The Transnational Institutionalization of the Ideal-Filipino-Hero of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Vancouver, Canada

Abstract:
Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Vancouver, Canada experience ongoing systematic conditioning processes that are rooted in Philippine colonial history. Utilizing a multi-ethnographic approach and a framework drawn from Berger and Luckmann鈥檚 concept of institutionalization and Foucault鈥檚 biopower, I rethink the Filipino labor diaspora and interrogate how empire, labor, and migration, shape Filipino trajectories. Existing scholarship has documented the structural and working conditions of Filipino labor migration; this research contributes by foregrounding how these arrangements between the Philippines and Canada are lived, internalized, and reproduced through the institutionalized subjectivities of the Filipino citizen, the ideal migrant, and the Bagong Bayani (new hero). These subjectivities sustain systemic inequalities, coerce joining the labor diaspora, and render OFWs more vulnerable to exploitation while glorifying their sacrifices as noble contributions to family and nation. I further discuss the agency and resistance of OFWs, who actively reimagine their subjectivities and challenge these neocolonial paradigms.

Examining Committee:
Chair: Dr. Amanda Watson, Assistant Professor, Sociology & Anthropology, SFU
Supervisor: Dr. Evelyn Encalada Grez, Assistant Professor, Sociology & Anthropology, SFU
Committee Member: Dr. Cindy Patton, Professor Emeritus, Sociology & Anthropology, SFU
Committee Member: Dr. May Farrales, Assistant Professor, Department of Gender Sexuality, and Women's Studies, SFU
Examiner: Dr. Jessica Ticar, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, Algoma University

Please note that the defence will be held on Zoom. If you'd like to be added to the Zoom attendee list, please contact gradsecsa@sfu.ca no later than 4:30PM on April 13th, 2026.