Social capital and Filipina FDWs : just work or something more ?

• Main Author: Rai, Gauri Varsha
• Other Authors: Tan Joo Ean
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/69178
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This research aims that while the meaning of work in Singapore to Filipina Foreign Domestic Workers (FDWs) emanates and is seemingly determined by personal reasons, these reasons are the result of political-economic circumstances and broader processes of migration propelled by globalisation. More significantly, it presents that Filipina FDWs are never fully passive receiving individuals of policies and processes. Instead, they skilfully situate themselves as agents within this web of global migration process such that it creates advantageous and meaningful life prospects for them. Using the three forms of social capital that are available to them through their relations with their employers, friends and family, they act in productive ways. These productive acts are evidenced by their improvements in financial status, reliance on social networks as means for support and the view of Singapore as a second home. This paper concludes that when Filipina FDWs are presented with the existence of social capital and are able to capitalise on them, they experience positive changes in their lives, albeit not necessarily life-changing.