EDUCATIONAL FILTERING, LABOR MARKET CHANNELING, AND ONWARD MIGRATION AMONG SECOND-GENERATION FILIPINOS IN ATHENS

Constantina Corazon Argyrakou

Abstract


This study examines the educational trajectories, labor-market transitions, and mobility horizons of second-generation Filipinos in Athens. Using a hermeneutic phenomenological qualitative design, it draws on semi-structured interviews and small focus-group discussions conducted in community settings. Data were collected between September 2023 and June 2025 through snowball sampling and comprise 80 interviews in Greek and English, with focus-group participants included within this total sample. The analysis shows that mobility constraints are produced through the intersection of institutional filtering across education and citizenship-related access, labor-market channeling, and a family moral economy structured around a “debt of sacrifice” that narrows what counts as acceptable risk. The findings indicate that educational pathways and transitions into work are shaped by bureaucratic barriers, documentation-related uncertainty, and enduring stereotypes, despite participants’ linguistic fluency and educational investment. Family obligations and community-based norms further shape how participants assess acceptable educational and occupational choices. Onward migration emerges as a salient mobility horizon, associated with protracted citizenship-related procedures, bounded opportunity structures, and uncertainty about long-term settlement in Greece.

Keywords


second-generation Filipinos, Athens, educational filtering, labor-market channeling, onward migration, mobility constraints, Greece

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejsss.v12i4.2236

Copyright (c) 2026 Constantina Corazon Argyrakou

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