LIVES ON HOLD: SONS OF MIGRANT PARENTS

ARNOLD P. ALAMON
MA SOCIOLOGY (NOVEMBER 2008)
Department of Sociology

Abstract

The study “Lives on Hold: Sons of Migrant Parents” documents the stories of six adult males left behind by migrant parents as children and probes the implications of long-term parental absence due to labor migration on their family life. At a time when a significant number of Filipinos resort to labor migration as a response to the continuing underdevelopment at home, the study also contemplates on the situation of the transnational Filipino migrant family drawing from the shared life-stories and reconstructed memories of the six. It is the assertion of this research that the transnational Filipino migrant family is experiencing intense strain as the viability of traditional notions of familial love is challenged by long-term parental absence due to labor migration. The stories of these sons of migrant parents tell of the unspoken pain of unmet familial expectations that results in family lives that are placed on hold as they await for the family reunion that may never take place.