The Ties that Unbind: Filipino Female Transmigration and the Left-Behind Family as Domestic Church of the Poor through the Lens of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences

• Main Author: Borja, Maria Elisa A
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2022
• Subjects: Arts and Humanities; Catholic Studies; Family, Life Course, and Society; Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Migration Studies; Religion; Social and Behavioral Sciences; Women's Studies
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/theology-faculty-pubs/76; https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003282310-11/ties-unbind-maria-elisa-borja
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

Migration creates new ties for female migrants in host countries, but these tend to unbind existing family ties. This chapter submits that being a domestic church of the poor in the context of female transmigration is about engaging in a collective mission of binding up the wounds of the small (biological) and the larger (human) family, especially the poor and vulnerable. Raising the children and the family, in general, as faithful and responsible Christians and global citizens is part and parcel of discipleship as transnational family practice. It demonstrates that the absence of migrant mothers could be detrimental to family life and that families must engage in intentional family formation and nurturance by looking for new ways of being and doing family. It would be difficult for transnational families to be a domestic church of the poor in the truest and fullest sense of the word unless they pay attention to their wounds and become wounded healers.