Religion as a migratory aspiration: The case of the migration of Filipina Muslim domestic workers

• In Event: 4349 - Migratory Aspirations: How Aspiring Migrants and Refugees Decide to Leave

Abstract

This article analyses the migration of a religious “minority” that is largely invisible within migration studies, namely the Muslim Filipino domestic workers. In doing so, this article highlights how religious belonging, the status of minority and migration intersect and are negotiated, from before these women leave their country, during their time in the country of destination, to when they return to the Philippines. This research therefore underlines how boundary work affects the religious belonging of this Muslim “minority”, by presenting the Middle-East as an opportunity to perform norms of “Muslimness”. It also highlights how performing these norms appears to be an opportunity for these women to challenge the status of being a “minority” in the Philippines. Moreover, this article shows how these Muslim “minorities” access a certain symbolic capital when they return home by becoming a Hajji and a Balikbayan (returnees). Finally, this research shows that the category of “minority” is not fixed and is always negotiated through transnational spaces and boundary work.

Author

• Julien Debonneville, University of Geneva