Religion and its Role in the Filipino Educators’ Migratory Experience

In Thailand, Filipino teachers have become the largest group of foreign teachers. However, in addition to the influence of the usual factors that play out in their mobility, the migratory experience of the Filipino teachers demonstrates that religion plays an essential role in their eventual participation in international migration. By examining the instrumental approach to development via religion, Filipino teachers utilize instrumental and transnational practices to provide themselves with avenues to achieve their goals and enrich their migratory lives. Simultaneously, in helping shape the Filipino teachers’ migration routes and experiences, religion benefits from this relationship by exercising their regulatory functions through the Filipino teachers’ affiliation with their churches. This study ultimately contributes to the discussion of religion’s shifting image and practices that eventually become part of the normativity within a migrant’s transnational space.