Masculinity, Work and Rights through the Lens of Citizenship: Filipino Male Domestic Workers in The Netherlands

This paper explores how Filipino men, especially the undocumented who work in domestic labor, define themselves and their rights in relation to their work and gender roles in terms of their own masculinity. My interest in this study is to explore gender and other relevant dimensions (example, legal status) of how male undocumented domestic workers see themselves. Work and work-related networks are one of the main important practices we have in our daily lives and often involve quite a sharp gender division of roles. It is clear that the kind of work people do contributes to producing their social identities, through a combination of gender identity, class, nationalism and citizenship status among others. The study was based on both formal and informal interviews with twelve people, five women and seven men. Observation was also part of the method, and the key finding was that Filipino male domestic workers tend to define themselves in three inter-related ways: (i) First, they explain their ‘feminine’ job through their undocumented status. (ii) Second, they define themselves as family breadwinners and ‘providers’ in spite of domestic work being their main occupation. Finally (iii) the informants tended to take pride in their shared Filipino culture, although they felt this aspect of their identity was limited by their lack of legal status. Overall, the study seeks to contribute to current knowledge about vulnerable masculinities in European societies, especially of migrants. It highlights the complex elements that contribute to a socially constructed set of masculine identities.