Between Homes: Displacement and Belonging for Second-Generation Filipino-Canadian Youths

Abstract

ALLIANCE In the spring of 2000, the Ugnayan ng Kabataang Filipino sa Canada/ Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance (UKPC/FCYA) in Vancouver began to write a play in order to enact their community's experiences in Vancouver.The play begins in the Philippines, with Rosa graduating from university with a summa cum laude nursing degree.Her mother is a laundrywoman, and her father was recently laid off.Experiencing difficulties obtaining work in the Philippines, Rosa takes what she believes to be a promising nursing job in Canada.The recruitment agency has tricked her, and she soon finds herself working as a nanny in a White, middle-class Canadian home.Ashamed, Rosa continues to tell her family in the Philippines that she is working as a nurse in Canada.When Rosa sponsors the migration of her brother and sister to Canada three years later, her secret is soon revealed.Most of the rest of the play takes place in their Vancouver apartment, where Rosa speaks of the difficulties of being a Filipina migrant in Canada as well as her concerns about and frustrations with her younger siblings' efforts to succeed here.Her siblings are showing the effects of their own forced migration; her brother is "flipping hamburgers" at a fast food restaurant while he makes plans to attend a community college.Her younger sister is coping with the violent racism within her high school.When Rosa appeals to her younger brother and sister, citing her own sacrifices, her younger sister replies, "Nobody even asked me if I wanted to come.I had friends in the Philippines no matter who I was ... I want to go home." 1 1 The young woman who first played this part has indeed returned to the Philippines.The play has been performed a number of times, including at the Kalayaan Centre in May 2000, in Winnipeg for the Filipino-Canadian National Consultative Forum in August 2000, at the Asian Connections conference at the University of British Columbia in November 2000, during Asian Heritage Month in May 2001, and at the National Forum for Filipino Nurses in December 2001.

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