Filipina Domestic Workers

Charlene Tung’s “Caring across Borders: Motherhood, Marriage, and Filipina Domestic Workers in California,” and the class discussion on how we were raised made an impression on me because I was raised by my mother and my Filipina housekeeper. Tung explains the role of Filipina caregivers in the United States, and the difficult decisions they were forced to make between physically care giving for their child in the Philippines, or coming to America to find better work with higher wages.

The class discussion made me realize that even among us in the same environment today, the ways in which we were raised are vastly different. In addition, it made me think of the few Filipina housekeepers that helped raise me, and the obstacles they must have gone through to become a domestic worker in Japan while raising children at the same time. Yet, what always amazed me was the tight knit community of housekeepers and care givers; Tung mentions, “Filipina women usually obtained jobs through a network of other Filipina caregivers” (303), and in my situation, it was exactly that. Although my experience was in Japan, it seems to be the same way for Filipina women caregivers in America also.

I felt a lot of compassion for the Filipina women because they showed strength and independence, and although they moved from stereotypical women’s care giving in Philippines to the same female sphere in America, they were able to overcome the challenges of migration and being separated from their families. They were able to gain financial independence while working in rough conditions, and bearing emotional and physical responsibilities. Tung claims that along with the “emotional and physical labor inherent in caring for the elderly, Filipina women must contend too with the emotional costs of mothering from afar” (305). College is the first time I have been away from my parents, and I can feel the stress on my parents because of the distance from my sister and I. However, these women were emotionally and physically strained while being away from their young children, who may not have been able to care for themselves. Thus, I feel that the Filipina domestic workers have helped inspire other Asian American women to strive for financial independence and strength.