21.08.2023Health and Social Security Systems: Literacy of Filipino Domestic Workers in Japan

Lecturer

Ass. Prof. Dr. Jocelyn O. Celero (Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman)

Date and Time

August 21, 2023, 10:00 - 11:45 am

Registration

No registration is necessary for an on-site participation. For an online participation please register here.

Venue

University of Zurich, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, Room ZUB 314, Zürichbergstrasse 4, 8032 Zürich

Content

Filipinos constitute the fourth largest migrant group in Japan. As an outcome of feminized migration,  they are predominantly identified as either marriage migrants in the 1970s or entertainers in the 1980s. While Japan is less known as a destination for domestic workers, Filipino women recruited into this sector either work for expat families or are outsourced through the Philippine recruitment agencies by  Japanese housekeeping service company counterparts beginning in 2018.
The study builds on a scoping review of existing scholarship on Filipino migrant workers, zooming into their health and social security systems literacy, or the ways migrant workers are familiar with, understand and are knowledgeable about health and social policies, programs, and initiatives either or/ both in the Philippines as origin and Japan as destination country (Celero, Garabiles, Katigbak-Montoya 2022). Using the Six-Stage Methodological Framework for Scoping Review, the scoping review finds that most extant studies problematize the circumstances of Filipino migrant women, and focus more on the accessibility rather than literacy of Filipino migrants.
Due to the lack of a definition of migrant health and social security systems literacy in extant scholarship, there is a need to conduct more studies in the future the longer Filipino migrant workers stay, to be educated more about the systems, and to contribute to the sustainability of the health and social security systems in Japan (as well as the Philippines).

Jocelyn O. Celero is Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Japan Studies Program at the Asian Center, University of the Philippines, Diliman. She obtained her Ph. D. in International Studies at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan in 2016. Her dissertation examined the transnational life trajectories of 1.5- and second-generation Japanese-Filipinos. In 2022, she returned to Waseda University as a JASSO Follow-up Research Fellow. She has published on migration and transnationality of Filipino migrants and Japanese-Filipinos. Since 2019, she has served as a research consultant for UP-CIFAL Philippines.

Organisation

Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies - Japanese Studies