HOW THE COVID LOCKDOWN HIT DIFFERENT FOR MIGRANT WORKERS

For Yasmin Ortiga, a UP sociologist and Singapore Management University associate professor who has long studied issues of migration, education and work, the COVID pandemic led to many questions about how we value our overseas workforce — especially when they are suddenly “stuck” without an opportunity to earn.

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In fact, she authored a book about it — Stuck at Home: Pandemic Immobilities in the Nation of Emigration (Stanford University Press) — which had a Philippines launch recently at the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy at UP Diliman.

In the book, Ortiga studies cases from two groups of Filipino workers — nurses banned from leaving the country and cruise workers who returned home after COVID-19 shut down the travel industry.

PHILIPPINE STAR: How did you become interested in this area of study?

YASMIN ORTIGA: I've always been interested in the question of how ideas about “desirable” or “employable” skill determines who gets to migrate and where people end up moving. This book came about during a crazy time when ideas about essential skill actually determined why people did not move or were forced to remain in place. I just thought it was important to write a migration story that was mainly about immobility.

Why did you focus on nurses and cruise ship workers?

These two professions represent two very different kinds of immobility. Nurses were made to stay in place because their skills were considered so essential to the pandemic response. Meanwhile, cruise workers were simply unable to move because their skills had become “dispensable” when global travel stopped to prevent the spread of the virus.

There must have been a cognitive disconnect — being constantly told they were economic “heroes,” yet not having their unique situation as overseas workers addressed?