across domestic and industrial contexts which situated women at the bottom of the labour hierarchy. It also involved complex negotiations around reputation, character and practices of purdah (veiling) which, whilst already an issue for those working in factories, became intensified when entering the homes of others. The article develops its contribution by introducing the category of ‘coopted domestic labour’ and empirically illustrating its intersection with gender norms, Islam, forms of neo-bondage and structural considerations.
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This final empirical chapter concerns public performance of faith and ritual. Concurrent with the book’s understanding of the diaspora as a process which may emerge in different ways and at varying intensities between contexts, two ‘scales’ of religiosity—formalised places of worship and informal, temporary spaces within community associations—are considered as sites within which ethnic, diasporic or other modes of identification may be engendered and enacted amongst diverse Tamil migrants. At each of these ‘scales’, the collective performance of faith acted as an emotional and sensual connector to pre-migration locales, as well as a powerful source of bonding with other Tamils who shared knowledge and experience of the accurate performance of these rituals, fostering diasporic identifications which largely crossed boundaries of state origin, migration impetus and class.
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This article analyses the migration of a religious ‘minority’ that is largely invisible within migration studies, namely Muslim Filipina domestic workers. More specifically, this research shows that the category of ‘minority’ is not fixed and is always negotiated through transnational spaces and boundary work. In doing so, the article highlights how religious belonging, the status of minority and migration intersect and are negotiated during the period prior to these women leaving their country, during their time in the country of destination, and when they return to the Philippines. How boundary work affects the religious belonging of this Muslim ‘minority’ is underlined by presenting the Middle East as an opportunity to perform norms of ‘Muslimness’. The performance of these norms as an opportunity for these women to challenge the status of being a ‘minority’ in the Philippines is also examined. Finally, this article shows how these Muslim ‘minorities’ gain access to a certain symbolic capital by becoming hajji and balikbayan (returnees) when they return home.
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This paper examines how Muslim Filipino domestic workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia creatively assert agency and solicit recognition despite their precarious position in that country. One way that they do so is by leaving their legal employers to go ‘freelance,’ selling their labor to the highest bidder and living as best they can as irregular migrants in that country. The capacity to act in that way is enabled by the high demand for domestic labor and the wider network of relations among compatriot and kin who provide them with assistance. While effectively drawing on those social networks, migrant domestic workers, nonetheless, continue to bear the cost of a stigmatized social position among their co-nationals.
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While the Jewish diaspora is generally treated as the ideal type of an imagined global community, the notion of a Filipino labor migrant diaspora has arisen more recently. As I will show, the analysis of "diaspora" as an emic discourse offers much insight into the political and affective aspects of economic, social and cultural dislocation within a global capitalist order. Based on ethnographic research on Filipino domestic workers in Israel, this article focuses on migrants' usage of the language of diaspora, rather than discussing whether their historical experiences justify their description as such. By declaring to Israeli policymakers and employers that "We are the Jews of today," Filipino domestic workers in Israel are not only demonstrating their knowledge of and solidarity with Jewish history and suffering, but—against the background of a migration regime that rigidly excludes non-Jews— negotiate rights and belonging by appeals to pity and compassion, hereby claiming political inclusion.
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De recentes etudes sur le travail salarie des femmes migrantes employees de maison montre que cette forme de travail est un moyen de structurer des differences raciales et de relations entre les femmes. L'importance du statut de citoyennete est ici examine a la fois pour les membres du menage qui emploie une domestique et pour les femmes migrantes employees. Tandis qu'il manque generalement aux employees la plupart des droits primaires, tel celui de choisir son employeur et son domicile, les membres du menage profitent quant a eux de tous leurs droits. Cette etude montre le role primordial joue par les representants des agences de placement dans la negociation des droits pour les travailleurs et leurs employeurs a Toronto, Ontario. L'A. appuie sur les differences de placement et de travail a effectuer chez les femmes en fonction de leur classe, race et citoyennete