From registered nurse to registered nanny: Discursive geographics of Filipina domestic workers in Vancouver, BC

This paper is an exploration of what poststructuralist theories of the subj ect and discourse analysis can bring to theories of labor market segmentati on, namely an understanding of how individuals come to understand and are l imited in their occupational options. I examine three discursive constructi ons of "Filipina" and argue that they work to structure Filipinas' labor ma rket experiences in Vancouver. Filipinas who come to Canada through the Liv e-in Caregiver Program often come with university educations and profession al experiences (e.g., as registered nurses) but then become members of the most occupationally segregated of ethnic groups in Vancouver. As domestic w orkers in Vancouver, they are defined as "supplicant, preimmigrants," as in ferior "housekeepers," and, within the Filipino community, as "husband stea lers." I demonstrate that geography has much to bring to discourse analysis ; there are geographies written into discourses of "Filipina" that work to position Filipinas in Vancouver as inferior. While the examined dis courses overlap and reinforce the marginalization of Filipinas, I also explore how discursive analysis can function as ideology critique, by examining the in ternal inconsistencies and silences within particular discourses and the po ints of resistance that emerge when different discourses come into contact and tension.