March 19, 2021

2. Babae, Bangon!/Women, Rise Up!

56 minutes

Just days before the release of our second episode eight people, six of them Asian women, were murdered in Atlanta, Georgia in a white supremacist and misogynist killing spree. This act of anti-Asian and anti-sex worker violence is rooted in US imperialism and militarism in the Asia Pacific region, which continues to exoticize, dehumanize, and frame Asian women as open to sexual conquest, as their homelands are also open to occupation and exploitation. As a podcast dedicated to Filipino migrant worker storytelling we emphasize the conditions that push migrant workers out of the Philippines and into vulnerable occupations of feminized labour, such as sex work, domestic employment, and personal care services - conditions caused by ongoing US imperialist influence in the country. Rising anti-Asian sentiment in Canada, backed by this country’s own history of “Yellow Peril” fearmongering and stoked by US Sinophobic rhetoric, has escalated violence towards Asian people generally and poor, working class, and elderly Asian migrant women and Queer people in particular during the pandemic. As we struggle against the forces of US imperialism which devastate our homelands, we also struggle for labour rights and legal status for all migrant workers, including sex workers, in Canada. We mourn these eight people, and all victims of patriarchal and capitalist violence around the world.

For more information on organizations supporting im/migrant sex workers in Canada visit SWAN Vancouver and Butterfly.

In this episode (Babae, Bangon!/Women, Rise Up!) inspired by International Working Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, we chat with guests Jane and Belen about their personal stories and journeys as migrant women in Canada. They share with us experiences and personal anecdotes of working as nannies in Singapore and in Canada, the importance of finding community, and how they became active and involved in advocating for migrant rights. Tune in for a conversation that speaks to the reality of the feminization of women migrant labour.

Funded by the Government of Canada and the United Way Lower Mainland.

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Migrante BC