Healing “through God’s grace”: lived religion in Filipina migrant women’s health in Japan

ABSTRACT

Conceptually anchored on lived religion, this paper explores the meanings and experiences of health, illness, and healing among Filipino migrant women in Japan as they intersect with their religion. Likewise, it explores the functions and limitations of religion as migrant women face physical and mental health problems caused by work, marital status, and/or dislocation. Using biographical interviews and ethnography, this paper suggests that religion serves as a material and symbolic resource for making sense of health, illness and healing. As a material resource, it offered tangible, informational, and emotional support. It can however become limiting when personalised meanings and practices of religion frame illness based on morality, promote health misinformation, and delay healing and other health-seeking behaviours. Nonetheless, healing as perceived and experienced by Filipino migrant women involves lived religion in their complex meaning making and negotiated in terms of its physiological, spiritual and emotional effects.

KEYWORDS:

• Filipino migrant women
• migrant health
• lived religion
• social support
• Japan

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Sumitomo Foundation [grant number 178509].