ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the different possibilities and expressions of activism and agency among Filipina migrant women in Singapore and Barcelona employed in the care and domestic work sectors. Based on in-depth interviews with Filipina women in both cities, the chapter examines the different sociocultural, political and institutional landscapes in which domestic and care work is situated. In each case, migrant women’s labour conditions, and their connections to non-governmental organisations and associations, municipal authorities, and other urban and neighbourhood communities, vary and shape the channels through which they seek to transform their experiences of being in typically vulnerable labour roles. The chapter examines the diverse, and often ambivalent, expressions of agency among migrant women to contest, challenge or even reaffirm certain normative characterisations of their identities as migrant women abroad. Through these practices and acts, migrant women move beyond a static characterisation of ‘domestic worker’ as an all-encompassing identity and demonstrate how migration in these sectors can also be a process of self-reflection and transformation, rather than simply a hardship or sacrifice.
