Labour Migration and Ties of Relatedness

Diasporic Houses and Investments in Memory in a Rural Philippine Village

Bibliographic Data

ID4480876
AuthorsFilomeno V Aguilar (Ateneo de Manila University, corresponding author), Filomeno Aguilar (Ateneo de Manila University)
Year2009
Volume98
Issue1
Pages88-114
Publication date2009-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThesis Eleven (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0725-5136 • E-ISSN: 1461-7455
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0725513609105485
OpenAlexW2110314677
LanguageEN
Citations received38
References cited23

Putting migrant remittances into house construction and rebuilding is generally seen as either conspicuous consumption or productive investment, but in both cases the perspective is economistic. This article argues that only when the cultural dimension of economic action is understood will it be possible to comprehend migrant spending on houses. Specifically, this article seeks to understand why, in the case of the rural Tagalog village in this study, located in upland Batangas Province in the Philippines, overseas labour migrants build houses that they do not even live in, but are given to parents or simply left unoccupied. The explanation is framed in relation to the meanings of houses in a culture of bilateral kinship, which the Philippines shares with most parts of Southeast Asia, but inflected by distinct colonial influences. The article demonstrates the ways in which houses as memorials serve as idioms of ties of relatedness within kin groups and the broader community, ties that are being transformed by global migration and experienced differently yet maintained, renegotiated yet sustained transnationally

Consumption · Family ties · Investment · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy

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