Lives in Transition Denise L. Spitzer, PhD Canada Research Chair in Gender, Migration & Health University of Ottawa with Sara Torres, Aimee Beboso, Noreen Berkes, Caridad Bernardino, Avegaile Calzado, and Josephine Pallard, 16 th International Metropolis Conference Azores, Portugal September 13, 2011 Filipino Youth in Canada

Imagine That….  You are a 16 year old Filipino  You haven’t seen your mother for 5 years  You’ve been living a comfortable life due to mother’s remittances  Awaiting the moment the family is reunited on Canadian soil

Mariana  I thought it was going to be grand. Like, really better than the Philippines, and it was actually! By coming here, compared to the Philippines is just, it seems new. Everything looks new here. And clean and, [chuckles] and better.

Then….  You arrive at your mother’s basement apartment  Your clothes and possessions look dated  Your fluent English is poorly understood  You turn to your mother who is a beloved stranger

Introduction  Common elements of the transition of the children of Filipino former-LCP workers  14 Youth  Average 6.5 years separation  Range 2.5 to 16 years  social class / social status  racialized minority status  gender and familial roles  self & family: continuity and change

social class/ social status

Walter  “[My Mom came to Canada] to be able to provide our needs so we could have a better future. Because my Mom didn’t think of coming here… she was going to be a principal in her school where she was teaching, but she got approved here in Canada so she came here instead because she knows we’re going to have a better future.

Celina  the law says that even though you are like PhD or whatever way back in other countries still you need to start here from the scratch … There are person [sic] who are gonna get frustrated because they’re thinking that they will have an easier life here in Canada but from the moment they arrive here they will not be able to work the same kind of job … way back in that place. … because like, even though you are like PhD, or engineer, doctors way back in other country where you came from then you gonna be able to do like, pizza, pizza delivery, and then you gonna go housekeeping, cleaner, sort of job like, like not white collar job anymore.

racialized minority status

Walter  …because they ask you: “Where are you from?” And then you answer them and they’re like, “Where’s that?” They don’t know it. [- -] But here [in Ottawa] when you suggest Philippines, they know it, but there, no. They’re like: “Where’s that?” “Asia.” And then they’re like, “So you’re Asian then?” And you’re like, “Yes.”

Tomasina  You know when I am talking about the cliques and stuff? Some of like the black kids have their own one, the Asian ones and the white ones. And sometimes they are together. Some of them are the popular ones, sometimes they are white or Spanish or Filipino. But just, limited. They have their own cliques. It's hard.

Constanza  Even now that they have kids they still act like they’re teenagers. So it’s, it’s very different. They have to have nice cars even though they’re going to have so much owing and stuff like that … So I don’t, I don’t like to hang out with my peers and my own culture. I know it sounds weird but I just don’t like the way they present themselves … with them it’s like money, money, money, money’s first. Because there’s not much money back home and, they see a lot here and goes over (sic) their head, yeah.

gender & familial roles

Mariana  In the Philippines I sort of acted like their guardian, and, even here, when they need something they go to me, they don't go to my mom or my dad directly, so that's just how it works now, I can't really change it….

Mariana  It was, like I felt that, even though we talk every day, she missed a whole lot. When she wasn't around, it made it seem like she doesn't, like she assumes that she knows me, and I assume that I know her, but, it didn't really feel that way. Even now, even now I feel like she really doesn't know me that well.

Thomasina  All the times that she was not there, there was a gap. She don't know things that happened. So we, we can't talk about it, because she doesn't know it. It, it's kind of awkward if we talk about it and she is left alone… Well...not to worry her but I don't want her to feel like outcast because all of us experienced the same thing except for her. You know? So I don't want her to feel that...feel that she is left out.

Self & family:

self & family: continuity & change

Mariana  It seems like I want more every day. Just more of everything. Like material things and non-material things as well. Like, I want to be, I want to be someone. I want to be successful. I have a goal now, like after a couple of years, I want to be this person, so I think that Canada changed me that way.

Walter  Like my other brother got a car right and they have all jobs and they help, they help to, to in our house to be able to pay like all our bills.  [Interviewer: Do you help out as well?]  Um, yeah I do, like I pay the cable and the internet.

Alyin  Working, working. We will see each other when we go to bed. Yeah like that, always busy because we have a lot, we have all jobs here.

Conclusion

Some thoughts about…  Gender ideologies  Self-abnegation, filial behaviour  Bio-power  Impact on young men?  Family as corporate unit  Remittances  Mutual aid

Obrigada!