This conference was organized to discuss the intersection of race and gender, migration, and caregiving in Korea. It also analyzed the structural impact of Global Care Chains on Filipino women and their societies. 

Over the past two decades, the structure of care work in South Korean society has been rapidly transformed in response to demographic changes. In particular, the “Filipino Domestic Helper Pilot Project," launched by the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Seoul Metropolitan Government in 2024 to address the declining birthrate, is currently generating significant social controversy. Care work has been assigned to women of color and has served as a mechanism to reinforce inequality and hierarchy between the Global North and South. Korean society is no exception to this structural problem.

Despite the fact that the issue of migrant care work is a multilayered problem intricately intertwined with gender, race, and postcolonialism, this intersectional oppression has not been sufficiently discussed in Korean feminist discourses. As a result, critical discussions on care work remain underdeveloped, and practical responses to this intersectional structure of oppression are still lacking.

Through this international conference, the Asian Center for Women's Studies seeked to provide an in-depth analysis of the historical context and realities of migrant care work in the Philippines. The conference elucidated the structural impacts of global care chains on Filipino women and their societies. It conceptualized the intersectionality discourses of gender and race as a critical political project. This served as an opportunity for transnational feminism, including Korea, to develop more radical and practical responses to intersectional oppression in the context of female migrant care labor issues.

1) Title: 2024 'Race and Gender' International Conference "What's Wrong with the Philippine Domestic Helper

              Pilot Project: Feminist Interventions for the Radical Reconstitution of Migration, Care, and Labor

              Discourse"

2) Theme: "Intersection of race, gender, migration, and caregiving in South Korea," "Structural impact of Global

                  Care Chains," "Reconstitution of care discourse in South Korea"

3) Date/Time: 2024.12.07. 13:00-18:00

4) Location: International Education Building LG Convention Hall, Ewha Womans University

5) Details

    - Opening Address: Sunhye Kim

    - Congratulatory Address: Eun Mee Kim, Sun-min Kim, Jec Sernande

    - Panel Program Chiar: Seoyeon Park

    - Panel Program Presenter: Anna Romina Guevarra, Evelyn Kwok, Noelle Leslie Dela Cruz

    - Panel Program Discussant: Sohoon Yi, Hyuna Moon

    - Roundtable Program Chair: YoungOk Kim

    - Roundtable Program Presenter: Youngmi Choi, Hye-jung Kim, Hyun Mee Kim, Juyoung Jang

6) Proceedings: File attached