Caring from a distance: exchange of support between migrant children and their parents in the Philippines

Filipino families are characterized by their adherence to filial norms and strong family ties. In the absence of a formal welfare system, the family provides a stable reservoir of security and support. This familial support expectation is interesting to explore in the context of increasing geographic mobility, both internal and international, of Filipinos.
Despite considerable internal and international migration of Filipinos, our understanding of how this phenomenon affects family relationship is still limited. The view of migrants as children with responsibilities and expectations to provide parental care, for example, has not been sufficiently explored in the literature.
Using data from the 2007 Philippine Longitudinal Survey of Older people, this paper analyses how support is exchanged between older parents in the Philippines and their migrant children.
Results reinforce the strong ties in Filipino families as manifested in the bidirectional flow of exchange between parents and children. Types of support exchanged also depend on the parents and children’s capacity to provide support, their circumstances in the life course and the geographic distance between them, as measured by migrant children’s location.