Permanent and transitional guest workers: variations of partial citizenship among migrant Filipina domestic workers in the diaspora

This chapter revisits the concept of partial citizenship for migrant domestic workers, meaning their stunted incorporation as members of host and home societies. It further qualifies the experience of partial citizenship by focusing on the dynamic engendered by their conditional membership based on employer sponsorship. Host societies often limit the citizenship of migrant domestic workers by binding them to work only for their sponsors. At the same time, the experience of sponsored migrants varies across the diaspora between domestic workers who can transition out of employer sponsorship to permanent residency and those who are perpetually bound to temporary status. Illustrating variations of partial citizenship establishes differences in citizenship for migrant domestic workers across destinations.