ABSTRACT
Home is about striving for continuity amidst dislocation. As diasporic subjects, Filipinas live in fragmented spaces as they physically and psychically navigate between the destination country and home country. On one hand, Filipinas can be seen as mobile, as they have crossed geographical borders and are physically located in the destination country. Yet, on the other hand, they are also constrained by immigration laws, technologies of Othering, linguistic and cultural barriers and institutional structures. Filipinas simultaneously occupy and move between the destination country and the Philippines in their minds, in their memories and in their imagination. I stress that striving for continuity should not be seen as a binary of ‘fully at home’ on one end and ‘complete dislocation/alienation’ on the other, but rather as a continuum, a constantly shifting state shaped by multiple circumstances on micro, meso and macro dynamics. Filipinas continually work to feel at home, yet home remains elusive.
