| dc.description.abstract | This paper aims at understanding Filipino migrant worker (OFW)s’ educational experience in a receiving country, Taiwan. The purpose of this study is to figure out to which extent education can influence OFWs’ lives, and whether OFWs view their educational experience as empowering or suppressive. In this paper, social phenomenon of international labor migration will be illustrated, and the focus will be narrowed down to OFWs in Taiwan. Selected literature on migration and education, however, unveil dilemma of migrant workers’ education that education can be either empowerment or suppression. This study combines Stromquist (2002) and Rowlands (1995)’s classification of empowerment to generate analytical framework that guides us to examine the dilemma at three different levels; personal, relational, and collective. The methods used in this qualitative study are semi-structured interview and participatory observation. The findings show that the majority of interview participants, OFWs with educational experiences in Taiwan, felt empowered through their educational experiences at personal level. Empowerment at relational level, however, were limited to the groups of people participants already knew, for example, their families and co-workers. Participants answered that there is a weak linkage between their educational experience and building new social networks, especially with Taiwanese people. Two categories fall under collective level of empowerment, economic and political dimensions. While some participants viewed their educational experience economically empowering, there was only a little room for their economic and political empowerment in Taiwanese society. | eng |