Migrants: Transnational Actors in Peace and Development
(OFWs as Partners in Nation Building - Europe)
Fe Jusay
Commission for Filipino Migrant Workers - Netherlands
Introduction
Warm greetings! It is a privilege to be here with you for this Conference: “Shaping the Future of Filipino Labor Migration” - OFWs as Partners in Nation Building. Thanks to the Philippine Migrant Rights Watch (PMRW) and the co-organizers who have initiated this Conference. I come to join you here from the Netherlands and bring solidarity and greetings from the Commission for Filipino Migrant Workers (CFMW) for the success of the Conference.
As an OF organization and network in Europe, CFMW is actively committed to the theme of the Conference “Shaping the Future of Filipino Labor Migration” - OFWs as Partners in Nation Building. We believe that a people-centered, equitable development should be at the core of Nation Building – providing sustainable livelihoods for all our people. That is why I am presenting my paper with the title “Migrants: Transnational Actors in Peace and Deve-lopment.”
The fact that successive Philippine governments have pursued the path of a neo-liberal economic model dictated by IMF, World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO) continues to drive our people into deeper poverty and ecological crisis as was shown through media in the recent floods and mudslides. Elsewhere in the Philippines, lack of peace in war-torn Mindanao derails any significant possibility for development. It was these factors that forced me to become a refugee and leave Mindanao in the period of the Marcos dictatorship and to try and settle in Europe. It is these factors of failed development, ecological disaster and lack of peace which impel the thousands who are everyday forced to become migrants in countries all over the world.
Additionally, my work with migrants in the Netherlands underlines the connections between migration, peace and development. Migrants from the Philippines, as well as from so many other countries around the world are often pushed to seek the path of migration because of ongoing conflicts, war and impoverishment, factors that prevent development and contribute to unemployment and poverty. However when we become migrants or refugees, we carry our responsibilities and dreams for an alternative development and nation building with us. While working and living in different corners of the world, our arena becomes a wider world, but the Philippines remains at the heart of it. As transnational actors, we act for peace and development both in Europe (or wherever we find ourselves) as well as for peace and development in the Philippines.
Our Working Context
Briefly, I would like to indicate the context in which CFMW as an organization and network undertakes its work in Europe. In partnership with Filipino Organizations in Europe, we are committed to migrant empowerment through self-organization, education and campaigns for migrant rights and welfare, and in solidarity with migrants of other nationalities against racism and all forms of discrimination.
Our work is undertaken in the context of:
• Globalization and labor migration where a corporate driven economic model has intensified labor immigration both within countries as well as across international borders;
• The “North South divide” in terms of intensification of poverty & the marginalization of developing economies of the South
• Fortress Europe where there is increasing racism and xenophobia and a repressive immigration policy regime which scarcely acknowledges the economic, political and cultural contribution we make to the development of Europe;
• Double standards vis a vis labor migration – while studies identify Europe’s need for migrant labor in certain sectors (e.g., Information Technology, Health care and domestic work in the private home), there is however denial of immigration and labor rights;
• Since 9/11, the political environment for migrant work has become more difficult. The US led ‘war against terrorism’ has severely restricted civil liberties and human rights and has led to migrant scapegoating and stereotyping.
Who We Are as Migrants in Europe?
Migration from the Philippines to Europe dates back for about 30 years. We now number more than 700,000 (close to ¾ of a million dispersed in all countries in Europe – with major concentrations in Italy, Greece, Spain and Britain. The majority of Filipino migrants in Europe are women, an estimated 80 percent. As Filipino migrants in Europe, we work as nurses, health workers and care workers in hospitals, senior citizen homes and also in hotels and the catering industry. However very large numbers of Filipina migrants are employed as domestic workers in private households – since this remains a main area of employment, besides prostitution, open to migrant women from the Third World. Although increasingly, Filipino migrant men are also working in this sector.
