The Impact of Social Integration of Filipino Workers in Madrid

Alvaro Nagpala  Calara,

The Impact of Social Integration of Filipino Workers in Madrid

Abstract:

The presence of Filipinos in key cities around the globe has been creating transnational dynamics effecting changes across and within national borders. Using Berry's Acculturation Model, the study looks at the social integration of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Madrid. The inevitability of neglecting the bigger aspect of social integration manifested by a separated acculturation attitude by most OFWs in Madrid is a result of their struggle to employ a web of adaptation strategies in order to adjust to their new environment. Keeping pace with the demand of their jobs and daily concerns, interaction with the dominant society has been unintentionally neglected. The attitude of OFWs as migrants also depends on a continuum of facilitating and constraining factors provided by the Werner's Model (1994) impacting the degree of integration process and effecting a host of ramifications. A survey was implemented with respondents coming from three prominent OFW groups in Madrid namely: members of Filipino Workers' Credit Cooperative, the Tahanan Diocesan Center people and the Calle Infantas Group. Religion and other cultural practices become effective avenues of articulating anchors of cultural identity while the evolving social hierarchy and statutory constraint prove to be formidable social structures that preclude an ideal social integration.