Raciolinguistic Disposability: The Experience of Filipino Teachers in China Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

In July 2021, the Chinese government suddenly issued new rules to restrict private tutoring services and limit foreign investments in privately owned learning centres. This hasty policy rehaul stunned the growing community of Filipinos in the English Language Training (ELT) industry in China, as it undermined the landmark 2018 China–Philippines diplomatic agreement concerning the recruitment of Filipino teachers to China. My research on Filipino teachers in China in the pre-COVID-19 era highlights the uneven power dynamic in Asia and the global hierarchies in the education and language industries that shape and undo labour markets. My data exposes the precarity and disposability that labour migrants in the ELT industry face within conditions shaped by global hegemonies that are racial and linguistic. The experience of displacement of Filipino teachers in the ELT industry in China leads me to argue that this industry produces a condition of ‘raciolinguistic disposability’ affecting Filipino English teachers.