Gender, Place & Culture

A Journal of Feminist Geography

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cgpc20

Inclusion and beauty pageants? The Filipino

migrant worker community in Israel

Deby Babis

To cite this article: Deby Babis (2022) Inclusion and beauty pageants? The Filipino
migrant worker community in Israel, Gender, Place & Culture, 29:5, 625-648, DOI:
10.1080/0966369X.2021.1887090

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GENDER, PLACE & CULTURE
2022, VOL. 29, NO. 5, 625–648
https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2021.1887090

Inclusion and beauty pageants?

The Filipino migrant worker community in Israel
Deby Babisa,b
a
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel; bHarry S Truman
Institute for the Advancement of Peace, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Beauty pageants held by immigrant groups in their host Received 23 February 2020
country, or diasporic beauty contests, are a fascinating glo- Accepted 6 January 2021
bal phenomenon. While previous studies have mainly
KEYWORDS
explored this practice within permanently settled immigrant
Beauty contests; beauty
communities, there is a dearth of research regarding beauty pageants; Filipino
contests in communities of migrant workers. Based on a migration; Israel; leisure
seven- year fieldwork in the Filipino community in Israel, time; live-in caregivers;
this study asks why beauty pageants have become such a migrant workers
prominent event among migrant workers employed as live-
in caregivers. Involving candidates from both genders,
these events were found significant for migrant workers at
the personal, communal and transnational level. The
uniqueness of these pageants lies in their inclusive effect,
as it is expressed on every level. Unlike the construction of
a Western ideal of gendered beauty from which the major-
ity is excluded, diasporic beauty contests offer every
migrant worker the opportunity to participate. Thus,
becoming a platform for social inclusion and allowing live-
in migrant workers to become visible and respectable.

Introduction
Four months into my research on the Filipino migrant worker community in
Israel, I was invited to attend Miss Congeniality, a beauty pageant that took
place in a municipal community centre in downtown Tel Aviv, in which nine
candidates competed in various categories before a large and enthusiastic
audience. Since then, as part of a large ethnographic research project on
that community, I have attended 38 pageants out of more than 70 held
from 2013–2019. The purpose of this article is to explore why beauty pag-
eants have become such a prominent event in a community of temporary
migrant workers who relocate to Israel primarily to support their families
back home. This case study contributes to the corpus of scholarly feminist

CONTACT Deby Babis [email protected] Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ariel

University, Ariel 40700, Israel.
ß 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
626 D. BABIS

literature pointing to aspects of empowerment that occur during the beauty

contest process.
Previous studies on diasporic beauty contests have mainly explored com-
munities of immigrants permanently settled in the host country (Wu and Tzu
1997; Lieu 2000; Siu 2005; Mani 2006; Nagy 2008; Faria 2010, 2013; Chow
2011; Espinosa 2012). In contrast, the contribution of this study lies in explor-
ing the phenomenon as it unfolds in temporary migrant worker commun-
ities, a topic that has received relatively little attention (Chen 2015). The case
of the Filipino community in Israel is particularly interesting because Filipino
migrant workers are legally restricted to working strictly as live-in caregivers
for the elderly. Furthermore, while research on temporary migrant workers
has tended to focus on their work experiences and their transnational fami-
lies (Parren~as 2005; MacKenzie and Forde 2009; Ayalon and Shiovitz-Ezra
2010; Madianou and Miller 2012; Choo 2016; Acedera and Yeoh 2020), this
study adds the dimension of their leisure time activities.

Beauty contests: exclusion and identities

Occurring worldwide at international, national and local community levels,
beauty contests are events in which cultural meanings are produced, con-
sumed and rejected (Cohen, Wilk, and Stoeltje 1996). From the gender per-
spective, beauty contests have been shown to create a new kind of woman
in the post-liberalisation sphere (Runkle 2004). By encouraging unattainable
bodily and appearance norms, they construct a distorted ideal of women’s
beauty (Wolf 1991; Faludi 1992), which not only has social and psychological
implications for the life experiences of individual women, but also promote
an extreme model of women’s undernutrition with severe health consequen-
ces (Banet-Weiser 1999; Rubinstein and Caballero 2000; Banet-Weiser and
Portwood-Stacer 2006; Battistoni 2013). In other words, the ideal of attract-
iveness constructed by beauty contests not only excludes the majority of the
population, but also alienates human beings from their own bodies.
Beyond individual and collective feelings of exclusion, beauty contests
have been found to embody and enhance nationalism, while at the same
time challenging the national identity of racial and/or minorities who feel
excluded (Barnes 1994; Banet-Weiser 1999; Lieu 2000; Ahmed-Ghosh 2003;
Balogun 2012; Mazuz 2015). Some of these native minorities have created
their own beauty contests, such as Miss Indian America and Miss White
Mountain Apache, as a strategy for negotiating their relationship with their
traditional cultures, while retaining authenticity (Schro€der 2004; Kozol 2005;
Schackt 2005; Denetdale 2006; Rasch 2020). Beauty contests, therefore, are
mechanisms that shape and reinforce both majority and minority identities
in national, racial, ethnic and cultural terms (King-O’Riain 2008).
 GENDER, PLACE & CULTURE 627

