This paper is inspired by the developments in student voice and migration studies. Migration scholarship claims that children’s voices in decision-making processes of transnational families are often relegated to a secondary status (de los Reyes, 2020; Lam & Yeoh, 2019ab). Ironically, when adult-driven migration projects fail, children are forced to become adults (de los Reyes, 2020) and help in meeting their family’s economic needs through the gig economy. In the Philippines, these contradictions result to strained family relationships, lack of co-ownership of decisions, and lower academic resilience among left-behind children (henceforth, LBCs) (ECMI/AOS-Manila et al., 2004; Carandang et al., 2007, in Asis & Marave, 2013). In student voice research, ‘voice’ is considered as a myriad of learners’ ways, whether verbal or non-verbal, of expressing their views and participation in dialogue, and in examining and providing solutions to issues that matter to them (Messiou, 2018; Fielding & McGregor, 2005; Cook-Sather, 2005). At the same time, the field of student voice research also considers voice as ‘dynamic and contextual’ (Messiou, 2023) which directs attention to the need to generate cultural accounts of thinking about and practicing ‘voice’, especially from non-western, and in the Global South. Mobilising these developments in understanding ‘voice’ among families, this study asks the question, “what counts as ‘voice’ of children when families decide about migration and education of left-behind children?” Addressing this question is important because if opens up spaces for new thinking and ‘doing’ voice that takes into account various contexts where interaction among stakeholders happen. For example, what do migrant mothers from developing Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines consider as expression of their children’s voice or as ways of listening to them? At the same time, what do left-behind children think as genuine expression of their voice and well-meaning ways of including them in family decision-making? By looking at conceptualisations and practices of ‘voice’ from the perspective of Filipina migrant mothers and their left-behind children, cultural and intergenerational perspectives on voice is offered. To respond to the core and sub-questions above, this paper will use data from interviews with (1) 40 migrant Filipinas working as domestic workers in Hong Kong and Singapore, and as nursing professionals in the United Kingdom and Australia; and (2) 40 left-behind children (12-18 years old) based in the Philippines.

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