Lam Theodora, Yeoh Brenda S A
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Gend Place Cult. 2016 Oct 27;25(1):104-117. doi: 10.1080/0966369X.2016.1249349. eCollection 2018.
The distinct feminization of labour migration in Southeast Asia - particularly in the migration of breadwinning mothers as domestic and care workers in gender-segmented global labour markets - has altered care arrangements, gender roles and practices, as well as family relationships within the household significantly. Such changes were experienced by both the migrating women and other left-behind members of the family, particularly 'substitute' carers such as left-behind husbands. During the women's absence from the home, householding strategies have to be reformulated when migrant women-as-mothers rewrite their roles (but often not their identities) through labour migration as productive workers who contribute to the well-being of their children via financial remittances and 'long-distance mothering', while left-behind fathers and/or other family members step up to assume some of the tasks vacated by the mother. Using both quantitative and qualitative interview material with returned migrants and left-behind household members in source communities in Indonesia and the Philippines experiencing considerable pressures from labour migration, this article explores how carework is redistributed in the migrant mother's absence, and the ensuing implications on the gender roles of remaining family members, specifically left-behind fathers. It further examines how affected members of the household negotiate and respond to any changing gender ideologies brought about by the mother's migration over time.
东南亚劳动力移民明显的女性化现象——尤其是作为家庭经济支柱的母亲在性别分割的全球劳动力市场中成为家政和护理工人的移民情况——已经显著改变了家庭内部的照料安排、性别角色与实践以及家庭关系。移民妇女和家庭中的其他留守成员，特别是像留守丈夫这样的“替代”照料者，都经历了这些变化。在妇女离家期间，当作为母亲的移民妇女通过劳动力移民重新塑造自己的角色（但往往不是身份），成为通过经济汇款和“远程育儿”为子女福祉做出贡献的生产性工人时，家庭策略必须重新制定，而留守的父亲和/或其他家庭成员则加紧承担母亲留下的一些任务。本文利用对印度尼西亚和菲律宾来源社区中经历劳动力移民巨大压力的返乡移民和留守家庭成员的定量和定性访谈材料，探讨了在移民母亲不在的情况下照料工作是如何重新分配的，以及这对留守家庭成员，特别是留守父亲的性别角色产生的影响。文章还进一步研究了受影响的家庭成员如何随着时间的推移协商并应对母亲移民带来的性别观念变化。
