Heritage Culture Detachment Predicts Hope and Well-Being of Filipino Migrant Workers: A Study of Low- and Semi-skilled Filipino Workers in Macau

Abstract

Heritage culture detachment occurs when migrants tend to distance themselves from their own cultural norms and values as they engage their host culture; research suggests that this approach to acculturation is often associated with psychological distress. We explore heritage culture detachment and well-being among Filipino migrant workers in Macau. Participants ( N = 249) were recruited to answer a questionnaire that inquired into heritage culture detachment and several measures of well-being. The relationships between well-being and heritage culture detachment were examined by testing two structural equation models: Model 1: well-being predicts heritage culture detachment; Model 2: heritage culture detachment predicts well-being. The results show better fit between the data and Model 2; in particular, heritage culture detachment positively predicted satisfaction with life, external-peer locus-of-hope, but also negative self-esteem, and goal disengagement. Heritage culture detachment also negatively predicted external-spiritual locus-of-hope. The results are interpreted as possibly indicating how heritage culture detachment reflects efforts to adjust and cope in a new sociocultural environment. Unlike other migrants, international migrant workers may see their foreign work environment as temporary contexts and circumstances, wherein subordinating their cultural norms may have some utility. The discussion highlights how sources of well-being need to be understood within the specific temporal and sociocultural context of individuals’ life experiences.

The Psychology of Well-Being in the Margins: Voices from and Prospects for South Asia and Southeast Asia

“…The idea of meaningful work was one of the dimensions of workplace spirituality in that study, which echoes how spirituality was an important theme in the meaning-making process of unmarried women in the Philippines (Mendez, 2022 ). Interestingly, the external-spiritual locus-of-hope dimensions studied among the economically challenged individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia (Tee et al, 2022 ) and the Filipino migrant workers in Macau (Bernardo et al, 2022 ) were not significant factors in the well-being models tested. This might suggest that spirituality might be an important resource for aspects of well-being that relate to meaning, but not for aspects of well-being that involve goal-pursuit.…”

“…In this special issue, we feature 11 empirical studies that inquire into some facet of well-being of different marginalized groups. Three studies explicitly focus on well-being among those who are economically marginalized in society (Aruta et al, 2022 ; Sulkers & Loos, 2022 ; Tee et al, 2022 ), a marginal status that intersects with the focus of three other studies involving individuals in low status occupations (Aboobaker, 2022 ; Bernardo et al, 2022 ; Mata & Tarroja, 2022 ). The latter set of studies do not explicit focus on the economic status of the participants in their study, but their social context indicates that the some of the jobs involved are taken by persons from lower socioeconomic groups.…”

“…Hope associated with personal agency and with the support of one’s family also seems to buffer the distress due to the economic difficulties of Malaysians during the COVID-19 pandemic (Tee et al, 2022 ). In the case of Filipino migrant workers in Macau, detachment from their heritage cultures seems to also show adaptive functions as it relates to positive well-being in their present circumstances (Bernardo et al, 2022 ). Even among the poorest of the poor, the urban slum communities of India, life satisfaction does not seem to be low as the poor people seem to have adapted to the relative deprivation in their communities (Sulkers & Loos, 2022 ).…”