Here to Stay tells a timely story about the human side of labour migration into Ireland. Shot in observational and interactive style, the filmmakers follow Filipino nurse, Fidel Taguinod, over a two-year period wherein he flowingly enacts the roles of nurse, migrant activist and bakla (gay) performer. Fidel leads the viewer through a series of migrant-led events, which together illustrate the political mobilization of overseas nurses and how trade unionism develops in a rapidly expanding multiracial Irish society. Through a sustained period of observational filming on the hospital ward, the film depicts Fidel’s managerial competence, his working relations with patients, consultants, Irish and overseas nursing staff. Fidel’s world outside the hospital environment, his social positioning in the Filipino community, alongside his domestic life in Laytown where he lives with his Irish partner, is further explored, as is the negotiation of his gay identity in public performances such as ‘Miss Alternative Philippines’ and ‘Diva Manila’, in which he playfully mixes gay politics with migrant and multicultural issues.

The directors will attend the screening.