Asst. Prof. Mark Anthony D. Abenir, DSD, Director of the Simbahayan Community Development Office and faculty member of the Department of Sociology of the Faculty of Arts and Letters, presented a research paper entitled “In Their Voices: The Rights and Capabilities of ‘Anak ng OFW’” during the research colloquium entitled “On the Move in a World without Borders: Profiles and Prospects of Filipino Migration.” The colloquium was held last January 9, 2017 at the Philippine Social Science Center.
The paper, which was part of Abenir’s dissertation, “made use of a Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) and Capabilities Approach in expanding and deepening the migration-development discourse in understanding the lives of the Anak ng OFW.” The paper “argued that it is necessary to identify specific Rights and Capabilities that are reflective of the voices of the Anak ng OFW so this may serve as a basis on what Rights should be secured by organized interest groups in order to safeguard the Capabilities that are crucial for the Social Development of individuals and families belonging in the OFW sector.”
The mixed-methods-design paper used qualitataive and/or quantitative insights drawn from 2446 survey questionnaire respondents, 50 small group sharing session participants, 70 interview respondents, and five years of focused ethnographic exposure in doing development work with the Anak ng OFW, in order to demonstrate praxis-oriented learning and theorizing from the ground in identifying the five specific rights and three important capabilities that are reflective of the voices of the Anak ng OFW, generating the “Anak ng OFW Rights and Capabilities Worldview” model.
