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Stories
of Struggle
The Philippine Women Centre conducts community-based research into the Filipino community to empower Filipino women to understand the roots of the barriers they face as migrants, immigrants, women of colour and low-income earners, and to collectively assert their struggle for their rights and welfare towards the attainment of equality, peace and development.
Housing
Needs Assessment
of Filipina Domestic Workers, Philippine Women Centre of BC, 1996
Funded by HOMES B.C., this research is the first needs assessment of its kind in the Filipino community in B.C. It comprehensively outlines the housing-related needs and issues of over 50 Filipina domestic workers who are living and working in their employers’ home throughout the Lower Mainland in B.C. The study also reviews the strategies and capacities the women have to meet their own housing needs and outlines recommendations for policy change and community development.
Trapped:
Holding onto the Knife's Edge: Economic Violence
Against Filipino Migrants / Immigrant Women, Philippine Women Centre of BC, 1997
This comprehensive report is a unique and collective effort of over 50 Filipino women in the Lower Mainland of B.C. Using a Participatory Action Research (PAR) model, the women were actively involved in planning, designing and carrying out this project that was funded by Status of Women Canada and FREDA. By sharing their lives and experiences, the women’s stories illustrate the destructive and violent phenomenon of “de-skilling” and other forms of social and economic violence. The report traces how this type of violence stretches all the way from the home country of these women to their lives in Canada. The report also contains actions and recommendations developed by the women themselves towards short-term and long-term policy change.
"Is
this Canada?" Domestic Workers Experience in Vancouver, BC, Centre for Research in Women's Studies and Gender Relations, University of British Columbia, 1997
This paper was completed by the PWC in collaboration with Professor Geraldine Pratt of the Department of Geography, University of British Columbia. Over 25 Filipino women actively participated in this study, which outlines the women’s experiences in coming to Canada, employer tactics to dampen wage claims and extend working hours, structuring conditions (agents, governments and discourses), dignity on the job and suggestions for policy change. Through the women’s own voices and stories, the struggle of Filipino domestic workers in Canada is illuminated.
Echoes: Cries for Justice, Freedom and Equality: Filipino Women Speak, Philippine Women Centre of BC and the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women - Canada, 1999
Funded by the B.C. Ministry of Women’s Equality, this study looked at the situation of Filipino women in Prince George, B.C., an isolated city in the Northern Interior. Over 20 women participated in focus groups and interviews, sharing their stories and experiences as domestic workers, mail-order brides and immigrants. This study also surveyed the services and support available for these women, as various government and non-government agencies and service-providers were interviewed. Recommendations for policy change are also included in the study.
Filipino Nurses Doing Domestic Work: A Stalled Development, Philippine Women Centre of BC, 2000
Funded by Status of Women Canada, this research examines the experiences, challenges and needs of Filipino nurses doing domestic work in Canada. The project looks at the structural conditions (in particular, policies of the federal and provincial governments, professional associations, educational institutions, etc.) that keep women underdeveloped and disempowered, despite being professional nurses in the Philippines. The project also makes suggestions for policy change, including ways that women can be supported to practice their skills with full dignity and respect.
Canada:
The New Frontier for Filipino Mail-Order Brides, Philippine Women Centre of BC, 2000
Over 40 Filipino mail-order brides from 5 provinces in Canada were interviewed for this study published by the Policy Research Fund of Status of Women Canada. By examining the factors underlying their migration to Canada as wives of Canadian men, the Canadian dimension of trafficking of women is illuminated. The study finds that a desire to escape poverty in the Philippines is the principal reason for the women’s migration. Once in Canada, the women are kept economically dependent on their husbands, trapped in traditional notions of the role of a woman as wife and mother, isolated from their community and support services, and experiencing various forms of abuse, including physical violence. The study makes recommendations for future actions for change in the community, while addressing policy changes at the federal and provincial government levels.
Filipina identities: Geographies of Social Integration / Exclusion in the Canadian Metropolis, Philippine Women Centre of BC in collaboration with Deirdre McKay, University of British Columbia, forthcoming
Over 40 Filipino women from 4 provinces and 5 cities were interviewed about their experiences as Filipino women in Canada. The study found that the economic and occupational segregation of Filipino women in Canada is the main determinant in constructing the women’s identity in Canada and their consequent exclusion from the mainstream of Canadian society.
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