| Manufacturing the “Ideal” Workforce: The transnational labor brokering of nurses and domestic workers from the Philippines This dissertation is a multi-site ethnography that examines the commodification of overseas Filipino workers and the political, economic, and cultural rationalities that structure, shape and give meaning to this process. It examines the transnational labor brokering of Filipino nurses and domestic workers for overseas employment and the similarities and differences in the brokering strategies deployed by private employment agencies, the labor brokers who are partners of the Philippine state in transforming Filipinos into an “ideal” workforce and the Philippines into a global labor supplier. It seeks to understand how race, class, sex/gender, and cultural/historical dynamics inform the work of labor brokering and how these dynamics differ for nursing and domestic work recruitment.; This is a multi-site ethnography of six private employment agencies (four nursing agencies; two domestic work agencies) in Manila, Philippines which broker nurses and domestic workers for overseas employment. The fieldwork took place between September 2001–June 2002. The dissertation is based on triangulated data including: (1) in-depth interviews (with labor brokers, Philippine government officials, NGOs, and prospective and former overseas Filipino workers; (2) participant-observation of labor recruitment seminars, pre-departure orientation seminars, meetings with prospective applicants, video interviews of domestic workers, and national labor conferences; and (3) content analyses of labor marketing tools related to overseas employment (print ads, websites, marketing brochures, and government documents). Data was coded and analyzed using Grounded Theory methodology.; Research findings demonstrate that labor brokering is a social process that act as a form of capitalist labor control insofar as it is both a subject-making strategy and a disciplinary process that designates and disciplines the types of workers suitable for specific labor processes. It is a process that is labor-specific so that labor brokering and representing nurses and domestic workers differ and is a process based on particular naturalized gendered and racialized ideologies about work and individuals suited for specific tasks. The work activity of labor brokering is also a process of negotiations that emerge from labor brokers' relationships with the Philippine state, foreign employers, prospective workers, and NGOs, all of which contributes to the formation of a unique transnational arena of labor export. |
