Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
10-2021
Abstract
This paper examines how Philippine state agencies sustain its labour-exporting strategies by encouraging aspiring migrants to invest in their own training and education, taking on the responsibility of turning themselves into desirable workers for employers overseas. Based on a document analysis of newspaper articles and Philippine government reports, this paper uses the case of Philippine nursing education to show how the Philippine state alters these discourses of skill when overseas opportunities decline, channelling aspiring migrants sideways to other sectors of the labour market. Discourses of employability justified these career detours to aspiring migrants by assuring them that such experiences will still contribute to their overseas employability and eventually lead to future emigration. This paper shows how the employability agenda allows the migrant-sending state to avoid accountability in a volatile global labour market, thus serving as an ideal tool in the neoliberal production of migrant labour.
Keywords
employability, immobility, nursing, Philippines, Skill
Discipline
Asian Studies | Migration Studies | Nursing
Research Areas
Sociology
Publication
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Volume
47
Issue
10
First Page
2270
Last Page
2287
ISSN
1369-183X
Identifier
10.1080/1369183X.2020.1731985
Publisher
Taylor & Francis (Routledge): SSH Titles
Citation
ORTIGA, Yasmin Y..(2021). Shifting employabilities: Skilling migrants in the nation of emigration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 47(10), 2270-2287.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3181
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1731985