Offshore Identities: Ruptures in the 300-Second Average Handling Time

With 400,000 call center agents, the Philippines has outpaced India in growth and number for voice operations. The offshore agent as a liminal figure simulates being in synch as a sonic presence with corporate global time at night while living bodily in Philippine national time. The offshore identity emerges from temporal, rather than spatial, migration into the global simultaneity of times as well as global and national contestation over her representation. Philippine corporate lobbyists offer the call-center industry as the solution to national economic woes and to the mass outmigration of educated working populations while still servicing the global economy. The Philippine corporate visualization of the offshore inhabitant and identity signals the multiple textures of the archipelagic space and typologies of belonging as informed not only by the island but also in conjunction with reimagining and reorienting shore, offshore, global circuits, currents, histories, and class fantasies.