In the Footsteps of Jesus and the Prophet: Sociality, Caring and the Religious Imagination in the Filipino Diaspora

这项关于新移民的多地点研究集中在大量菲律宾妇女的国际移民上，超过200万，在欧洲和中东担任家庭护理人员。它挑战了一种主流的学术和流行话语，这种话语将这些移民视为经济上被剥夺的、受过半教育的“女仆”，她们忍受着恶劣的工作条件和不公正的法律制度，只为给家乡的人汇几美元。相反，该项目旨在通过研究他们作为跨越国界和文化界限发展和维护身份，社区和国际网络的国际旅行者，揭示散居海外的菲律宾人丰富的文化和宗教生活。这项研究将纠正菲律宾移民生活中研究不足和理论化不足的方面。大多数菲律宾人是天主教徒，一些是穆斯林，越来越多的人属于新的新教教会。该项目的主要假设是，宗教是菲律宾人移民经历的核心，尤其是当他们在伊斯兰教或基督教神圣的地方工作时。菲律宾宗教团体在本地和交易性移民之间建立社交社区和社交网络方面发挥了什么作用？它是否促进了与东道国的关系？她们的信仰如何赋予女性在职场内外谈判地位和身份的权力？在一个神圣的景观中，重新发现、实践和重新书写的信仰的象征和经验维度是什么？生活在基督教和伊斯兰教的圣地会给移民回国者带来什么样的文化资本？事实上，除了经济考虑之外，宗教是否会影响他们在特定国家工作的决定？菲律宾人作为老年人的照顾者通过宗教牺牲的观念和关怀和责任的精神来构建他们的身份。该项目旨在揭示在家中照顾老人是否赋予了照顾者尊严、地位和独立决策权，以及它如何有助于“家”和家庭作为跨国和多地点的更包容和包容的感觉。这两个中心目标决定了项目的选址：以色列、沙特阿拉伯、欧洲和菲律宾。有3万多名菲律宾人作为外籍工人在以色列工作。大多数人的工作是照顾老人、慢性病患者和残疾人。最近，偷渡者被警察残忍地围捕并驱逐出境，他们要么回国，要么前往欧洲。沙特阿拉伯是最大的海外菲律宾移民社区的所在地，有超过90万菲律宾人，其中约10%是穆斯林菲律宾人，主要是妇女，从事保健、护理或家庭帮佣工作。与意大利一样，这些国家对移民具有重要的宗教意义。在历史上，菲律宾的基督徒一直想象着与以色列的“民族亲密关系”，这是基于菲律宾对犹太教和基督教传统的强烈归属，而沙特阿拉伯是菲律宾南部穆斯林伊斯兰教的神圣象征中心，就像罗马是天主教徒一样。最近菲律宾移民到英国增加了进一步的比较维度。因此，该项目将研究宗教和关怀如何调解扩大的“家”和归属感的概念，以及宗教会众为新抵达者和/或处于困境的移民提供避风港的方式，以及领导和演讲，慈善和庆祝的论坛。在此过程中，本研究将质疑菲律宾移民妇女无权和贫困文化生活的刻板印象，挑战与其他民族和思想的开放和创造性接触是世界精英的保留和特权的观点，并通过提供重要的全球流徙社区的新经验数据，促进我们对跨国背景下性别和宗教信仰的理解，为整个AHRC计划做出贡献。

This multi-sited study of a new diaspora centres on the International migration of huge numbers of Filipina women, over 2 million strong, to work as domestic carers in Europe and the Middle East. It challenges a dominant scholarly and popular discourse that views these migrants as economically deprived, semi-educated 'maids to order who endure harsh working conditions and unjust legal regimes in order to remit a few meagre dollars to folks back home. Instead, the project aims to disclose the rich cultural and religious lives of Filipinas in the diaspora by studying them as cosmopolitan travellers who develop and maintain identity, community and international networks across national borders and cultural boundaries. The research will redress an under-researched and under-theorised aspect of Filipino migrant lives. Most Filipinos are Catholics, some are Muslims and increasing numbers belong to new Protestant churches. The principal hypothesis of the project is that religion is central to Filipinas' migratory experience, and especially so when they work in places sacred to Islam or Christianity. What role do Filipino religious congregations play in creating sociality community and social networks among fellow migrants, both local and transactional? Does it facilitate relations with their hosts? How does their faith empower women negotiating status and identity within and beyond the workplace? What are the symbolic and experiential dimensions of belief re-discovered, practised and reinscribed in a sacred landscape? What kind of cultural capital does living in centres holy to Christianity and Islam give migrant returnees? Indeed, does religion affect their decision to work in particular countries, beyond economic considerations? Filipinas working as carers for the elderly construct their identity through notions of religious sacrifice and an ethos of caring and responsibility. The project aims to disclose whether caring for the elderly in their homes endows carers with dignity, status and independent decision-making power and how it contributes to a more Inclusive and encompassing sense of 'home' and family as transnational and multi-sited. These two central objectives determine the project's proposed locations: Israel, Saudi Arabia, Europe and the Philippines. There are over 30,000 Filipinos working in Israel as foreign workers. Most work as carers for the elderly, chronically ill and disabled. Recently oversteyers have been brutally rounded up by police and expelled, either returning home or moving to Europe. Saudi Arabia is home to the largest overseas Filipino migrant community, numbering over 900,000 Filipinos, approximately 10% of which are Muslim Filipinos, mainly women, working either in health, carers or domestic helpers. Along with Italy these countries are religiously significant for migrants. Christian Filipinos have historically imagined a 'national closeness' with Israel based in the strong Filipino ascription to Judeo-Christian traditions, while Saudi Arabia is the holy symbolic centre of Islam for Muslims in the Southern Philippines, as Rome Is for Catholics. Recent Filipina migration to the UK adds a further comparative dimension. The project will thus investigate how religion and caring mediate notions of an expanded 'home' and sense of belonging, and ways that religious congregations provide havens for new arrivals and/or migrants in distress, as well as forums for leadership and oratory, philanthropy and celebration. In doing so, the research will dispute the stereotype of the powerless and impoverished cultural lives of Filipino migrant women, challenge the view that an open and creative engagement with other peoples and ideas is the preserve and privilege of cosmopolitan elites, and contribute to the overall AHRC programme by providing new empirical date on an important global diasporic community and by advancing our understanding of gender and religiosity in a transnational context.