Diasporic beauty contests

Diasporic beauty pageants are unique in being organized by immigrants or
temporary migrants living far from their homeland. Focusing mainly on per-
manently settled immigrants, studies have shown that beauty pageants pro-
vide a venue for the construction of community identity and the
preservation of the culture of origin (Wu and Tzu 1997; Lieu 2000; Siu 2005;
Mani 2006; Nagy 2008; Faria 2010). For example, the annual La Reina de la
Colonia China was incorporated in the Convention of Chinese Associations in
Central America and Panama to encourage multigenerational attendance
and sociocultural interaction region-wide (Siu 2005).
In some cases, the motivation for these diasporic beauty pageants may
not only be preserving the home country culture, but also a reaction to the
host country’s attitude towards migrant contestants in national beauty con-
tests. Lieu (2000) explained, for example, that Vietnamese Americans organ-
ized their own beauty pageants as a way of countering exclusionary
practices that disqualified Asian women from representing the United States
by virtue of their race. Vietnamese-American beauty contests provide alterna-
tive spaces in which ‘ethnic Vietnamese’ women have the opportunity to
participate. In a similar vein, Miss China Europe provides visibility for diasporic
Chinese women, and enables them to confront the inequality they experi-
ence both in the West and back home (Chow 2011).
Diasporic beauty pageants have also been found to be platforms to dem-
onstrate the immigrant community’s success. In her study on Miss India USA,
Mani (2006) argued that locating beauty pageants in the Silicon Valley
allowed the organizers to invoke stories of Indian-American entrepreneurial
success. Similarly, Lieu (2013) showed how beauty pageants became a plat-
form to celebrate the financial success and wealth of an elite class of
Vietnamese business people who sponsored these events. Beyond flaunting
community success, diasporic beauty contests can also reflect – and be con-
ditioned by – the migrant history that has shaped the community. In her
study of Miss Philippines-Australia, a beauty contest for second-generation
migrant women, Espinosa (2012) analysed the links between gender and
diaspora philanthropy, claiming that by means of sexualised forms of fund-
raising, this contest reproduces the feminisation that led to the phenomenon
of mail-order brides in the first generation.
Some diasporic beauty pageants serve to present the immigrant culture
to members of the host country. The Miss Chinatown U.S.A. beauty pageant,
which became one of the highlights of the Chinese New Year celebration,
served to educate the American public about Chinese culture (Wu and Tzu
1997). However, this was not the case in Miss Philippines Bahrain, a semi-pub-
lic event that did not fulfil its potential of presenting Filipino culture to other
nationalities resident in Bahrain (Nagy 2008).
628 D. BABIS

Immigrant communities holding diasporic beauty pageants may also influ-

ence change in their home country. Faria (2010) emphasized that in the Miss
South Sudan pageant in the US, women and womanhood played an import-
ant role as part of the contemporary nation-building process. In this event,
the immigrant community express the desire in the diaspora for a unified,
socially progressive, and modern home country.

The Filipino migrant worker community in Israel

Filipino migrant workers first arrived in Israel in the 1970s, either as tourists
working as helpers and nannies with Israeli families, or with diplomatic visas
to work as domestic helpers, drivers or cooks at embassies. This migration, a
result of the labour export policy promulgated in the Philippines in the
1970s as a strategy to cope with a deep economic crisis, has increased since
the 90 s due to Israel’s policy of importing temporary migrant workers for
employment as live-in caregivers of elderly and disabled people (Liebelt
2011; Shamir 2013). Following a formal agreement between the two coun-
tries, thousands of Filipino caregivers, mainly women, were recruited to pro-
vide live-in home care in Israel. Their salary is around 1000-1500 USD per
month, most of which is transferred to their families in the Philippines.
Filipinos are only allowed to work in the caregiving industry for a period of
five years and three months. However, their work visa may be extended until
the death of their employer.1 Once this occurs, their visa expires and they
are required to leave the country, otherwise they remain undocumented and
can be deported.2
By early 2000, the Filipino community had grown to around 60,000, but it
shrunk significantly since 2002 as a result of an intensive campaign of
deporting undocumented migrant workers led by the Israeli government.
Nowadays, the local Filipino community numbers around 25,000 members
aged 24-60 (Population and Immigration Authority in Israel 2019), 86% of
whom are women (Israel Central Bureau of Statistics 2019), who have been
working in Israel for different periods, some for more than 20 years.
As live-in caregivers, Filipinos are required to work around the clock, six
days a week, with a 24 hours weekly day off. As around-the-clock workers,
caregivers often sleep in a private room within the residence, in the living
room, or in the same room as the care recipient, having little privacy (Ayalon
and Shiovitz-Ezra 2010; Liebelt 2011; Mazuz 2013b). Their tasks include prac-
tical and emotional support, which take different forms, such as assistance
with mobility, attending to personal needs, operating medical instruments
and accompanying the care recipient when attending medical appointments.
The workers also assist the recipients with their leisure activities, such as
attending religious services, community centres and family events (Ayalon
 GENDER, PLACE & CULTURE 629

