Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History (American Encounters/Global Interactions) [Paperback]

Catherine Ceniza Choy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 2003 | ISBN-10: 082233089X | ISBN-13: 978-0822330899 | Edition: 1

In western countries, including the United States, foreign-trained nurses constitute a crucial labor supply. Far and away the largest number of these nurses come from the Philippines. Why is it that a developing nation with a comparatively greater need for trained medical professionals sends so many of its nurses to work in wealthier countries? Catherine Ceniza Choy engages this question through an examination of the unique relationship between the professionalization of nursing and the twentieth-century migration of Filipinos to the United States. The first book-length study of the history of Filipino nurses in the United States, Empire of Care brings to the fore the complicated connections among nursing, American colonialism, and the racialization of Filipinos.

Choy conducted extensive interviews with Filipino nurses in New York City and spoke with leading Filipino nurses across the United States. She combines their perspectives with various others—including those of Philippine and American government and health officials—to demonstrate how the desire of Filipino nurses to migrate abroad cannot be reduced to economic logic, but must instead be understood as a fundamentally transnational process. She argues that the origins of Filipino nurse migrations do not lie in the Philippines' independence in 1946 or the relaxation of U.S. immigration rules in 1965, but rather in the creation of an Americanized hospital training system during the period of early-twentieth-century colonial rule. Choy challenges celebratory narratives regarding professional migrants’ mobility by analyzing the scapegoating of Filipino nurses during difficult political times, the absence of professional solidarity between Filipino and American nurses, and the exploitation of foreign-trained nurses through temporary work visas. She shows how the culture of American imperialism persists today, continuing to shape the reception of Filipino nurses in the United States.

Editorial Reviews

Review

”Empire of Care is an extremely important work, a milestone in Asian American and American studies, and a singular contribution to the emergent field of Filipino American studies.”—Vicente L. Rafael, author of White Love and Other Events in Filipino History

"Empire of Care provides an eloquent analysis and exciting transnational interpretive framework for understanding the political economy of American imperialism and the immigration of Filipino nurses. Catherine Ceniza Choy’s lively and vivid history of women who connected the professional and the home spheres to become architects of their own lives against the backdrop of race, gender, and class constructions is an impressive contribution. Students of nursing, immigration, and social history will benefit enormously from this theoretically insightful and absorbing volume."—Darlene Clark Hine, author of Black Women in White: Racial Conflict and Cooperation in the Nursing Profession, 1890–1950

About the Author

Catherine Ceniza Choy is Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Duke University Press Books; 1 edition (January 31, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082233089X
• ISBN-13: 978-0822330899
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #357,639 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #93 in Books > History > Asia > Philippines

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The problems of immigration, January 11, 2012

By 

Peter A. Petroff (Fair Oaks, TX United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History (American Encounters/Global Interactions) (Paperback)

Empire of Care is a well-written review of a very interesting topic, current to immigration policy. The author looks at the desires of the immigrants to better themselves, the desire of the USA to get professional workers without having to spend money on education, and the benefit of the immigrants to their home country.

This is a very complex issue.

2 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but not that much, October 11, 2008

By 

T. Gholar (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History (American Encounters/Global Interactions) (Paperback)

Empire of care is not an argumentative book. The author only goal is to define the context in which Pilipino nurses migrated to the US. The problem is in her attempt to leave the decision to the reader on rather or not the US was a good or bad influence on the Philippines she does not give enough background information about the history of America's and the Philippines' relationship to draw anything from unless you are already familiar w/ the topic. If you want info about the Philippines, US imperialism, migration, or related topics pick another book.