Negotiating Expatriates’ Identities within the Saudi Healthcare Context

Abstract

This study investigates how skilled female Catholic Filipino healthcare practitioners negotiate and perform their identities—including religious, gender, and socioeconomic aspects—within the conservative Sunni cultural context of Saudi Arabia. Addressing a gap in migration studies, particularly in non-Anglophone and Global South contexts, the research highlights the unique identity dynamics of this under-researched group. Adopting a poststructuralist approach and Goffman’s dramaturgical framework, the study employed qualitative methods, including interviews, focus groups, workplace observations, and diary entries. It explored how participants performed ‘front stage’ professional identities in public settings and "backstage" private identities in more personal spaces. Language was identified as a critical tool in navigating cultural and workplace norms. Four themes emerged: (1) Gender identity—Participants adapted to local gender norms in professional settings but resisted these norms privately, asserting their identities through bold expressions and challenging traditional roles. Filipino core values—Kapwa (shared self), lakas ng-loob (bravery), and kusang-loob (free will)—shaped their actions and motivated them to inspire change among local women. The findings also highlighted a gender role reversal within migrant families, with female breadwinners leading migration and male partners adapting to domestic roles. (2) Religious identity—While most aligned with Sunni norms in workplaces through the adoption of Islamic language and dress, participants maintained strong Catholic identities privately, drawing strength from Catholic and Filipino virtues, such as bravery (lakas-ng-loob), to endure hardships faced. (3) Socioeconomic factors—The tradition of remittances and gifts (balikbayan boxes) and the construction of a ‘heroic’ migrant identity (becoming a Bayani) appeared internally defined, and rooted in familial and social recognition. Respondents emphasised their role as providers and adventurers, presenting a front-stage image of success and resilience to family and friends back home, motivated by the Filipino virtue of utang-na-loob (debt of gratitude), whilst concealing challenges they faced. Participants were predominantly disparaging of government narratives of Bayanis, perceiving these to be constructed to increase overseas migrant contributions to national GDP. (4) Linguistic influences—Language played a dual role, with Arabic enhancing workplace integration and sense of professionalism, but was resisted in personal spaces to maintain religious distinctiveness. The findings reveal how Filipino migrants construct hybrid identities shaped by superdiversity, connectivity through technology, and cultural adaptation. It also indicates that a sense of belonging is difficult to establish given restrictions to residency pathways in KSA, and challenges of reintegration back home in the Philippines. This research contributes to migration studies by expanding understanding of female migrants’ identities in non-Anglophone contexts. It offers insights into the intersection of national identity, media narratives, and government policies on migrant experiences while addressing the broader dynamics of identity fluidity in global migration. Practical implications include the need for tailored cultural and linguistic training to support integration in conservative workplaces. Future research is recommended to examine identity negotiation in other conservative faith communities and explore the performative use of language and identity work across diverse sociocultural and economic settings.