Serial Labor Migration: The Immobility Pathways of Filipino Migrant Domestic Workers to Arab States

Conférence de Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, Université de Caroline du sud.
 

Most migrant workers, being non-citizens categorized as unskilled temporary labor migrants, confront exclusionary contexts of reception. Using the case of migrant Filipino domestic workers, this talk examines how migrant exclusion, including ineligibility for permanent residency, absence of labor market flexibility and denial of right to family reunification shapes migration patterns. As illustrated, exclusion encourages serial labor migration, meaning the multi-country migration of temporary labor migrants who remain anchored in the sending country while working in more than one country during the course of their migration. The concept of serial labor migration points to the need for studies to pay greater attention to mobility instead of integration and migrant exclusion rather than inclusion for a more accurate description of temporary labor migrant experiences. This talk relies on in-depth interviews conducted with 85 Filipino migrant domestic workers in the key migrant destination of the United Arab Emirates.

Bio: Rhacel Salazar Parreñas is Professor of Sociology and Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Southern California. She is the author of numerous books and articles on gender, family, labor, migration and the political economy of globalization. In 2019, she was honored with the Jessie Bernard Award by the American Sociological Association in recognition of her contributions to our understanding of women in society.

Chair and discussion: Frédéric Roustan, Université Lumière Lyon ; Jean-Michel Butel, Inalco, and Hélène Le Bail, CNRS, Sciences Po Paris, Institut Convergences Migrations.