Besides the land based Filipinos, an estimated 300,000 Filipino seafarers, representing 20 percent of total world seafarers are mainly employed on European owned international ships. Significant numbers dock daily in European ports and many seafarers and their families have settled in Rotterdam and other port cities in Europe. Filipinos (men & women) are employed on the offshore Oil Platforms around Europe’s coastline.
In Europe, we also see ourselves as part of the 16 million migrant, immigrant and refugee community coming form other parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America and Eastern Europe. This is a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religious community and together we campaign for our rights as migrants and workers and against racism.
Development Crisis and Out Migration in the Philippines
The current corporate driven neo-liberal economic model is generating multiple crises in the South, including the Philippines. Various analyses of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s (GMA) years in office show the serious problem of an ever-widening gap of social inequality and increasing mass poverty. According to Walden Bello our government has failed to develop a program, which would stimulate domestic demand via income and asset redistribution, increased social expenditure and more aggressive taxations of the rich. Wigberto E. Tanada further explains how this economic policy is impacting on families: “more than 80 percent of the national income goes to just half of the total Filipino families…the rest belong to the “other” Philippines…who according to the official census are now 31 million Filipinos, up from 27 million in 1997. More than two thirds of them live in the rural areas…none of them have sufficient income to afford even life’s necessities.”
These factors impact on the daily life of our families: on livelihood and employment; access to land and food sovereignty; security and peace; well-being and health for our children and educational opportunities for our youth. These are among the most frequently mentioned reasons for migration which I hear in my daily interaction with OF migrants.
Globalization – Restructuring the Labor Market in Europe
Europe is also experiencing big transformations under the impact of economic globalization. Economic considerations are demanding that family households be supported by two wage-earning adults resulting in increased numbers of European women working outside the home. Meanwhile, the welfare state is being eroded and there are significant cutbacks in health care especially for the elderly as well as lack of provision for adequate childcare in a context where traditional family structures are changing rapidly.
The consequent re-structuring of the labor market in Europe affects all sectors of society and is also re-shaping the patterns of migration. In this paper I can only refer briefly to the impact of this re-structuring on the increasing demand for workers in private households either as ‘live-in’ or ‘live-out’ to work with the old and the very young. More and more families in Europe employ migrant domestic workers as care givers, cleaners, cooks, housekeepers, gardeners and drivers. Much of this demand is filled by migrant women from the South (Asia, Africa, Latin America and from former Eastern Europe). This is also the area of major employment for OFWs in Europe.
However, there is no official recognition of this work in the private household as proper work or as a category for immigration. In these conditions, migrants become vulnerable to abuse of their rights. Therefore many OFWs working in the private household are denied their basic human rights and are frequently forced to become undocumented/walang papel. One of CFMW’s priority campaigns undertaken together with the RESPECT network in Europe is for the recognition of the rights of migrant domestic workers - and the demands of the campaign are presented in an Open Letter to President Macapagal Arroyo marking Migrant Rights Day December 18, 2004.
Migrants as Stakeholders for Peace and Development
As migrants we always see ourselves as having dual responsibilities. On the one hand we work and live in Europe and while we continue to struggle for our rights, particularly the rights of the undocumented, we contribute to the economy, enrich the society with our culture and our vision, and raise our children and youth to engage with the country they live in as well as with the Philippines.
At the same time, we constantly sustain our responsibilities for the well-being of our families in the Philippines but not only of our families but also for the communities where they live. We know that a Philippines that remains impoverished and militarized does not achieve lasting peace and will continue to rely on migration as a major outlet for unemployment and for migrant remittances which keep the Philippine economy afloat.
In 1997, CFMW and Kasapi, a migrant organization in Greece, co-convened a Europe wide Conference which brought together Filipino migrants from all over Europe and where we drew up a Migrant Agenda4 outlining a more long term strategy on our social, political and economic role as migrants and set up the Platform of Filipino Organizations in Europe (Platform).
