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Home for good: The experience of return among Overseas Male Filipino Workers (OMFW)

Kalaw, Karel Joyce Daba
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1437671347

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, Gerontology.
This study examines the intersection between transnational migration, as one of the distinguishing features of Philippine society, and aging studies. The return experience among Overseas Male Filipino Workers (OMFW) is explored. Specifically, this study aims to answer the following questions: What is the return experience among OMFW?; What is the response of their family members upon the OMFW return?; and how do OMFW view their lives in older age? Interviews with OMFW returnees, and comparative non-OMFW with their family members (wife/child) were conducted in Tagalog in the Philippines. The life course perspective, life story narratives, and the inclusion of Filipino indigenous methodologies (FIM) served as the conceptual frameworks. The results revealed that return is expressed in different ways; has dimensions, challenges, impacts; and is related to overseas life and Filipino culture. Return transnational migration was integrated in the life course of the OMFW returnee and his family. The study describes the humanness of return experience and the returnees’ change in self-perception, familism, and final exit from work. In addition, familism is an important factor to describe return and later life, and informs the life course of the returnees and their families. Moreover, the use of FIM facilitated layers of rapport-building that are important in eliciting quality data from the participants. FIM also emerged as a method that was in many ways in contrast to Western research approaches. In FIM, the researcher learned by being a fully integrated part of the community of interest (OMFW) rather than as an outside observer, which is more typical in traditional qualitative research. The study is relevant to Philippine society for several reasons: it adds insight into existing transnational migration programs; it informs life course studies and cross-cultural gerontology; it demonstrates use of a culturally sensitive methodology (FIM); and it provides a voice to a previously overlooked yet important population.
Kate de Medeiros (Advisor)
Jennifer Kinney (Committee Member)
Suzanne Kunkel (Committee Member)
Kathryn McGrew (Committee Member)
Carl Dahlman (Committee Member)
200 p.
Gerontology
Transnational migration; Return Migration; Aging; Life Course; Indigenous Methodologies; Overseas Filipino Workers; Familism

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kalaw, K. J. D. (2015). Home for good: The experience of return among Overseas Male Filipino Workers (OMFW) [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1437671347

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kalaw, Karel Joyce. Home for good: The experience of return among Overseas Male Filipino Workers (OMFW) . 2015. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1437671347.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kalaw, Karel Joyce. "Home for good: The experience of return among Overseas Male Filipino Workers (OMFW) ." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1437671347

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

miami1437671347
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© 2015, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.