Southeast Asian Migration by Khatharya Um Sofia Gaspar

Author:Khatharya Um, Sofia Gaspar [Khatharya Um, Sofia Gaspar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782842866
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Sussex Academic Press
Published: 2015-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

Changes and Differences in Intimate Spheres among Religious Converts

Two hypotheses were addressed at the beginning of this chapter. The first was that when migrants were thrown into diasporic situations, some of those who were detached from previous social relations leaned toward religious conversion and sought intimate relationships with people of the new groups that might transcend class and ethnic lines. The other was that although they formed new close relationships with members of the new faith, the characteristics of their respective intimate spheres might be different due to their relationship with the larger society. The first hypothesis arises from descriptions in the literature of foreign workers living in the Arab Gulf States as fragmented and isolated from one another, as they are divided along nationality and class lines, denied citizenship, and only allowed to stay in the host country for the period of their employment contract (e.g. Owen 1985; Longva 1997; Gardner 2010; Mednicoff 2012). Studies of overseas Filipino workers have argued that even if the number of diasporic Filipinos grows, the community would remain divided along class lines (Aguilar 1996; Pinches 2001). Based on these studies, it is presumed that migrant workers in the UAE lack close associations, and that only those with the economic power and legal status to sponsor and live with their families and relatives have close social connections. Thus, as Spellman points out, “frustration in the existing system induces them to a new faith that seemingly promises new power, means for success, economic prosperity, self-improvement and personal therapy (Spellman 2005: 155–6).” Migrant workers in constrained situations, yet socially unbounded from the homeland, seek new faiths to surmount their plights in different ways.

Focusing on two faith groups (born-again Christians and new Muslims) among Filipino religious converts, we find that in both groups, the category of close associates with whom converts spend their leisure time, besides the friends, families, and relatives they knew prior to conversion, comes to include other members of the faith group. There, intimate spheres evolve and are sustained without regard to class disparities through continuous reaffirmation by sharing food, participating in activities, using common terminologies, and providing mutual help on financial and spiritual matters. In the context of Filipino society, such behavior is said to indicate a sense of emotional intimacy (Jocano 1998: 61). In fact, Flor speaks of all NCF members, including professionals, as being “like a family.” As such, the potential for the ameliorative transformation of inter-class relationships is observed among members in both the NCF and the Islamic centers. This is because whether they are middle-or working-class, they share the same status of mere temporal workers, and cannot gain citizenship in the UAE, unlike in the United States, the United Kingdom, or Australia. As temporary migrants, they develop a solid sense of security and an affinity with people hinged on shared humanity and trust, sometimes extending across class and nationality lines that are also observed in the cases of Spellman’s Iranian interlocutors in Turkey and Britain (Spellman 2005: 184).

The second

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