International Migration and the Restructuring of Gender Asymmetries: Continuity and Change among Filipino Labor Migrants in Rome

Abstract

This article examines the different factors which may explain genderselectivity among Filipino labor migrants in Rome, where women are around 70 percent of this nationality group. Following the analysis of labor demand in the domestic service sector, it explores 'supply' aspects, ranging from economic conditions within the Philippine labor market to noneconomic constraints, such as ideologies and expectations of gender. The research findings show that migrant women's commitments and obligations toward their households in home areas are generally stronger than those of their male counterparts. However, spatial distance and increased financial independence may provide some women with the opportunity to pursue 'self-interested' goals while at the same time keeping within the 'altruistic' role dictated by normative gender roles. Important elements affecting women's increased autonomy are life course paths, households' developmental cycle, class and migration form.Since the mid-1970s and early 1980s, previously labor-exporting Southern European countries (Italy, Spain, and Greece) have become destinations for labor migrants, a transition which coincided with the introduction of restrictive policies in the more traditional Western European destinations (such as Germany and France) in the 1970s. While relative ease of entry is often identified as an important factor encouraging movement to the circum-Mediterranean region (seeCastles and Miller, 1993; King and Knights, 1994) the 'new countries of immigration' of Southern Europe also reflect more visibly the global tendencies in contemporary international labor movement. In Italy, acceleration, or the steady increase in the number of people moving, translated into estimates of the number of immigrant workers, both registered "This article draws from a Ph.D. research project completed in 1996 at the Department of Geography of the London School of Economics and Political Science. 1 would like to thank

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