Home > Events > Teacher, sailor, call center operator: Race and the making of Filipino labor niches in emerging global markets

Today, nearly 1 in 3 merchant seafarers in the world is Filipino, yet Filipinos remain primarily in subordinate positions, hailed as particularly “good followers.” This talk will address the racialized formation of a Filipino labor niche in global shipping and how its development, consequences and meanings for workers themselves can help illuminate the rise of new Filipino niches in global industries as diverse as Business Process Outsourcing and secondary education. The talk will trace the historical rise of the seafarer niche and the contemporary struggle of Filipino sailors to assert themselves despite their labor market insecurity, lowly positions, and intervention by the Philippine State. It will then address the emergence of new niches and the prospects for Filipino workers both in and beyond the Philippines.

Light refreshments will be served.

Co-sponsored by the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment with the departments of Sociology, Asian American Studies and the Center for the Study of Urban Poverty.

Cost: Free and open to the public.

Tel: 310-794-5957
www.irle.ucla.edu

Sponsor(s): Asian American Studies Center, Sociology