Maalwang Buhay: Family, Overseas Migration, and Cultures of Relatedness in Barangay Paraiso by Filomeno V. Aguilar Jr.

The greatest single strength of this work can be termed its anthropological foundations. Many studies of overseas migration fail to dwell upon the underlying structural context that helps us understand the cause, nature, and consequence of this phenomenon. After all, the separation of children from their parents is a matter of kinship, and to understand it we need to see it first and foremost in the light of Philippine kinship. What this book shows is how such an anthropological focus upon kinship can become integrated with a development perspective providing a far more satisfactory and scholarly understanding of these events. This approach should make this book a standard work for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of an example of parent-child separation that now has worldwide attention. - Daniel Miller, Professor of Anthropology, University College London

Published 2009.