We are family

SO how did you spend Christmas? With your family, right? Or at least that’s what you would have wanted.

If there is anything that defines the Filipino, that is our close ties to our family. But the Filipino family has been getting redefined and reconfigured in the last two decades at a rather fast clip. By 2010, the Filipino family may be far different from what we knew it to be just a decade ago.

In the latest piece in the i Report series on political predictions for 2010, medical anthropologist Michael L. Tan examines the impact that political policies have had on the Filipino family so far. He cites several laws that have led to profound changes on the family, but he narrows down the factors that have had the most effect: the worsening income inequity; erosion of social services; massive diaspora (including internal migration); and increasing feminization of labor.

“All four factors are inter-related, often in ways that may not be readily apparent,” writes Tan. “For example, many of the nurses who leave to work overseas are older women, forced to leave behind families. But besides the direct loss for families, their departure also means a scarcity of trained frontline personnel in both public and private health facilities jeopardizing the health of Filipino families.”

“Taken collectively,” he adds, “these four developments have already been reshaping Filipino families over the last two decades. The years leading us into 2010 will only see an intensification of these four factors, with mixed results.”

Read more about the reconfigured Filipino family at pcij.org.