Labour Migration and Ties of Relatedness: Diasporic Houses and Investments in Memory in a Rural Philippine Village

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 pos...

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Main Author: Aguilar, Filomeno V, Jr
Format: text
Published: Archīum Ateneo 2009
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Online Access:https://archium.ateneo.edu/history-faculty-pubs/47
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0725513609105485
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Institution: Ateneo De Manila University
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spelling ph-ateneo-arc.history-faculty-pubs-10462020-09-08T08:50:17Z Labour Migration and Ties of Relatedness: Diasporic Houses and Investments in Memory in a Rural Philippine Village Aguilar, Filomeno V, Jr 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. 2009-07-27T07:00:00Z text https://archium.ateneo.edu/history-faculty-pubs/47 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0725513609105485 History Department Faculty Publications Archīum Ateneo cognatic kinship diaspora house construction Overseas Filipino Workers remittances transnational migration Asian Studies History Sociology
institution Ateneo De Manila University
building Ateneo De Manila University Library
country Philippines
collection archium.Ateneo Institutional Repository
topic cognatic kinship
diaspora
house construction
Overseas Filipino Workers
remittances
transnational migration
Asian Studies
History
Sociology
spellingShingle cognatic kinship
diaspora
house construction
Overseas Filipino Workers
remittances
transnational migration
Asian Studies
History
Sociology
Aguilar, Filomeno V, Jr
Labour Migration and Ties of Relatedness: Diasporic Houses and Investments in Memory in a Rural Philippine Village
description 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.
format text
author Aguilar, Filomeno V, Jr
author_facet Aguilar, Filomeno V, Jr
author_sort Aguilar, Filomeno V, Jr
title Labour Migration and Ties of Relatedness: Diasporic Houses and Investments in Memory in a Rural Philippine Village
title_short Labour Migration and Ties of Relatedness: Diasporic Houses and Investments in Memory in a Rural Philippine Village
title_full Labour Migration and Ties of Relatedness: Diasporic Houses and Investments in Memory in a Rural Philippine Village
title_fullStr Labour Migration and Ties of Relatedness: Diasporic Houses and Investments in Memory in a Rural Philippine Village
title_full_unstemmed Labour Migration and Ties of Relatedness: Diasporic Houses and Investments in Memory in a Rural Philippine Village
title_sort labour migration and ties of relatedness: diasporic houses and investments in memory in a rural philippine village
publisher Archīum Ateneo
publishDate 2009
url https://archium.ateneo.edu/history-faculty-pubs/47
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0725513609105485
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