Maalwang Buhay: Family, Overseas Migration and Cultures of Relatedness in Barangay Paraiso

The book is based on intensive ethnographic research in an upland village in Batangas Province, identified in the book as Barangay Paraiso. It brings to light a wide range of aspects of the everyday life of the migrants in the village, their families and their community, and gives a nuanced perspective of the migration phenomenon. From interviews, discussions and research, the book presents and reflects on the respondents' views and experiences regarding courtship and marriage, conjugal togetherness, transnational parenting, house construction, investments, and caregiving and education of children, all from the perspective of kinship as cultures of relatedness. The book shows, according to Professor Daniel Miller, "how such an anthropological focus upon kinship can become integrated with a development perspective providing a far more satisfactory and scholarly understanding of these events."