Accumulating delay: Filipino Time, COVID-19 and experiences of male returnees in Cebu

Abstract

Unique to this paper is a gendered examination of return migration from the point of view of male return migrants. I analyze the perspectives of repatriated male migrant workers during their return migration in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a discussion of time as “accumulated delay,” I suggest that the (de)constructions of masculinity concerning overseas Filipino workers’ (OFWs) experiences of waiting and delay under repatriation and quarantine can be understood through the theoretical lens of immobility in migration research. I suggest that systemic delays in the circulation of global capital, necessitated by the global health pandemic, challenged migrant men’s cohesive narrative of migrant productivity.