and Shiovitz-Ezra 2010; Iecovich 2011; Mazuz 2013a). The intimate caregiver-
employer relationship in Israel is a family-like relationship (Mazuz 2013a).
This intimacy was clearly expressed in an article published in Focal, one of
the magazines in the Filipino community. The title of the article was ‘My
Granny Luba from whom I learned a lot’ written by Anne Gonzaga, a Filipina
caregiver who worked with Luba for 10 years. The article was published after
Anne’s employer passed away and this is how she describes their
relationship:
( … ) Our relationship can be compared to that of a husband and wife. We teased
and made jokes, talk about politics and current events, watched TV soaps, and just
like in any other relationship, we argue a lot too. I almost quit four times, but it
never happened. The sweetest thing was that we both know that we needed each
other and depended on each other somehow. She call me whenever I was on
vacation in Manila, always reminding me that I promised to come back to Israel.
She told her friends ‘Kashe itta, aval iefshar bladeya’, which means it was hard
being with me (for I do some things my way), but her life is even harder or
impossible without me ( … ).

(Source: Focal Magazine, No 252, 14 February 2012, p.10)

Nowadays we have further evidence of the close relationship between

Filipino live-in caregivers and their employers in Israel, as can be seen on
their Facebook walls. Following the death of an employer it is common prac-
tice for Filipino live-in caregivers to share their pain through Facebook. In
their grief posts, they emphasize their feelings, the experiences they had
with their employers and what they learned from them, both through the
texts and by means of pictures in which they and their employers are seen
enjoying happy moments together. Following these mourning posts, care-
givers receive personal condolence comments and digital support from
friends and family, and continue to remember their deceased employer on
Facebook even many years hence (Babis 2020).
However, despite their close connection with their employers, scholars
note that as a result of the long working hours, boredom, loneliness and
monotony of days spent with the elderly recipient, live-in caregivers may
experience alienation and depression (Ayalon 2012; Mazuz 2013b; Liebelt
2013). Workers’ community life during the week occurs mainly through
Facebook, which has become a central platform for community interaction
and organization (Golan and Babis 2019a, 2019b). During their day off, they
rent small flats, which are shared by around 8-15 Filipinos each (Liebelt
2011; Lim 2014).
Filipinos work all over Israel, but the hub of their community is the
Central Bus Station in downtown Tel Aviv, known in Hebrew as the Tachana
Merkazit. The neighbourhoods surrounding the central bus station have
become populated by foreigners since the 90’s, including migrant workers
630 D. BABIS

from the Philippines, China, Turkey, Colombia, Ghana, Nepal, India, and asy-
lum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan. The central bus station is a monstrous
seven-story building, and is considered to be one of the largest bus stations
in the world (covering 230,000 m2). Local and intercity buses leave from the
6th and 7th floor, while the entrance to the station is through several gates
on the fourth floor, located on street level. It was planned to be a big mall,
with around 1000 shops, but it never became fully functional. The building
has many abandoned areas, huge empty corridors and most Israelis pass
through this station as fast as they can. The station has a complex of multi-
cultural combinations, such as a Russian book shop for the Israeli-Russian
community, a medical center for asylum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan; the
Yiddish museum (preserving the Yiddish culture which originated among
European Jews); a community educational center run by migrant workers,
asylum seekers and Israeli volunteers; shops converted into studios for Israeli
painters, and more diverse activities far removed from those originally
planned for the mall. In one section of the fourth floor, as well as in the sur-
rounding area of the bus station, many shops offer products and services for
the Filipino community. These include groceries selling traditional Filipino
food products, Filipino restaurants, Filipino disco-bars, and services for remit-
ting money home. When Filipinos have their 24-hour leave and come to
south Tel Aviv, which is mostly from Friday to Saturday (following the
Shabbat – the Jewish rest day) or Saturday to Sunday, this area looks like
‘little Manila’ (Liebelt 2011).
While living and working in Israel, despite the restrictive employment condi-
tions, Filipinos have established several organizations, both religious and socio-
cultural (Babis, Zychlinski, and Kagan 2021). Dozens of Filipino churches, either
Catholic or Evangelical, function all over Israel (although Israel is a Jewish
state, there is freedom for all religions). Churches often offer prayer services
on Friday-Saturday-Sunday, allowing Filipinos with different days off to attend
services. The sociocultural associations are organized according to regions in
the Philippines (e.g. Cavitenians Pride), towns of origin (e.g. Malasiquinians
Alliance Society), or regions in Israel (e.g. Jerusalem Filipino Community).
There are also two umbrella organizations: Federation of Filipino Communities
in Israel (FFCI) and National Alliance of Filipino Communities (NAFILCO).
Community events mostly take place during the workers’ day off over week-
ends (Liebelt 2011), and include sports leagues, parties, day trips around Israel,
and the very popular beauty contests. While Filipinos have adopted the very
Israeli practice of going on day trips around the country, the practice of
organizing sports leagues, parties and beauty contests is an integral part of
the Filipino culture that they have brought to Israel from home. The current
study explores why beauty pageants have become such a prominent event of
a community of temporary migrant workers.
 GENDER, PLACE & CULTURE 631

