Abstract
The aim of this paper is to address the NGO support for migrant Filipinas in Japan as an alternative “intimate sphere” and analyze its activities by focusing on the relationship and difference between the NGO and the families of migrant Filipinas.
Recently, many scholars have been interested in a new kind of relationship as the basis of the people' lives—an “intimate sphere” alternative to the modern family. While considering the possibility that the new relationship could replace the family, they seem not to focus on the relationship and difference between the “intimate sphere” and the family.
In this paper, I will argue that the NGO gives the Filipinas the freedom from the family in which they have suffered domestic violence by protecting them. The NGO also tries to help them identify themselves positively as “Filipina” and share the responsibility of childcare among them. Moreover, it tries to help migrant Filipinas reflect the expectations, desires, and norms which they have for a family.
Through these practices, the NGO seeks not to negate the value of the family but to encourage migrant Filipinas and their children to live their lives in single-parent families.
