ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how this process of reconfiguring the “social” plays out in the context of the Philippines’ labor export system and pervasive culture of emigration. Focusing on the case of Filipino nursing graduates seeking to work overseas, this chapter discusses how the success of the Philippines’ labor-brokering process relies on individuals who can take on the responsibility of transforming themselves, mainly through education and training, into desirable workers for future employers. While the migration literature had largely framed emigration as an individual aspiration and project, this chapter demonstrates how families subsidize the Philippine state’s labor export system by taking on the risks and costs of training their children for jobs overseas. In doing so, families allow aspiring migrants to maintain overseas aspirations even during periods when overseas opportunities are limited, supplementing aspiring migrants’ ability to gain the experience and credentials that would keep them “employable” for overseas work. In the end, this chapter shows how neoliberal ideals of human capital ideology reconfigure family not only as a beneficiary of students’ future economic prospects, but also a sponsor that reinforces the process of producing employable workers for export.