Methods: from ethnography to digital study

This study is part of a larger research project on various aspects of the
Filipino community in Israel, where I combined traditional ethnography and
digital ethnography (Dalsgaard 2016; Piacenti, Balmore Rivas and Garrett
2014). This combination enables the exploration of the Filipino community in
general and beauty contests in particular from a more holistic perspective.
Data were collected from 2013–2019. During these years, as part of trad-
itional ethnography, I have attended more than 160 community events.
More than 70 beauty contests took place during this period, of which I have
attended 38 and served as a judge in seven. Data were collected by means
of participant observation and conversations with organizers, candidates and
audiences, and were documented in a field diary. The pageants were also
documented by means of thousands of photographs I took myself, providing
rich data for analysis.
When I first approached the community, I informed the leaders about the
purpose of my field study. Subsequently, on becoming very involved with
the community, the leaders of the different organizations invited me to
attend their events. Furthermore, at almost all of the events I attended, the
master of ceremonies introduced me to the audience as an anthropologist
doing research on the Filipino community. During the ethnography in gen-
eral, and beauty contests in particular, I always introduced myself to the
interlocutors to inform them about myself as a researcher, to explain the
purpose of the study and to assure them of my commitment to preserve
their anonymity and protect their privacy. Thus, all names cited in the study
have been changed.
Further data were collected through digital ethnography conducted on
Facebook. I created a Facebook account for the purpose of this study shortly
after starting my traditional fieldwork. My first network of Facebook friends
was made up of early fieldwork contacts. More friends were added through
social media, while others were added in face-to-face meetings. Among my
over 1400 Filipino Facebook friends, I collected posts related to beauty con-
tests that had been uploaded before, during and after the coronation night
by organizers, candidates and spectators.
The varied data obtained by means of these multiple sources over a
long period enabled me to explore the dynamics of beauty contests in
the Filipino community from several angles. Data was analysed using cat-
egorisation techniques in four stages: (1) Organisation of the data; (2)
Overall-holistic understanding of the data; (3) Division of the data into
meaningful units; and (4) Identification of central themes (Strauss and
Corbin 1990). The central themes identified in the analysis were (1) the
individual, (2) the communal and (3) the transnational implications of the
beauty contests held by Filipino migrant workers in Israel. The three
632 D. BABIS

themes, analyzed in the discussion section, emerged from an elaboration

of the data, presented in the findings section through the lens of the fol-
lowing selected overlapping axes: General characteristics of the beauty
pageants; the candidates; the organizers; the pageant night and the
pageant aftermath.

General characteristics of the Filipino beauty contests in Israel

Beauty pageants, which are very popular in the Philippines and have a long
history going back to the Spanish period (Cannell 1999, ch. 10), are also a
very prominent feature in the lives of Filipino migrant workers in Israel. They
take place at least once a month and include numerous types of contests,
such as Miss Ilocandia Holyland (Ilocano is a language spoken in the north of
the Philippines) for women (Figure 1); Manhunt for men (Figure 2); Haifia’s
Mother of the Year for women over 40 (Haifia is acronym of the Hagiyo
Ifugao Ad Israel Association); That’s my tomboy for lesbians; Miss gay for gays
and transgenders; and Miss Belly-Bill for full-figured women. In some
umbrella events, like the Flores de Mayo festival and Filipino Independence
Day, the different community organizations are represented by four candi-
dates wearing traditional costumes from the Philippines, who compete for
the title of king, queen, prince or princess.

Figure 1. Miss Ilocandia Holyland 2013.

(organized by Samahang Ilocano Kabagis Israel)

Some beauty pageants take place every year (e.g. Flores de Mayo;
Gandang Babae [beautiful lady] Philippines-Israel), while others are more spor-
adic (e.g. Miss Gay; Gandang Momshie [beautiful mother]), depending on the
initiatives of the officers, internal politics of the organization and the possibil-
ity of engaging candidates. Furthermore, sometimes the same organization
may decide on different emphases of the beauty contests, naming every
event differently. For example, Baraco (Batangas Radiant Colligation) held Ms.
 GENDER, PLACE & CULTURE 633

Figure 2. Manhunt 2016 (organized by Cagayan Valley Association in Israel).

Baraco Israel 2019, while their beauty contest in 2015 was called Ms.
Bikini-IsraPhil.
Despite the restricted working conditions of live-in Filipino migrant work-
ers in Israel, they manage to produce highly sophisticated beauty contests in
their leisure time in their community. The pageant starts with a ‘call for par-
ticipants’ published on Facebook a few months in advance, specifying the
requirements of the contestants. For example, in 2014, the Association of
Bicolanos in Israel (Bicol is a region in the Philippines) advertised on
Facebook for a Ginang Bicolandia-Israel, a pageant for married women
(Figure 3).
This is the text posted next to the photo:
We are asking for your support to our GINANG BICOLANDIA-ISRAEL 2014
CANDIDATES. Ginang Bicolandia-Israel is a fund raising project [ … ]. This is one way
of the organization to raise fund for the ‘BUILD A CLASSROOM’ project of A.B.I.
[Asociation of Bicolanos in Israel] in Bicol region. This is also a way of honoring the
great mothers from Bicolandia and the rest of the Philippines who are working
hard in Israel to help and support their families back home. Ginang Bicolandia-
Israel candidates need not be sexy and tall as long as she can carry and present
herself with confidence in front of a crowd and willing to be of service to the
Bicolanos and to the cause of ABI. (Capitalizations in original)

