The “Ideal” Female Migrant as Grateful and Uncomplaining: Gendered Colonial Ideologies, Pre-Departure Orientation Sessions, and the #ungrateful Filipina

Author(s): Tungohan, Ethel | Abstract: Filipinos have internalized colonial mindsets that equate the maintenance of “Filipino values” with adhering to gendered colonial ideologies. By using the examples of mandatory pre-departure orientation sessions (PDOS) and posts within transnational diasporic Filipino social networking sites, I show how discourses emerging from both the Philippine state and the diasporic Filipino community extol the virtues of the “grateful” and “uncomplaining” Filipina labour migrant. Ultimately, I argue that before the Filipino transnational migrant community can begin the process of decolonization, it is important to recognize how colonial ideologies themselves are deeply gendered.