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Creating “New Home” away from Home?: Religious Conversion of Filipino Domestic Workers in Dubai and Doha
Abstract
This paper aims to delineate contours of social relations and strategic use of their identities among converted Filipino domestic workers in metropolitan cities in the Gulf. Religious conversion among Filipino domestic workers in the Gulf countries has been on the rise. Some literature argues that the phenomenon of religious conversion among transnational domestic workers partly reflects their legally and socially constrained and isolated circumstances in foreign countries. Then, to what extent does their experience of converting to a new religion affect their social relationships with others in actuality? Does conversion lead them to form more intimate ties across nationality and class? Also, does their involvement in a new faith group create social and emotional distance with their formerly close family members, relatives, and friends of different faith? What part of religious practices do Filipino converts consider influence on making close ties with others in everyday life? We base our argument on empirical data collected from interviewed cases of formerly Catholic domestic workers from the Philippines, now participating in new religious groups – namely, Pentecostal Christian groups and Islamic dawah meetings – in Dubai and Doha. And we demonstrate that joining new religious groups, more than joining non-religious groups, often transform social relationships of Filipino domestic workers, especially highly devoted members who find their religious group as their “new home”, and that the transformation can transcend nationality and class differences. Nevertheless, differences lie between Pentecostal members and converted Muslims. The latter tends to experience more drastic transformation of their daily associates than the former, largely because conversion to Islam leads to, our interlocutors regard, more changes in everyday lifestyles. However, in both cases, many Filipino converts make use of their new religious identity strategically – or at times ambivalently– so as to negotiate and improve their situations.
Discipline
Anthropology
Geographic Area
Gulf
Qatar
Southeast Asia
UAE
Sub Area
None