Transcending Dislocations : Narratives from Filipina Domestic Workers in Tokyo

Evidence shows that foreign domestic workers move with their transnational employers from one country to another. This mobility has challenged the linear unidirectional process that assumes a one-way mobility, and it is not only a movement of foreign domestic workers between rich and poor countries but also increasingly, a movement of these women workers from one highly industrialized country to another. However, does this mobility of domestic workers indicate a move away from their domesticated and immobile image that has been powerfully represented in migration studies? Does this mobility improve their status as migrant domestic workers? This chapter examines how Filipino women domestic workers situate themselves within the constraints of their quasi-migrant status at the destination area. It re/examines the abuse prevalent in domestic work vis-a-vis the voiced and tacit struggles and concerns of women who do the work. I use narratives to illustrate women migrants' practices and their justification of the strategies as they assert their own retrieval from the impact of gender inequities and other structural for ces