Chapter 5. Conclusion and discussions
5.1. Conclusion
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Conclusion and discussions
5.1. Conclusion
This study offers evidence supporting the centrality of smartphone in transnational
communication between Indonesian migrant helpers in Taiwan and their families in Indonesia.
The nature of their migration imposes severe legal restrains on the physical reunion with the left-behind families which leads to the dependency on various means of long distance
communication to conserve familial bond. Smartphone use is shown to be advantageous for Indonesian domestic helpers because it facilitates affordable frequent communication to preserve family intimacy. Among various mobile internet tools for communication, WhatsApp occupies the top of the list thanks to its quality of calls and widespread use among the migrant domestic helpers’ social circles. The respondents in this study also use smartphones to communicate with their husbands.
In regards to transnational mothering, smartphones are also used stay on top the children’s well-being as well as to generate the perception of virtual co-presence which helps intensify the parenting practices. Smartphones are also used by Indonesian domestic helpers to communicate with their husbands. However, instead of reproducing the roles of transparent and obedient wives in their virtual interaction, their communication is often filled with the intention to manage their husbands’ impression on them in order to justify their migration and resist the stigma on their profession. They achieve this by selectively deciding which facets of migration life they wish to share with their husbands and which ones they choose to conceal or play down. The adoption of smartphone is shown to have impacts on the spousal power dynamics in that the mothers help female caregivers in the family to purchase the device and therefore can have a constant communication with the young children without depending on the mediatory presence of the husbands who are often absent from the children’s daily care.
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5.2. DiscussionsSmartphone has revolutionized the ways in which migrant helpers perform their parenting practices in the digital age. The reduced cost of communication and freedom given by the employers to use smartphones to communicate with their families are shown to be the leading factors behind the vigorous transnational communication practices via smartphone. By using internet-based freeware applications for instant communication such as WhatsApp and LINE, migrant helpers can enjoy the freedom to control the length and topics of their online interaction.
Their longing for family intimacy and closeness can be satisfied through various modes, each with their own distinct benefits such as voice calls, Instant Message (IM), video calls, and Facebook. Similarly, the channels through which their statements of care and support to their children are conveyed are no longer limited to voice calls and short messages.
Smartphone features such instant messengers allow a synchronous form online communication between users (Feng, & Hyun, 2012). This creates the feeling of co-presence in the virtual environment where both parties, in this case, migrant mothers and their children, are able to initiate communication in an exchange. According to Kim (2017), intensive mediated interaction does not necessarily deepen the intimacy nor does it enhance emotional closeness because physical presence cannot be substituted by online encounter. Kim argues that routine internet use among migrant domestic workers in France leads to digital fatigue as the mother must deal with the hard question of “when are you coming home?” (p. 10). The narratives of migrant domestic workers in this study present a dissenting view. The frivolous routine smartphone-mediated conversations between mothers and children generates the feelings of naturalness in their interactions. They talk about things they would had they been in the same house. The topics of the conversations are not always serious and demanding such as the hardship of being separated.
This, in fact, as shown in the result, is often left out due to their intention to only display positive aspects of their migration. Instead, they focus on light discussion that many feel meaningless and rambling, but yet, serves as a reminder that they are actively involved in their children’s daily lives.
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Goffman’s concept of stigma includes the disapproval of an individual’s traits that are
considered as a disgrace (Goffman, 1963). Since migrant domestic workers are prone to abuse and exploitation, their profession meets harsh social stigma in Indonesia. Upon earning decent salary in Taiwan, they rely on smartphones to validate their migration and seek for justification and support from their families. Smartphone-mediated communication, then, reduces the
negative physiological impacts of stigma as they are able to manage the impression in the minds of others about their living condition and generate more favorable new self-images.
The benefits of smartphones for transnational family communication is well-documented in this study, however the processes of the communication itself do not happen in uniformity. Due to the lack of clarity in the law regarding smartphone use among live-in maids, migrant helpers’
experience with smartphone use depends greatly on the employers. For example, in Singapore, migrant domestic helpers have limited access to mobile phones due to stringent restriction from their employers. As a result, their use of communication devices serves as a form of resistance (Lin, & Sun, 2010). In contrast, this study found that foreign maids in Taiwan have enjoy higher degree of freedom to use smartphones, and therefore experience a richer and more intimate relationship with their families. This cautions us against treating migrant domestic workers as a homogenous group of smartphone users as their experiences are influenced by the employment condition of the host countries.
