The Experience of Filipino Migrants in Europe
The propagandists and implementors of imperialist globalization have promised the world a paradise. But, it is a short-term paradise and is only for the handful monopoly capitalists and their political representatives.
For the rest of humanity, imperialist globalization has meant hell — the loss of jobs, homes, communities, livelihood, poverty, starvation and crises.
What we see now is the more rapacious, greedier, more exploitative and oppressive political, economic and social world order that has brought forth violent social tensions, conflicts and wars, since the end of the last capitalist world war.
This imperialist scheme has attacked the rights and conditions of the working class, and peoples all over the world, manifested in massive unemployment, landlessness, destruction of social welfare, greater poverty and underdevelopment.
Amidst all these, imperialist globalization has proposed a scheme to “open” national borders, so that capital and goods could freely circulate. Yet, while bullying neocolonial countries to open its resources, markets and people for further imperialist exploitation and plunder, imperialist countries have been viciously guarding their own borders and territories, and preventing the marginalized classes and populations, peoples of color, and migrant workers from entering their fortresses.
The situation and experiences of migrants and migrant workers are, perhaps, among the glaring examples of how imperialist globalization has sown further exploitation, oppression, dislocation and persecution, contrary to its vision of a global capitalist utopia.
The experiences and conditions of Filipino migrants, in particular, would clearly explain the simple dynamics of a seemingly complex situation.
At the outset, allow us to state that the roots of outmigration in the Philippines can be traced to the political, economic and social character of Philippine society, which is neocolonial, export-oriented, and import-dependent. This character has, for decades, since its formal declaration of independence from US colonial rule, spawned continuing economic and social underdevelopment, political corruption, agricultural backwardness, massive poverty and unemployment.
Thus, it is our view that conditions overseas that supposedly attract Filipino migrants are merely secondary, or are not the principal factors in this massive Diaspora we are witnessing today. And in relation with this view, we think that the solution(s) to this outmigration of Filipinos abroad lies within the Philippines. This is the reason why the demand that genuine national industrialization, freedom from foreign domination and economic control by western big businesses, genuine land reform and lasting peace are essential issues in resolving the phenomenon of migration.
We would like to clarify, however, that migration per se is not a problem. Migration is a right of peoples of all nations: the right of abode and the right to choose where to live and work. However, it becomes a problem when the choice is a forced one, when people are left with no options but to live and work elsewhere because there are no adequate opportunities to live decently and humanely, and they are trafficked. The history of Philippine migration to other countries from the first wave to the present is clear proof of this.
This forced migration is actually commodification of labor. Humans and their labour are treated as commodities or products to be bought, sold and exchanged at the whims of the ruling class. There is a dialectical relationship between the desire of migrant workers to escape the grinding poverty back home and find better work abroad, on the one hand, and the greed of capitalists to gain more profits from cheap labor of migrants that can even forcibly depress local high wages and destroy the trade union and workers´ movement in the capitalist countries, on the other.
When the Marcos dictatorship unofficially instituted the scheme to export Filipino labor, it was a de facto admission that it is incapable of, or to put it bluntly, not interested in, liberating the Philippines from underdevelopment, poverty and backwardness. Since then, the labor export policy (LEP) has been put into use to achieve the political, economic and social objectives of the status quo. The political objective of the LEP is to destroy the militant people´s movement by pre-empting the potential development of a political movement among the large number of the unemployed labor force. The economic objective of the LEP is to generate foreign exchange to catch up with the perennial imbalance in trade, and to “oil” the corrupt political bureaucracy. The social objective of the LEP is to destroy the cohesiveness of the Filipino family and develop a class of Filipinos who are forever dependent on foreign employment in order to survive.
According to the very recent figures of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), a government agency tasked with sending Filipino labor overseas, there were 230,310 Filipinos deployed overseas from January of this year, a 0.83% increase from the January to March 1999 figures. This means there were 2,531 Filipinos who left the country EVERYDAY since January, in search of a better life abroad.
Here in Europe, there were 11,077 Filipino workers who were deployed since January of this year, representing a 35.27% increase compared with the figures in the same period last year, which were 8,189 Filipino workers. These figures did not include the number of Filipinos who went through the backdoor to secure employment abroad. These figures add up to the number of Filipinos who live and work overseas, estimated at about 7.4 million Filipinos or about 10% of the Philippine population. They are spread out in 189 countries. Fifty percent of Filipino migrants are women, which means that of the 2,000 Filipinos who leave everyday to work abroad, 1,000 are Filipino women.
