Working from the heart : a study of Filipino care workers in Malta

Abstract

The main aim of this research was to observe emotional labour in practice. This was done by engaging in participant observation with five Filipina care workers working in a private care home run by a Non-Governmental organisation. I also conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with my informants. Through these interviews the main theme of emotional labour emerged. My informants felt that in performing their job they were also performing the role of the mother, and would consistently refer to themselves as ‘mothers’. My informants also believed that because they were now away from their own household, the role of motherhood towards their children and family has somewhat changed. While as ‘care workers’ my informants provided emotional labour they are also migrant workers and it is therefore important to contextualise their work within processes of global labour migration. My findings suggested that firstly there are quite a substantial number of Filipino nationals working as care workers in Malta, most of who are female individuals. Moreover, these female Filipina migrants migrate to Western countries in order to be able to financially support their families in the Philippines. My conclusion is that as a result of the distance between the care workers and their families, and due to the nature of their work they have constructed a new family dynamic within the workplace while still also clinging to certain factors that differentiate them from the local culture and as well the residents themselves, via coping mechanisms.