ABSTRACT
In their diverse trajectories, Filipinas are not nameless and faceless, but active agents who perform multiple acts of resistance and contest their liminal positionalities through different channels. This chapter shows how the homeland remains a pivot point of identification for Filipinas as they contest their liminal spaces. The ways in which participants work to feel at home reveals the familiarity and semblances of home made possible in social relations. Thus, this discussion brings to light the symbolism that home holds for participants. I discuss strategies and social relations and how making home in the diasporic context is connected to dislocation. The first part of this chapter draws on the stories of four interviewees and their reflections on their migration circumstances. Through their stories, we see how Filipinas interpret the social, economic, ideological and political dynamics of the world around them. This reflexivity not only illustrates how Filipinas come to understand their orientations and motivations and make sense of their positionalities, but also brings crucial visibility to their lives. Because the examination of social relations helps to understand how people create a feeling of home, I draw on participants’ reflections of their dislocations and social interactions in order to highlight the complex emotions of the transnational subject and to provide deeper insight into how they inhabit their spaces.
