Gender Dimensions
In the current trend of migration, we can not deny the great difference between the ratio of male and female migrants. More than 50 percent of our migrants are women.
Issues on gender dimensions were discussed with Ms. Edna Aquino as the workshop group’s resource person.
Problems
One issue that must be addressed is gender based violence. There are three phases of migration: pre-departure, post-departure and reintegration. It was stated that women are the most vulnerable to violence and some may even experience sexual abuse even during the recruitment phase.
Health vulnerabilities were also mentioned. No one is taking care of the migrant workers’ health especially in terms of reproductive health and HIV/AIDS.
The third problem discussed is family-related issues. As a result of migration, shifting of roles in the family occurs. With the increasing number of women leaving for abroad, husbands are not prepared to take on the nurturing role in the family; however, they have to shoulder this responsibility as the one left behind. Children’s attitude towards migration work was also mentioned in the workshop. While some children aspire to follow in their parents’ overseas employment experience and become 2nd generation OFWs, there are cases where children are forced to become OFWs themselves because of squandered or lost savings from parents’ overseas earnings.
Lack of legal protection among women migrant workers especially as domestic workers and entertainers arises due to the governments’ lack of adequate monitoring mechanisms or system of monitoring women workers. Then again, it must also be noted that due to the nature of the work of domestic workers, it is virtually impossible to monitor them.
In addition, there is also no reconciliation between the standards of protection in the sending and receiving countries even though the existing national laws (e.g., rights of local domestic workers) are being used as leverage for demanding similar rights for our domestic workers sent overseas.
Lastly, the deregulation of the migration industry was discussed. Abusive recruitment policies of private recruiters are recognized; however, there are limited steps made to control this. Even POEA’s role in labor migration with regard to its regulatory functions has lapses.
Good Practices
With all the problems presented, we must not overlook the existing good practices such as that of unionization of Filipino migrant workers in the UK and Hong Kong. These unions become support groups that aim to provide assistance to their countrymen. Community-based utilization of existing technologies helps facilitate the communication of migrant workers and their families. This helps migrants keep that connection with their loved ones in the Philippines. The community-based PDOS that includes families of migrant workers is also a good practice as it helps the migrant and his/her family prepare for the costs of migration that the family may experience.
Recommendations
By the end of the workshop several recommendations were formulated.
It was suggested to address the so-called “limbo” or gray area in migration specifically the mail-order brides, overseas performing artists (OPAs), domestic workers and recruitment agencies.
The second recommendation of the group was to promote more intensive information, education and communication on migration realities, gender and health issues and migrants’ rights addressed to migrant workers and their families through community-based PDOS for migration workers’ families and community-based opportunities for visual communication; government personnel, through its revival of gender mainstreaming especially to those sent to our embassies abroad; and to unions and other migrant support institutions.
Another recommendation from the workshop is the encouragement of research and documentation activities or initiatives. Systematic documentation of violations among embassies and among advocacy groups using methodologies that could stand scrutiny by the law as well as documentation of good practices in the area of migration-related work was mentioned. |