We can tell you endless stories of how Filipino migrants have entered Europe, the insurmountable risks they have to endure because the borders have been closed to them, so to speak. Many have entered legally, but countless also have risked even their own lives, in order to enter fortress Europe and find employment.
Perhaps, the more recent incident such as those involving the death of 68 Chinese migrants inside a cargo truck bound for Britain, and many other less publicized incidents, should remind us not only of the desperation of migrants wanting to enter Europe, but also of the inhumanity of the invincible walls that fortifies Europe.
Filipinos in Europe are fast becoming numerous, estimated at more than half a million (from unofficial accounts), 85% of which are women. They work as domestic helpers, health aides, au pairs and nurses. Men work mainly as seafarers. Only a few work as professionals or office-based. Some have been lured into the entertainment industry. They are concentrated in Italy, Spain, Britain, Greece, Germany, France, Belgium, Austria and the Netherlands.
They have come a long way since the first wave of Filipino migrants entered Europe in the early 60s as tourists, students, factory workers and hospital staff.
An overwhelming majority of the estimated 425,000 Filipino women in Europe work as domestic helpers. The reality of their working and living conditions is not yet known to the European public. They are faced with many problems ranging from long working hours, low wages, contract violations, de-skilling, isolation, culture shock, loneliness, diminished self-esteem, work stress, lack of opportunities for a meaningful career and other psycho-social problems. In sum, Filipino migrants endure jobs which the locals would not do anymore, because not only are these low-paying and back-breaking, but also because they are dirty and dangerous.
This is one of the basic counter-arguments that migrants have in answering the accusation that they have been taking away jobs from the locals. Besides, why blame migrants for the lack of jobs and the massive unemployment even in western capitalist countries, when these are the inherent sins of capitalism and imperialism?
The issue of legalization and lack of proper documentation is also an important issue among a significant number of Filipinos in Europe. The undocumented constitutes the most vulnerable portion of overseas Filipinos in Europe. The recent ratification of more anti-migrant laws, like the Koppelingswet in the Netherlands, the Dini Bill in Italy and similar laws in Germany and the rest of Europe, has deprived them of their civil, social and economic rights …— to work, to avail of medical insurance, to the education of their children, to housing …— depriving them of the basic enjoyment of democracy and freedom that the West has given so much lip-service to.
Furthermore, they are confronted with the daily realities of the manifestations of racism and discrimination – in the communities, in the workplaces, on the streets, in the markets, in restaurants and cafes, and in government offices. They range from the mild to the extreme, from subtle to overt expressions. Some local people proclaim their respect for other people´s culture but only for as long as it is tucked away from their sight. Filipino migrants have experienced verbal harassment on the streets by natives of host countries, shouting remarks accusing them of taking jobs away from the local people. They get to be served last and badly in restaurants and shops. Skilled and qualified people are discriminated on the basis of the foreign sounding names they carry.
Thus, we in the progressive movement of Filipinos overseas, see the importance of arousing, organizing and mobilizing Filipino migrants, not only for the defense and protection of their rights and welfare, but also and more importantly, for the struggle back home for genuine freedom, democracy, peace and development, and against imperialism and fascism.
It is also of utmost importance that our friends abroad — from the progressive organizations, agencies and political parties, to working class and proletarian parties — should give greater attention and work among the various migrant nationalities in their countries. From a broader perspective of proletarian internationalism, migrants are also working class peoples. Their consciousness and conditions have been “proletarianized” by the exploitation, oppression and persecution by imperialism. Their class interests are not different from the class interests of the working class in the host countries. Both are exploited and oppressed by the capitalist bourgeoisie in varying degrees. They should be organized and educated, and made to understand that imperialism and their chief political representatives are the real enemies of the working peoples. They should be made aware that racial issues are political instruments of imperialism to distract the working class from pursuing genuine political and social transformation and revolution.
And as far as the Philippine revolutionary movement is concerned, it encourages fraternal proletarian parties and organizations, to recruit among its ranks, Filipino migrants, to arouse, organize and mobilize them in the struggle in the host country. Indeed, class struggle knows no national borders, color and race. Isn´t that the essence of genuine proletarian internationalism?
Thank you and a very enlightening day to everyone!
(Paper presented by MIGRANTE Europe and BAYAN International-Europe at the Anti-Imperialist Summer Camp in Assisi, Italy, July 29 – August 5, 2001)
