Negotiating interests and identities in transnational family: migrant Filipinas in France and their family in the Philippines

Studies on maternal migration and transnational family put considerable attention on the migrant women themselves and on their children left in their country of origin, but often overlook the situation of other family members such as the husbands “left behind”, or even intentionally leave their case aside to give way to a more focused analysis. However, examining the consequences of migration on each family member may help fill the gaps in our understanding of transnational family relations, notably concerning the mother-child dyad and the fate of conjugal intimacy following migration. This chapter presents such an analysis based on fieldwork conducted in France and in the Philippines, focusing respectively on Filipino migrant women domestic workers and on their family members. The migration of the Filipino women interviewed has triggered organisational changes in their family and challenged the gender norm in it, affecting each family member. The feelings of proximity or distance, whether physical or emotional, expressed by each family member accompany a continued negotiation of family roles and individual interests, which facilitates the social reproduction of the family.