The Migrant Agenda “highlighted our vision and responsibility and struggle for participative and people centered development in Europe and in the Philippines” and this has been concretized in the Platform activities and campaigns over the last several years. This has been concretized in several initiatives of migrant empowerment in Europe: developing day care centers for our migrant children; Summer camps for our teen-age youth; savings circles and co-operatives; regularization campaigns for the inclusion of the rights of the undocumented; linking with migrants of other nationalities in campaigns against racism, validation in Europe of our qualification degrees and professional training as well as strengthening the international human rights regime.
In relation to the Philippine government, we have also campaigned with other global regions and with organizations here in the Philippines and have won the right to Overseas Voting and to Dual Citizenship. We have also participated in the development of the Global Advocacy delegation which has engaged the Philippine President, the House of Representatives and Senate on the substantive issues of our migrant Agenda.
We believe that through these initiatives we have been able to open a new chapter on the role of migrants and to challenge the Philippine government in its responsibility for its citizens abroad and enhancing the democratic space in the Philippine political process.
Of course this is only a beginning but as migrants we want to engage in a dynamic interaction with people’s organizations (POs) and NGOs here in the Philippines, not only in strengthening the policy dialogue on migrant rights and migrants role in Philippine nation building. We want to assert that we as migrants are stakeholders in renewing the debate and future direction of Philippine nation building.
Migrants – Acting for Peace & Development
As migrants we see ourselves as transnational social actors engaged in contributing to an integrated development strategy in the Philippines and in Europe in which we can actively participate. In November 2003, OF organizations meeting in Amsterdam drew up a Declaration on a Migrant Economic Development Agenda5 in which “we affirm that all Filipino migrant economic development initiatives should lead towards a sustainable development that is rights-based, people-centered and empowering.”
For many years, the migrant contribution to the Philippine economy has been acknowledged and is now estimated to contribute a total of US$8 billion dollars a year to the economy through official banking channels. Another estimated US$8 billion is remitted through informal channels. These significant individual migrant remittances are productive both structurally to the Philippine economy, but also in addressing the health and education needs of our families. Migrant workers have established themselves as a potent force for economic and social development and this is increasingly recognized by governments, by the International and regional Financial Institutions (World Bank, ADB etc.) as well as by the media.6 On the other hand, this recent attention of IFIs on remittances is worrisome since we believe that the maximization of remittances needs to be driven by migrant self-organizations in the context of a renewed vision for alternative development in the Philippines.
Besides, as migrants we want to go beyond the “remittance only type” of contribution to nation building. Like the majority of people here in the Philippines, we want to see our country transformed into a productive economy. We want to join our efforts to all those who work for a sustainable development paradigm which substantively tackles poverty, unemployment, land re-distribution, peace-building with justice and ecological sustainability. In order to contribute to this, our migrant strategy seeks to:
• join our migrant efforts to those people’s organizations, social movements and NGOs in the Philippines who are striving for an alternative, democratic and people- centered model of development which places peace and human security as the highest priority and pre-requisite for development;
• strengthen our role as transnational actors and take initiatives to challenge European governments for a coherent and just development policy towards the South and the Philippines and for the cancellation of the foreign debt;
• develop within the migrant community in Europe micro-economic initiatives which will also contribute to community based development in the Philippines, seeking to strengthen family and community based efforts towards productive livelihood projects; and
• link our migrant solidarity initiatives to migrants and refugees of other nationalities and to the civil society organizations in Europe towards equal rights in a multicultural Europe.
So from our perspective as migrants in Europe, we will continue our responsibility to participate in the actualization of an alternative paradigm of development in the Philippines, in Europe and globally.
Therefore we hope that this Conference will enhance the dialogue between OF migrants and our counterparts - People’s Organizations, NGOs and our families here in the Philippines. Together we can make a difference, not only in articulating an alternative paradigm for nation building but in laying the building blocks for a future development where our children can have the option to work and earn a decent livelihood inside our own country.
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