'Toy napigket nga daga
Pitpitenmi nga umuna
Danggayanmi't kankanta
Takkiagmi a napigsa
Kettang ken bannogmi
dikam igingina 

     Mannamili
     Ilokano Folk Song

ABSTRACT

The work is based on my ethnographic research on the Ilokano migrant workers in Paris. The focus of the presentation is on their everyday lives, social networks, and identities. By showing the forms and methods of their mutual assistance and the various narratives that are linked up with these forms and methods, I hope to point out the emergence of their identity as the “Filipino workers who have to leave their country due to hardships in the homeland but who may have suffered forms of hardships and maltreatment in their respective destination countries.” The research aims to probe these forms of hardships and draw from these narratives their form of coping with the difficulties of exilic life. Likewise, the various forms of maltreatment they go through will be framed against the backdrop of a migrant labor situation in the destination country where there is a perception of intrusion and competition. Finally, I hope to draw up a description of the growing differentiation of the Filipino migrant community in Paris in accordance with their differences in class, ethnicity, and their local origins in the Philippines. Particular attention will be given to the process where the Ilokanoness is re/created in their everyday lives in the foreign countries.

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