The Political Socialization of Overseas Filipino Workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America: A Qualitative Phenomenological Research on Transnational Politics in the Philippines

Abstract

The Philippines is known to be one of the top exporters of human labor in the world through its long-established labor-export tradition, which has become a pillar of its economy (United Nations, n.d.; PSA, 2022). With this, the Philippines is a propitious case study of transnationalism—the idea that migrants remain active in the politics of their home country (Scholten, 2022). Thus, using the theory of political socialization, a process by which an individual acquires and consolidates the political circumstances of their surroundings, this paper investigates the effects of exposure of Filipino migrant workers to the political culture of the United States of America (USA) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to their voting behavior, political interest, attitude, and perception. It is hypothesized that the process of political socialization could affect the local political landscape. The researchers conducted twenty semi-structured interviews of selected migrant workers, specifically ten participants from the USA and ten participants from KSA, and through Colaizzi’s method of analysis, the results found that the collected data support the existing hypothesis. This means that exposure to the political culture of the study sites led to possible changes in their politics, which they tend to transmit in the domestic sphere.