The Mail

As a Filipina expat, I read Rachel Aviv’s article about Emma, a Filipina domestic worker who came to the U.S. to support her large family in the Philippines and has not seen them for sixteen years, with sadness and anger (“The Cost of Caring,” April 11th). I know countless women like Emma: they are my friends and the aunts, sisters, mothers, and grandmothers of my friends. Because of the corruption of the Philippine government and the de-facto ban on birth control by the Catholic Church, leading to overpopulation, much of the country lives in poverty. Many women, especially, unable to provide for their large families, and lacking job opportunities, travel to wealthier nations, such as the U.S., to find work. Millions of young children like Emma’s nine daughters are left behind, in the care of family members or even domestic workers. The result is entire generations of children who are growing up motherless.