Homilies as knowledge transfer platform for Filipino migrant workers in Taiwan

Labor migration has become entrenched in underdeveloped countries as a means to address rampant unemployment and to sustain the local economy. In the Philippines, it is estimated that one in ten Filipinos work abroad. With limited sources to address the information needs of widely dispersed Filipino migrant workers, this study explores how the Catholic Church could steward knowledge transfer, specifically through homilies. Under the framework of Symbolic Convergence theory, thematic content analysis is executed on homilies gathered from a Taiwan-based parish. Through close reading of themes from the recorded texts, migrant workers are said to have knowledge requirements based on their roles as: surveyor (of the foreign environment), survivor (of migrant challenges), and savior-returnee (of eventual homecoming). Findings suggest that homilies provide pragmatic, non-sectarian information. This exploratory study proposes that the church setting could host knowledge transfers for Filipino migrant workers.