Organizer: Canadian Southeast Asian Studies Initiative (CSEASI), York University

Type/Location: Hybrid / Toronto, ON

Description:

Join York University’s Canadian Southeast Asian Studies Initiative for a book talk by Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Associate Professor of Sociology at Singapore Management University’s School of Social Sciences. Soma Chatterjee, Associate Professor of Social Work at York University, will moderate the conversation.

Stuck at Home examines how the Philippine state and its aspiring migrants negotiated the meaning of immobility amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In this pioneering book, Yasmin Y. Ortiga studies the narratives that emerged around two groups of Filipino workers: nurses banned from leaving the country and cruise workers who returned home after COVID-19 shut down the travel industry. The book emphasizes the high stakes in telling the "right" story of immobility to a nation built around emigration—one that provides a compelling rationale for who deserves to move and who can be forced to stay.

About the Speaker:

Yasmin Y. Ortiga is Associate Professor of Sociology at SMU School of Social Sciences. She studies how the meaning of “skill” shapes people’s migration trajectories, determining how and why people cross national borders. Her work has also been published in Global Networks, International Migration Review, and Social Science and Medicine.

Registration:

To attend the event in person, please register here.

To attend the event virtually, please register here.