Being Filipino Abroad by Arlene Torres-D'Mello, Ph.D.

"Someone remarked that "a Filipino is a Filipino is a Filipino..." That is, wherever he goes he takes with him his Filipino self and with it his mode of relationship. In the last few decades many Filipinos have gone overseas in search of employment. some stay temporarily in one country as "guest workers." Others settle in another as permanent residents. There are now a few million Filipinos living outside the Philippines as immigrants. This book provides an insight into the many hurdles most Filipino immigrants have to overcome in a new country. Issues like child rearing, Filipino identity, speaking in Filipino, using "po"and "mano po," and many other everday matters which are simple taken for granted back home often become a problem of gigantic proportions. I make frequent references to Filipino immigrants in Australia in this book. However, I believe that Filipinos in Canada, the U.S.A, Europe and elsewhere would find that issues such as joblessness, unfulfilled expectation, parents and children relationship, ageing parents, adolescent children, identity, values--all discussed here--can be relevant to them as well. I have drawn my sources from fifteen years of working with various migrant groups in the are of child care, a few years research for a Ph.D degree on the identity development of children of migrants--especially Filipinos--and twenty years of being a migrant myself. What these varied experience confirm is that to bring up children in completely different social and cultural environments cannot be left to chance. It requires a plan. The recurrent concern expressed in most of the artices in this book is cause by the prevailing "bahala na" mindset among the majority of Filipinos which, in many cases is also reflected in their approach to child rearing... -Arlene Torres-D'Mello, Ph. D (Melbourne, Australia)Someone remarked that "a Filipino is a Filipino is a Filipino..." That is, wherever he goes he takes with him his Filipino self and with it his mode of relationship. In the last few decades many Filipinos have gone overseas in search of employment. some stay temporarily in one country as "guest workers." Others settle in another as permanent residents. There are now a few million Filipinos living outside the Philippines as immigrants. This book provides an insight into the many hurdles most Filipino immigrants have to overcome in a new country. Issues like child rearing, Filipino identity, speaking in Filipino, using "po"and "mano po," and many other everyday matters which are simple taken for granted back home often become a problem of gigantic proportions. I make frequent references to Filipino immigrants in Australia in this book. However, I believe that Filipinos in Canada, the U.S.A, Europe and elsewhere would find that issues such as joblessness, unfulfilled expectation, parents and children relationship, ageing parents, adolescent children, identity, values--all discussed here--can be relevant to them as well. I have drawn my sources from fifteen years of working with various migrant groups in the are of child care, a few years research for a Ph.D degree on the identity development of children of migrants--especially Filipinos--and twenty years of being a migrant myself. What these varied experience confirm is that to bring up children in completely different social and cultural environments cannot be left to chance. It requires a plan. The recurrent concern expressed in most of the artices in this book is cause by the prevailing "bahala na" mindset among the majority of Filipinos which, in many cases is also reflected in their approach to child rearing... -Arlene Torres-D'Mello, Ph. D (Melbourne, Australia)" -Excerpts from the Preface.

Hardcover: 160 pages
Publisher: Giraffe Books (2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 971883245-9
ISBN-13: 978-97-1-883245-5
Package Dimensions: 8 x 6.5 x 0.5 inches