Overview

In Migrant Returns Eric J. Pido examines the complicated relationship among the Philippine economy, Manila's urban development, and balikbayans-Filipino migrants visiting or returning to their homeland-to reconceptualize migration as a process of connectivity. Focusing on the experiences of balikbayans returning to Manila from California, Pido shows how Philippine economic and labor policies have created an economy reliant upon property speculation, financial remittances, and the affective labor of Filipinos living abroad. As the initial generation of post-1965 Filipino migrants begin to age, they are encouraged to retire in their homeland through various state-sponsored incentives. Yet, once they arrive, balikbayans often find themselves in the paradoxical position of being neither foreign nor local. They must reconcile their memories of their Filipino upbringing with American conceptions of security, sociality, modernity, and class as their homecoming comes into collision with the Philippines' deep economic and social inequality. Tracing the complexity of balikbayan migration, Pido shows that rather than being a unidirectional event marking the end of a journey, migration is a multidirectional and continuous process that results in ambivalence, anxiety, relief, and difficulty.

Full Product Details

Author:   Eric J. Pido
Publisher:   Duke University Press
Imprint:   Duke University Press
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9780822363538

ISBN 10:   0822363534
Pages:   232
Publication Date:   16 June 2017
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Abbreviations  vii Preface  ix Introduction. An Ethnography of Return  1 Part I: Departures 1. The Balikbayan Economy: Filipino Americans and the Contemporary Transformation of Manila  29 2. The Foreign Local: Balikbayans, Overseas Filipino Workers,and the Return Economy  49 3. Transnational Real Estate: Selling the American Dream in the Philippines  72 Part II. Returns 4. The Balikbayan Hotel: Touristic Performance in Manila and the Anxiety of Return  115 5. The Balikbayan House: The Precarity of Return Migrant Homes  131 6. Domestic Affects: The Philippine Retirement Authority, Retiree Visas, and the National Discourse of Homecoming  148 Conclusion: Retirement Landscapes and the Geography of Exception  163 Epilogue  179 Notes  187 References  197 Index  209

Reviews

<i>Migrant Returns</i> is an important book, and especially timely given its analysis of our current global moment, the contemporary Philippines, and the history of migrations between the United States and the Philippines. It could easily become a standard reference for the history of neoliberal migrancy in the early twenty-first century. --Vicente Rafael, author of Motherless Tongues: The Insurgency of Language amid Wars of Translation

A rich ethnographic account of homing. . . . Migrant Returns is a paradigmatic illumination of the multiple landscapes-personal, familial, social, and cultural-created by re/settlement, representation, and ultimately return that are emblematic of any relocation ideology. . . . By articulating the multiple logics of global economies and local social geographies, [Pido] has given us a nuanced ethnographic plunge into the multidirectional complexities and paradoxical positions of the current global diasporic moment. -- Anastasia Christou * American Ethnologist * Dense and carefully argued ... Migrant Returns captures the multiple dimensions associated with return migration and serves as a valuable resource for those interested in transnationalism, globalization, and migration scholarship. -- Armand Gutierrez * International Migration Review * An insightful and timely account of Filipino Americans and their newfound role as key players in the Philippines' bourgeoning retirement and real estate industries. -- Paul Nadal * Journal of Asian American Studies *

An insightful and timely account of Filipino Americans and their newfound role as key players in the Philippines' bourgeoning retirement and real estate industries. -- Paul Nadal * Journal of Asian American Studies * Dense and carefully argued ... Migrant Returns captures the multiple dimensions associated with return migration and serves as a valuable resource for those interested in transnationalism, globalization, and migration scholarship. -- Armand Gutierrez * International Migration Review * A rich ethnographic account of homing. . . . Migrant Returns is a paradigmatic illumination of the multiple landscapes-personal, familial, social, and cultural-created by re/settlement, representation, and ultimately return that are emblematic of any relocation ideology. . . . By articulating the multiple logics of global economies and local social geographies, [Pido] has given us a nuanced ethnographic plunge into the multidirectional complexities and paradoxical positions of the current global diasporic moment. -- Anastasia Christou * American Ethnologist *

Author Information

Eric J. Pido is Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University.

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