UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Mobile phone parenting: Reconfiguring relationships between Filipina migrant mothers and their left-behind children

Madianou, M; Miller, D; (2011) Mobile phone parenting: Reconfiguring relationships between Filipina migrant mothers and their left-behind children. NEW MEDIA SOC , 13 (3) 457 - 470. 10.1177/1461444810393903. Green open access

[thumbnail of 1311183.pdf]
Preview
PDF
1311183.pdf

Download (221kB)

Abstract

The Philippines is an intensely migrant society with an annual migration of one million people, leading to over a tenth of the population working abroad. Many of these emigrants are mothers who often have children left behind. Family separation is now recognized as one of the social costs of migration affecting the global south. Relationships within such transnational families depend on long-distance communication and there is an increasing optimism among Filipino government agencies and telecommunications companies about the consequences of mobile phones for transnational families. This article draws on comparative research with UK-based Filipina migrants - mainly domestic workers and nurses - and their left-behind children in the Philippines. Our methodology allowed us to directly compare the experience of mothers and their children. The article concludes that while mothers feel empowered that the phone has allowed them to partially reconstruct their role as parents, their children are significantly more ambivalent about the consequences of transnational communication.

Type: Article
Title: Mobile phone parenting: Reconfiguring relationships between Filipina migrant mothers and their left-behind children
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1177/1461444810393903
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461444810393903
Language: English
Keywords: ethnography, migration, mobile phones, parenting, Philippines, separation, transnational families, UK, PHILIPPINES, TECHNOLOGY, MIGRATION
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Anthropology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1311183
Downloads since deposit
2,620Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item