Temporality and acquiescent immobility among aspiring nurse migrants in the Philippines

ABSTRACT

While there is a considerable literature on how people decide to move from their places of origin, few studies have examined how aspiring migrants cope with immobility and eventually decide to let go of their migration aspirations. This paper uses the lens of migration temporalities to show how Filipino nurses unable to emigrate overseas eventually chose to remain in the Philippines. In particular, we discuss how nurses formulated these decisions as they experienced different forms of temporality: from an optimistic period of ‘becoming a migrant’ in nursing school to the precarious temporality of building work experience in a context of staggered employment and short-term contracts. We discuss how interviewees who chose to let go of their migration aspirations came to view emigration in temporal terms as well: a short-term venture which may bring ‘quick’ benefits yet provide little opportunity for long term stability. We conclude the paper with a discussion of how a focus on time and temporalities can further complicate the discussion on immobility.

KEYWORDS:

• Immobility
• temporality
• nursing
• migration decisions
• Philippines

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 There is a growing literature on the ‘mobility bias’ in migration studies. Kerilyn Schewel’s (2019) recent article discusses different perspectives on issue, as well as current gaps in the literature. Scholars have also pushed for a study of immobility through the concept of ‘moorings’ and its impact on individuals who are unable to realise their aspirations to move (see Hannam, Sheller, and Urry 2006).

2 There is a vast literature that investigates migration decisions beyond principles of neoclassical economics. Sociologists have talked about the culture of migration, where leaving the country is valorised as a natural part of the life course (Kandel and Massey 2002; Ali 2007). Others have also explored the impacts of place, which further complicates discussion on the cultures of migration (Thompson 2017; Robins 2019).

3 Two interviewees had been able to work overseas, but not as registered nurses. One had gone to Japan as a caregiver before pursuing a nursing degree, while another had spent two years in Singapore as a nursing aide at a home for elderly patients.

4 In a forthcoming article, we use Carling and Schewel's concept of ‘adaptive preferences’ to discuss how aspiring nurse migrants can subdue their original plans by seeking alternative destination countries (Saudi Arabia instead of the US) or other jobs beyond nursing (e.g. leaving as a caregiver).

5 There is a growing literature that investigates how time is composed of nonlinear, overlapping temporalities (Davies 2001) that provides varied meaning to different life projects (see Cwerner 2001). Much of this work builds on the writing of Lefebvre ([1992] 2004) who suggests that individuals live in the moment (present) and are actively linked to the past and future. Understanding time as relational underscores that different temporalities are not just categories, but may be actively pursued, experienced, and negotiated, as in our paper.

6 Studies have studied chain migration patterns among Filipino migrants in destination countries like the US (see Liu, Ong, and Rosenstein 1991; Aguilar 2009).

7 Parents’ significant influence in career decision-making of their child can be traced from the traditional Filipino family norms of child's obedience to the parents’ discipline (Medina 2001; Bernardo 2010). The feelings of obedience and obligation expressed by our interviewees is a trait known as the utang na loob or understood as having an eternal debt of gratitude for the support provided by the parents or guardians (Sustento-Seneriches 2000).

8 The first author's previous work had documented the experiences of nursing graduates who never became interested or invested in the nursing profession and only obtained the nursing degree to please parents or relatives. Many of these nursing graduates left the profession when they could not find gainful employment after graduation (see Ortiga 2018b). In this paper, interviewees had passed the board exams and spent considerable time and effort accumulating hospital experience. While parental influence was a big factor in choosing to major in Nursing, our interviewees made the decision to remain in the profession and work towards overseas jobs.

9 After 2015, countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UK began to loosen restrictions by only requiring a year of hospital experience. However, most of our interviewees still struggled to show proof of enough clinical experience because of their staggered employment history that resulted from the short-term employment contracts available in hospitals.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science: [Grant Number JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 15H05171].