Made in the Philippines: Gendered Discourses and the Making of Migrants

Patricia Pessar, Professor of Anthropology, American Studies, and African American Studies at Yale University, reviews Made in the Philippines: Gendered Discourses and the Making of Migrants. The book is about Filipino migration and the Philippines government’s promotion of international migration as a method to gain capital. The author argues that “migrant” is a constructed idea, as Philippine bodies are commodified into migrants. In particular, he emphasizes the centrality of gender to migration and how Philippine women are constructed into professional entertainers by the government; central to this argument is the state’s role in the making of migration and migrants.

Read the book review at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7379.2005.tb00297.xb.