Living between islands: intergenerational transfers among older migrant women in Okinawa

This study explores how intergenerational transfers – the passing down of material and non-material resources from one generation to another – shape and maintain family relationships both in the host and origin countries by looking at the case of Filipino women in the island community of Miyakojima in Okinawa, Japan. It also examines how social mobility aspirations are intergenerational and are linked to migration processes. These women migrated to Miyakojima as entertainers and worked on pubs in the island’s entertainment district. Some, however, came as marriage migrants, marrying local men who were introduced to them by their friend or kin who was already working on the island. These women are now in their 50s and above and have been living on the island for more than two decades. They also have adult children of their own. Fieldwork data collected in November 2024 and March 2025, reveal that intergenerational transfers assist in these migrants’ natal families’ aspirations for social mobility. Intergenerational transfers, primarily in the form of remittances, assist in these migrants’ natal families’ aspirations for social mobility. What is notable in this community of migrant women who are ageing-in-place, is that while they continue to financially support their kin in the homeland, they are also the recipients of care from their adult children who are living and working in other parts of Japan. By looking at this specific case, I argue that the maintenance of family relationships becomes possible through migration and its resultant intergenerational transfers.