This study builds on the previous work in the research area of transnational migration, communication and gender studies that have mostly claimed that the intensive use of digital media for communication during migration serves as a means of reproducing normative gender roles (Parrenas, 2005; Kim, 2017). This study argues that during migration, the traditional gender responsibilities are not only reproduced, but are also challenged and reconstructed continuously.
This research approaches migrant domestic helpers not as acquiescence victims of the amplified gender inequality due to feminized migration. Instead, this study discusses them as agents with ability to push the boundaries of their social class using various forms of material and symbolic capital based on the Bourdieu’s model (1986). This study also takes a different approach in understanding the women’s roles as wage earners by highlighting not only its characteristics as a responsibility, but also its symbolic power as a privilege. The leverage of this privilege is
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manifested through the manipulation and control of smartphone use for family communication which effectively disrupt the normative spousal power dynamics in Muslim families (Haneef, 1986).
5.3. Contribution and limitation
Adopting Goffman’s concept of spoiled identity this study builds on the current literature on social identity by analyzing Indonesian domestic workers as a group of labor who faces social judgment due to their profession. The degrading and humiliating treatments they receive, which falls under the second type of stigma posited by Goffman (deviation in personal traits). This study also contributes to the literature of transnational migration, communication and gender studies by expanding the literature of smartphone communication for family intimacy in transnational context. By bringing the research focus onto Indonesian domestic workers, this study advances the understanding of religion as a form of symbolic capital that is crucial for migrant domestic workers in order to renegotiate their maternal identity and class in the society where their identity is considered imperfect and blemished. This allows us to gain a more
comprehensive grasp on the social phenomenon of smartphone-mediated transnational mothering in the Muslim culture.
The findings drawn from the informants in Taiwan will provide us with valuable insights into smartphone-mediated communication between the helpers and their husbands and children and its impact on transnational family relationship. However, since this research is not dyadic the interview data which solely emphasizes the helpers' viewpoints will not include responses from the husbands and children. Future research can take the pair approach to examine the
perspectives from two parties.
Due to temporal and logistic limitations, this proposed research will only recruit 20 informants from Taipei area. The small sample size cannot provide representative results, but the in-depth interviews will shed light on the Indonesian domestic helpers’ smartphone communication and
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family relationship in the home country. The recruitment of interviewees in Taipei is likely to lead to bias to the findings as the interviewees have experiences of urban live-in maids. It will also be valuable to include Indonesian women from other areas in Taiwan to increase the level of representativeness of the findings.
Finally, the conclusion drawn in this study is based on the context of Indonesian socioeconomic situation and the employment condition in Taiwan. Further research is necessary to examine the impact of social, cultural and legal factors in other host countries.
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Appendix 1: Interview Questions
I. Demographics and family relationships
1.How old are you?
2. How long have you worked as a domestic helper in Taiwan?
3. What part of Indonesia do you come from?
4.What is your highest education?
5. How long have you been married?
6. How many children do you have?
7. Who is taking care of your children?
8. How did your parents raise you as a daughter?
9. How did your husband treat you—dominant, liberal, or else?
10. How is your relationship with your husband and your children? Have your current job influence your family relationship? How?
11. What is the Muslim culture influence on your working as a domestic helper?
12. Who made the decision for you to come to Taiwan and work as a domestic helper? How did your family and husband respond to your working as a domestic helper?
13. What kinds of family relationship and life you imagine you will have after returning to Indonesia?
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II. Smartphone use 14. How long have you use a smartphone? Is it a pre-paid or post-paid? How much is your monthly phone bill on average? Who pays for the mobile phone and its bills? Do you think smartphone use is affordable?
15. Do your employers allow you to use smartphone to communicate with your family in Indonesia? What kinds of rules do the
employers set for your smartphone use? Have they complained about your smartphone use or restricted your usage? Why?
16. Is smartphone the major communication device for you to contact your distant family? Why?
17. What kinds of smartphone activities do you use most frequently to interact with your distant families? Why?
18. How did you use the following smartphone activities to
communicate with your distant family? (Ask each of them about the frequency, communication purposes, and ways of
communication. Give examples) a. Voice call
b. SMSes
c. Video call (e.g., Skype)
d. Mobile Instant Messages (e.g., Line, Whatsapp…)
d. Mobile Instant Messages (e.g., Line, Whatsapp…)