USAP-USAP: A Sociolinguistic Examination of Discourses on Transnational Identities among Filipino Migrants in Japan

Abstract

Migrants transition between ways of life in their home and destination countries, negotiating their identities to meet the demands of everyday life and their new domicile. Identity, although exceptionally abstract, fractured, and dynamic, becomes analyzable through the mundane social activity of discourse. The current study looked at how Filipino migrants from various origins discussed transnational identity via spoken discourse termed as usap-usap. Usap-usap in Tagalog means ‘light conversation’ and served as the data-gathering method in the study. The co-construction of transnational identity via usap-usap involved four informants (a highly skilled professional, an educator, a student, and a family member of a Japanese national) who represent different categories of Filipino migrants in Japan. The usap-usap with and among the migrants showed the emergence of a transnational identity, characterized by biculturalism strategies and multilingualism. Biculturalism was reflected by the Filipino migrants narratives describing how they modified their practices vis-à-vis spirituality and religiosity, punctuality, and linguistic differences between the Philippines and Japan. Linguistically, the usap-usap made prominent the flawless switching of the Filipino migrants between Tagalog, English, and Japanese as they contemplated their personal histories and exchanged opinions with one another. It is argued that multilingualism is an illustration of the migrant's multicultural reality, one that allows for the creative meshing of cultural ways from the origin and destination countries. Beyond the current research, the usap-usap served not only as a data-gathering tool for the current research but also as an avenue for the Filipino migrants to introspect, position themselves in relation to others, and co-construct an identity that is, at times, imposed on them by scholarly descriptions. Finally, the study demonstrated that discourse does not only reflect the transnational identity but also actively constructs it and makes it lucid, palpable, and more concrete.