Geographic Separation and Intergenerational Ties: Filipino Older Parents in Transnational Families
摘要
Almost 50 years since the Philippines started its overseas employment program, the number of Filipinos that have sought employment abroad has grown. The latest stock estimates from the Commission on Filipino Overseas placed the number at 10.5 million, almost 10% of the country’s total population of 109 million. In the 2022 Survey of Overseas Filipinos, there were 1.96 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from April to September of 2022, a 7.1% increase from the 1.83 million OFWs in the same period of 2021. While much has been written about the Filipino migration experience, greater emphasis was placed on the economic contributions of migrants and their lives at the destination countries. More recent studies have highlighted the social costs of migration, specifically, the impact of such a move on left-behind families, specifically, on children. There is however a lack of focus on older peoples’ experiences in relation to migration and being members of a transnational family. This chapter explores this topic using the baseline data from the 2018 Longitudinal Survey of Ageing and Health in the Philippines. In particular, the analysis will explore how geographic separation affects the relationships between adult migrant children and their older parents in terms of social contact and exchange of support.