Shedding light on hidden Filipino occupations as portrayed by mass media and scholarly resources: A critical interpretive synthesis

Portrayal of human doings in popular media has illuminated the social realities of Filipinos’ hidden occupations, presented from an outsider lens reinforced by journalistic biases, as health-compromising, illicit, and socially or personally undesirable. Depiction of hidden occupations becomes ambiguous when the intentions are to entertain, persuade, and monetize. This paper describes the depiction and meanings attached to Filipino hidden occupations featured in popular media and scholarly articles. Utilizing the critical interpretive synthesis (CIS) methodology, we analyzed more than 70 published resources featuring hidden occupations performed by Filipinos. We started with an iterative process of reading and viewing extracted resources, followed by writing reflective comments and online exchanges among the authors. Our findings revealed four emergent themes: (1) insider and outsider lens, (2) lack of choice and power of choice, (3) order amidst chaos, and (4) the nexus between context and hidden occupations. Our interpretation revealed that these hidden occupations occurred within cultural contexts where power dynamics, agency, and survival mattered more than improving health and well-being. We propose these contextual doings are underpinned by feelings of suffering (paghihirap), sense of propriety (hiya), and sense of community (pakikipagkapwa), thus advancing understandings of the unique meanings occupations may hold and reinforcing the need to move forward with the goal of understanding various occupations in a culturally specific and sensitive manner to advance occupational science.