This call for participants reveals that a dominant motivation for organizing
beauty pageants is fundraising in order to promote community projects back
home. This post also emphasises another important incentive: honouring
hardworking Filipina mothers in Israel. Lastly, the fact that the invitation for
634 D. BABIS

Figure 3. Search for Ginanag Bicolandia Israel 2014.

(organized by the Association of Bicolanos in Israel)

candidates emphasizes confidence rather than physical appearance reflects

the different approach of these beauty contests.

The candidates
Candidates, both men and women, over the age of twenty even including
grandmothers, decide to join contests for several reasons, the most promin-
ent being the work they do as live-in caregivers. Rowel, a young man in his
twenties, who had been working in Israel for two years, explained during a
beauty contest rehearsal that:
[ … ] as caregivers, we need some relaxation, because we are staying full time in
our work, staying in one room, taking care of the patient. That’s why sometimes
we prefer or we want to join this kind of competition, to earn more friends, to
build some confidence also, I think … .

Cheryl, a woman candidate in her thirties who had been working in Israel for
nine years, explained her reasons for joining the pageants, emphasizing the
feeling of loneliness she experiences working away from home:
Maybe I want to prove self-confidence, first of all. Because you know, sometimes
staying abroad, you feel alone, is like you want to have your family and everything
here [ … ] joining the beauty contest, I feel like I’m at home. I feel like in my
country when I join the beauty contest.

Registration for Filipino contests in Israel occurs two or three months in

advance, since candidates need enough time to prepare themselves for the
pageant. Candidates need, among other things, to acquire or sew dresses
and elaborate costumes for all the different categories that may include
national attire of the Philippines, evening gown, ethnic tribal attire, casual
 GENDER, PLACE & CULTURE 635

Figure 4. A dress made of newspapers in Miss Ilocandia 2014.

(organized by Samahang Ilocano Kabagis Israel)

and/or sportswear. A very unique category is dresses made of recycled prod-

ucts, such as plastic bags and bottles and beer cans (Figure 4). Some events
may also include other categories, such as talent and photogenic.
The national attire of the Philippines is a category that is always included
in all Filipino beauty contests in Israel. Candidates wear either the Barong, an
embroidered long-sleeved shirt for men, or the Filipiniana, a dress with
butterfly sleeves for women (Figure 5). All these cultural artefacts are
brought to Israel from the Philippines by the migrant workers themselves,
when they come back after vacations in the home country, or are sent to
them by their families back home. For the ethnic tribal attire, Filipinos some-
times bring typical fabrics from their region in the Philippines, as the case of
636 D. BABIS

Figure 5. National attire in Miss Congeniality 2013.

(Organized by FFCI - Federation of Filipino Communities in Israel)

the ethnic attire worn in Miss AIMWI 2014, organized by the Association of
Igorot Migrant Workers in Israel (Figure 6). All the fabrics for this attire were
brought from the mountain region in the North of the Philippines. In some
beauty contests, when the candidates appear on stage, the master of cere-
monies explains the significance of the ethnic attire, bringing not only visual
presentations but also verbal explanations about the culture.
For live-in caregivers, time was emphasized as a crucial factor in the
preparations:
We don’t have time here in Israel. This is the main thing when compared to
(beauty pageants in) the Philippines, because you know, we are the entire week in
our work, so we cannot manage our time from work to this event. It is difficult to
find the costume dresses, it is very hard to find … There is no time to look for it. In
the Philippines, you can go everywhere, and your time is with you. You hold your
time. That’s why I feel that the competition here in Israel is more exciting that in
the Philippines … The lack of time makes it more precious. (Angeline, a female
candidate in her twenties, working in Israel for three years)

Beyond the challenge of time, the acquisition of clothes and the materials
for creating the costumes for all the different categories required consider-
able effort and investment, which could amount to hundreds of dollars. As
one candidate explained to me:
For the Filipiniana [national Filipino dress] category in the beauty contest, I wanted
to wear a new dress that was not seen before here in Israel, so I asked my family
to send me one from the Philippines specially for the night of the pageant [ … ]
 GENDER, PLACE & CULTURE 637

Figure 6. Ethnic attire in Miss AIMWI 2014.

