Marital conflict and finances among Filipinas in Australia

Differences in finance practices emerged as a major theme in interviews con ducted by The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health among the Fil ipina community in Queensland. Women's decisions to migrate and marry Austr alian men are influenced by their perceptions of relative wealth of their f uture husband, and their presumed enhanced ability to provide support for F ilipino kin. However, because of unrealised financial expectations, issues related to the remittance of money to family in The Philippines, the husban d's disapproval of his wife's participation in the paid workforce, and fina ncial practices such as the management of the household finances and roles with money, finance is a constant point of tension in many Filipina-Austral ian marriages. It seems that in migrating to Australia, many Filipinas exch ange one type of money problem for another - one that they rarely foresee. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.