(Organized by AIMWI - Association of Igorot Migrant Workers in Israel)

and for the evening gown category, I paid almost 1000 shekels [$300]. (Cathy, a
female candidate in her thirties, working in Israel for seven years)

The fact that candidates like Cathy are willing to spend huge amounts of
money to participate in the contest, instead of sending this money to their
families back home, is mostly explained by the fact that these beauty con-
tests are a means of collecting for a philanthropic cause. However, from
another perspective, the investment emphasizes how important these beauty
contests are for live-in caregivers, since it enables candidates to be in the
limelight with their own identity, rather than just being identified as a care-
giver to their employer.
Beyond the expense, candidates are required to attend rehearsals during
their day off for 4-5 weeks before coronation night. These rehearsals take
place in the empty corridors of the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv or other
public places such as parking lots, since they are convenient and accessible
free space. During the rehearsals, which last four to six hours, the organizers
bring food and drinks for everyone. They all sit together on the floor, eating
and chatting during the breaks, and remain after the rehearsal is over.
Susanne, a choreographer in her late forties, who had been working in Israel
for more than fifteen years, expressed the unique importance of these
rehearsals for migrant workers:
It’s our chance to be together. It’s better that we are together, see each other, and
then they [the candidates] are happy. Good to see that [ … ]. Here you will have a
lot of friends, and you become confident. In the Philippines it’s not the same,
because every candidate comes and goes home, it’s not like here that when we
638 D. BABIS

see each other, is like we become one group, you know, because here is
more intensive.

Jocel, a woman in her late twenties, working in Israel for three years,
expressed similar sentiments:
I enjoy the rehearsals, especially hearing about other people’s experiences [ … ]
because I work in Rishon LeZion [a city near Tel Aviv], but I don’t know any
Filipinos there. It was important for me to meet new people, because I don’t have
friends here.

Although tensions may exist between the participants, this was not
expressed in the conversations I had with the candidates and the organizers.
Since the aim of these beauty pageants is fundraising, in addition to the
preparations, candidates are expected to sell raffle tickets, usually costing
$1.5 to $4. In some events, those candidates who managed to raise the high-
est amount, receive formal recognition at the coronation ceremony.

The organizers
Beyond the preparations of the candidates, the organizers who are all volun-
teers, invest considerable time and effort in the event for several months
before it takes place. They raise money by contacting sponsors such as
money transfer companies, caregiver agencies, and other Filipino businesses.
Furthermore, they order crowns, trophies and recognition plaques and also
prepare the stage decorations and sashes for all the categories. While some
of them do this during their day off, others buy products for the event on
weekdays, accompanied by their elderly employer:
During the weekdays, I cannot leave my employer alone at home, so I bring her
with me when I go to buy materials to prepare the stage decoration. She is happy
because for her it’s like a daytrip. I work on preparing the stage decorations in the
evenings, while my employer watches TV … And it’s funny, because once the
decorations are ready, my employer invites her neighbours to show them my
creativity {laughs}. (Ann, in her forties, working in Israel for 12 years).

Organizers also have to cope with different challenges that emerge during
the entire process, starting with minor conflicts among themselves, followed
by timetabling of rehearsals. As one organizer said: ‘The time management of
all the candidates for the rehearsals is not easy … [their] job is always more
important … not all candidates manage to attend all the rehearsals … it is a
problem’ (Mirna, 42, working in Israel for 15 years).

The pageant night

The big event is always on a Saturday night, when most Filipinos have their
day off. It usually takes place in a municipal community centre in downtown
 GENDER, PLACE & CULTURE 639

Figure 7. Members of the employer’s family rooting for the candidate at the pageant night.

Tel Aviv or in community halls in other big cities. Candidates come to the
pageant night with big suitcases carrying all the dresses and accessories for
the contest, accompanied by their own team who help them dress for each
category. They also bring Filipino makeup artists and hairdressers who
charge for their services.
The audiences attending the beauty contests are about 200 to 500 people,
made up mainly of Filipina women since they are the majority of the commu-
nity. This Filipino audience is mostly remarkably well dressed. Usually, there are
some Israelis, mostly who are the partners of the Filipina attendees. In some
cases, Filipinos are accompanied by their employers who come along to enjoy
the event. Furthermore, when the caregiver is a candidate, members of her
employer’s family may come to give support and encouragement (Figure 7).
Unlike the master of ceremonies and tabulators, who are always members
of the Filipino community, the judges are frequently Israelis. To recruit Israeli
judges is a challenge for the organizers, but as they explained to me, ‘it is
very important in order to ensure objectivity in the judgement process and
at the same time to expose Filipino culture to Israelis’. Many Israelis who par-
ticipated as judges in the Filipino beauty contests shared with me how
impressed they were with the entire organization and level of the event.
They were surprised to discover the existence of such an organized and tal-
ented community, of which Israeli society is mostly unaware. I remember
640 D. BABIS

when I was present at one event, a young Israeli in his 20’s was by chance in
the community centre where the beauty contest took place and entered the
hall to find out what was going on. I was standing in the entrance and he
approached me, as the only Israeli in the vicinity, to enquire about the event.
Following my explanation, he replied surprised ‘Do you want to tell me that all
these Filipinas (including the audience) are live-in caregivers?!? I can’t believe you,
they don’t look like caregivers … ’. Like this young boy, most Israelis only see
Filipinos when they are with their elderly employers in public spaces; therefore,
we can see in this boy’s response how beauty contests shatter the Filipino-
stereotype in Israeli society. By attending these colourful events, Israelis realise
that Filipino migrant workers are not only live-in caregivers, but also active
and creative members of a vivid community. Through beauty contests, there-
fore, this marginalized and invisible community becomes visible for Israelis.
In the course of the evening, in the intervals when candidates change
dresses for the next category, different members of the community have the
opportunity to display their dancing and singing talents. It is also an oppor-
tunity for Filipinos with photographic talent to display their ability while cov-
ering the entire event. The event usually ends at midnight or even later,
with the crowning of the winners and runners up. By this time the hall has
somewhat emptied out since some of the audience have to return to work
the same evening or early the next morning.
Work not only limits the number of hours Filipinos can spend attending
the beauty pageant, but also can challenge the organizers and be problem-
atic for the candidates. In a beauty contest in 2018, candidate number 6,
among the nine candidates, was missing. I approached one of the organizers
to enquire what happened to the candidate, and she explained:
A few days ago, she called me in desperation and informed me that she would not
participate in the beauty pageant. Her employer told her that this weekend she
would not have a day off because they were going out of town. She didn’t stop
crying … she had been preparing for months … After all our efforts to organize all
the details for the beauty pageant night, at the last moment we have to change
things, because now we have eight candidates instead of nine, so we have to change
the choreographies. It is very disappointing. We are doing our best to sort it out … .

Although on the whole, Filipinos report that their Israeli employers treat
them as ‘a member of the family’, the above case emphasizes the fragile
conditions of the live-in caregivers’ work, which may also affect attendance
of the beauty contests.

The aftermath
Beauty contests do not end on the pageant night but have significant reper-
cussions. Following coronation night, organizers, candidates and audiences
 GENDER, PLACE & CULTURE 641

upload pictures, videos and comments about the event on Facebook, sharing
them not only with the community in Israel, but also with family and friends
back home and around the world. Catherine, a young woman in her twen-
ties who was working in Israel for two years, emphasized this uniqueness:
[ … ] beauty contests in Israel outside your country are a big, you know, a big
experience, because you are outside the country, and especially now that we have
social media, and all over the world they can see you, in the videos, pictures,
and everything.

Another repercussion is the community projects back home in the

Philippines funded by the events in Israel, such as building a school or buy-
ing wheelchairs for the needy. Beth, a woman leader in one of the organiza-
tions who was in her late forties and who had been working in Israel more
than ten years, commented:
We make this pageant every year one or two times, to support children in the
Philippines [ … ] we helped one of the Churches in Mindoro [ … ] we made one
room for a rural elementary school in the Philippines. And this time, we want to
feed children in remote areas in the Philippines, because they are not eating well.

Candidates also emphasized personal repercussions, such as making new

friends in Israel. One of the organizers mentioned attaining popularity in the
community as another important post-pageant repercussion. Finally, partici-
pation in beauty pageants contributes to character building, as Winnelyn, a
woman candidate in her fifties, remarked: ‘Although I did not win the first
prize, I gained self-confidence because I had to stand on the stage in front of
the entire audience’.

Beauty pageants: personal, communal and transnational connections

Diasporic beauty pageants in communities made up of immigrants who are
permanently settled in the host country, either as permanent residents or
citizens, mostly take place once a year among young women from first or
second immigrant generations (Lieu 2000; Mani 2006; Espinosa 2012).
However, among Filipino migrant workers in Israel the variety and frequency
of the pageants is much more prominent. Despite their restricted conditions
as live-in caregivers, Filipinos in Israel produce events that involve not only
the organizers and the candidates, but also the community at large at differ-
ent stages of the process: The call for candidates, rehearsals and prepara-
tions, the pageant night itself, and its aftermath on Facebook and in the
charity projects back home. I propose to explain this phenomenon by a com-
bined analysis at three levels: individual, communal and transnational.
At the individual level, beauty pageants make Filipinos feel they are more
than just caregivers who work 24 hours a day for six days a week in isolated
conditions. Whereas in their jobs their employer and their employer’s body
642 D. BABIS

are the focus (Mazuz 2013a), in beauty pageants it is they themselves and
their own bodies that receive attention. Furthermore, these pageants enable
Filipinos to express and develop other aspects of their lives, particularly their
creativity and varied talents. The beauty pageants also help to reinforce self-
confidence and self-value for all the involved, both on and off stage, allow-
ing them to highlight and hone other skills and identities. The trophies and
plaques of recognition they receive serve this purpose. Similarly, Chen’s
(2015) research about beauty pageants among Filipino migrant workers in
Hong Kong shows that participation in beauty contests fosters a respect-
able identity.
At the communal level, beauty pageants create an opportunity for social
gatherings, which offer entertainment for the community in their leisure
time. They contribute to the reinforcement of a sense of belonging among
Filipino migrant workers, making them feel at home when abroad.
Furthermore, these events empower the members of the community by
means of messages and values conveyed by the organizers, who enable
everyone to become a candidate, regardless of age, gender or physical char-
acteristics. Finally, beauty pageants enable Filipinos to obtain partial recogni-
tion as a community within Israeli society, which mostly views them solely as
caregivers and is unaware of their community life. This recognition occurs
when Israelis attend these events as guests, judges, or sponsors. Beauty con-
tests offer a way of sharing aspects of the Filipino culture with a small part
of Israeli society. Given that participants have live-in jobs in which they
experience isolation and depression (Ayalon and Shiovitz-Ezra 2010; Ayalon
2012; Mazuz 2013b), beauty contests are essential for their sense
of belonging.
At the transnational level, beauty contests in Israel enable migrant workers
to preserve and develop ties with their home country as a community,
beyond the individual ties each of them has with family and friends back
home. This is manifested through the preservation of Filipino culture by
means of national and ethnic costumes brought from the Philippines, music
and dances. Through fundraising for the promotion of social, educational
and health programs back home, beauty pageants also facilitate the devel-
opment of transnational engagement through diaspora philanthropy
(Opiniano 2005; Lacroix 2014; Espinosa 2012, 2016).
I claim that the uniqueness of beauty contests among temporary Filipino
migrant workers in Israel is their inclusive effect, as expressed in each of the
levels analyzed above. At the international level, the inclusion in the home
country by means of the charity projects resulting from the pageants. At the
community level, the partial inclusion in Israel as a community, as it is per-
ceived by Israeli judges, partners and employers’ families who attend these
events. And at the individual level, this inclusivity is indeed lacking in
 GENDER, PLACE & CULTURE 643

traditional beauty contests, which mostly construct an ideal of gendered

beauty from which the majority of the population is excluded (Wolf 1991;
Faludi 1992; Lieu 2000; Banet-Weiser 1999; Banet-Weiser and Portwood-
Stacer 2006; Battistoni 2013). Beauty contests held in the Filipino community
in Israel offer every migrant worker the opportunity to participate. These
pageants become a platform for social inclusion where Filipinos can express
themselves and develop their personal and communal skills, allowing live-in
caregivers to become visible and respectable. This social inclusion is also, at
another level, a response to the formal exclusion migrant workers experience
as a non-citizen community in a foreign country.

Conclusion
Beauty contests are a controversial issue particularly for feminist scholars.
The protest of women against the Miss America Pageant in 1968 was consid-
ered to be the first large-scale event of the women’s liberation movement in
the United States. The protesters vehemently disapproved of the pageant as
a means of fighting women’s oppression (Crawford et al. 2008; Blair 2019).
This milestone located beauty pageants as a symbol of anti-feminism.
Feminist scholarship has mainly focused on the social forms that have cre-
ated and supported gender inequality, gender oppression, exploitation, sex-
ual objectification, victimization and commodification that are manifested in
beauty contests (Wolf 1991; Faludi 1992; Rubinstein and Caballero 2000;
Akena 2020). Banet-Weiser (1999) claims that this critique against beauty
contests has probably discouraged exploration of other meanings of beauty
pageants from feminist perspectives. Furthermore, feminists have been
criticized for not considering pageant candidates as agents and at the same
time for turning them into victims against their will (Dow 2003).
Later studies have shed light on the constructive aspects of beauty pag-
eants for women as an empowerment process: as a tool for women’s liber-
ation and a venue for constructing liberal identity (Shissler 2004; Banet-
Weiser and Portwood-Stacer 2006); as a way to restore the self and support-
ing a positive reintegration process for landmine survivors (Bloul 2012); as a
way to promote women as active members (Blair 2019); and as an opportun-
ity for education and career upward mobility (Srivastava 2020). The findings
of this study contribute to this stream of literature by shedding light on the
empowering aspects of beauty contests as a platform for social inclusion,
not only for the candidates, but also for a marginalized community of iso-
lated migrant workers in a foreign country.
For future research, it would be interesting to explore the experiences of
migrant worker candidates in diasporic beauty pageants in various host
countries by gender, age and period working abroad. These should also
644 D. BABIS

further explore the leisure activities of different communities of migrant

workers, an ever-growing global population, who are mostly perceived in the
host countries only as workers without personal needs.

Notes
1. According to Amendment No. 32 to the Entry into Israel Law, 2018, migrant workers
whose employer passed away up to 13 years after their arrival in Israel are allowed to
take on a new employer whose poor health condition prevents them from finding a
regular caregiver.
2. Israel, like many other countries, has an immigration policy that does not offer a path
to citizenship or permanent residency for temporary migrant workers. However, there
have been two paths through which Filipinos can obtain residency or citizenship in
Israel: marrying an Israeli citizen or permanent resident, and benefitting from
unprecedented ad-hoc resolutions in 2005 and 2010, which granted permanent
residency to migrant worker children and their parents living within Israel (Kemp
2007; Babis, Lifszyc-Friedlander, and Sabar 2018).

Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the Filipino community in Israel for sharing their experiences with
me. Special thanks to Boyet Dalisay, who opened the doors of his community to me. I
would also like to thank Dr. Susan Schneider, Dr. Shani Kuna, Prof. Kanchana Ruwanpura
and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

Notes on contributor
Deby Babis is a sociologist and anthropologist specializing in ethnic communities, migra-
tion, and voluntary organizations. Her current study focuses on various aspects of the
Filipino migrant worker community in Israel.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID
Deby Babis http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6644-696X

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