When the Only Option is Migration
by Cynthia Ca Abdon-Tellez

(This article was written for the Mission for Filipino Migrant Workers (MFMW) publication, Migrant Focus Magazine, Issue 1).

It is Christmas or graduation time. A plane approaches the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila. The plane is full of passengers coming from different parts of the world. Suddenly, almost all the passengers simultaneously clap their hands and shout "At last, the Philippines. MABUHAY! (Long Live!)".
No wonder, almost all the passengers are Filipino migrant workers, longing to be home, longing to be with their loved ones on Christmas time or on graduation day. They want to be with their siblings or children when they receive their diploma. Big luggage, carton boxes and striped bags queue at the customs area full of presents for their family. The waiting area is fully packed with people eagerly waiting for their migrant loved ones to come out. A happy time for them!
But beneath the laughter and happiness, loneliness creeps in for they know that it is only for a short period of time, just temporary. But they don't want their families to notice it. As one migrant worker said, when they arrive, one week is spent in winning over their small siblings or children. However, this closeness and affection is abruptly cut because vacation time is over. One wonders why they have to leave their families back home to work abroad. One may ask, is it worth the sacrifice? Or one may say it is actually a forced sacrifice.
Migrant workers themselves can aptly articulate the reason for the "forced sacrifice" in today's migration. A 50 year old mother working as a domestic helper related with joy her accomplishment in life. Her daughter finally graduated in college. Her sacrifices of being separated from her family for years finally paid off. But when she was asked on her daughter's plan, she said that she was already processing a contract for her to work in Hong Kong as a domestic helper because her daughter cannot find a decent job in the Philippines.
A group of migrant workers, on a Sunday day off were chatting when a fellow migrant passed by. One of the woman migrant in the group called the passers by "'M'am, how are you? When did you arrive?" The newly arrived migrant said, "Don't call me M'am anymore because we're both domestic helpers now." Furthermore, she explained that she has to give up teaching because her children are growing up and they can't afford their schooling anymore with the meager income of public school teachers in the Philippines. How much more for a worker and a poor peasant who are earning way below the minimum wage pegged by the government?
Now they are part of the 160,000 domestic helpers in Hong Kong and they come from all walks of life.
Many still don't understand the contemporary migration of people in its whole context. Some are even saying that they are not the poorest of the poor thus, why much attention should be given to them. They failed to understand that this massive forced migration is a reflection of the real conditions in the poor sending countries like the Philippines.

The root causes of forced migration in the Philippine context

The Philippines is still and ever backward, agricultural and has no basic industry to speak of. The development program of the government even dislocates the predominantly peasant population in the countryside. In fact, the people can say that the development program is only meant for the enrichment of those few people who already have plenty in life. There are not so few that were driven out to pave the way for foreign investments such as mining. Even the land frontier has been exhausted. Land is being converted to golf courses, subdivisions, industrial estates, cash crops and other ventures of the big landowners. Even mining industries and other agricultural businesses mechanized their production that resulted to massive unemployment. The rural folk in order to survive chose to migrate in the main cities to look for jobs.
Unfortunately, there are no basic industries to absorb the multitude of the unemployed rural folk. They became part of the statistics of the ever increasing rate of unemployment and underemployment in the big cities. Or even if they find a job, the salary would definitely be way below the poverty line set by the government.
Finally, for the sake of their families, they entertain the idea of going abroad to work for a living. They mortgage whatever is left of them or became "willing victims" of loan sharks to pay the enormous amount demanded of them by private recruitment agencies, government fees and other expenses in processing their employment contract to work abroad.
Attendant to the increasing number of people going abroad to work is the increasing amount of remittances to their families. On the average, Filipinos working abroad remit an amount of US$ 4 to 7 billion annually. This did not escape the attention of the government. In the desire to corner this huge amount of US dollars, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos,, came out with an Executive Order 857 making it mandatory for all overseas Filipinos to remit 50% to 70% of their monthly income through government authorized channel, i.e. Philippine banks. Penalties are imposed on those who failed to comply with the said Order by not processing new contracts or non renewal of passport. But because of the strong protest of migrant workers, the penalty clause in the said Order was removed but not the Executive Order itself.
Seeing this as a source of the much needed dollar, the government streamlined and intensified the export of labor by merging three government agencies to become the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). It acts as a marketing arm by looking for countries where Filipinos can be exported, the collector of US$125 fee and the issuer of the overseas employment certificate (OEC) to work overseas.
True enough, the labor export program (LEP) of the government, because of the billions of dollars ins remittances that it brings, became one of the major pillars of the Philippine economy. These remittances answer for the shortfall in the balance of payment, trade deficit, "collateral" by the government for new loans, etc.
Since the time of the late dictator, the stop gap measure (LEP) of easing unemployment is already treated as an industry. Former President Corazon Aquino included the dollar source from migrant workers as part of the five year economic recovery program. Previous President Fidel Ramos even boasted of the Internationally Shared Human Resources during the 1996 APEC conference in Manila. Not to be outdone, President Joseph Estrada put mechanisms to ensure "quality" exports of human resources and the facilitation of export: The Department of Trade and Investments (DTI), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) combined their expertise in sponsoring the Job Fair wherein corporations and placement firms scout for potential workers for placement locally and abroad. TESDA manage the training and upgrading of skills for potential workers to work abroad while the job Fair acts like a department store in selling its "human products". It even gave certain powers to TESDA to issue certificates in relation to the completion of the training, for outgoing entertainers, without which, they cannot leave the country.

For the government, migration is risk free business

The government is not a fence sitter in the exodus of Filipinos to work abroad, as they want it to appear. In reality, the government is the overall strategist and the biggest recruitment agency as far as export of labor is concerned. They put up mechanisms for this program, promulgated laws for overseas Filipino workers, come out with a special lane for "balikbayan" (returning migrant for vacation) at the Manila airport, encourage the proliferation of private recruitment agencies. They even came out with special programs or policies for migrant workers who wants to continue their Social Security Service membership, setting up of hospitals for overseas contract workers' families (not entirely free, of course) and they even have a grand welcoming for overseas Filipinos every Christmas time. Yes, the government is very much involved in this profit making "industry" called Labor Export Program.
Yet, the government does not allocate budget nor has a viable program for the direct service to the "new economic heroes and heroines". If ever a service program will be conceptualized, the migrant workers have to shell out their own contribution for this supposed service program. The government has no contribution at all. The only thing that the government does is to systematize the cornering of the dollar remittances of overseas compatriots and the government exaction of numerous fees. Just recently President Estrada came out with the Executive Order 197 to increase government fees by no less than 20%. Again this has a direct bearing on migrant workers. They are the steady source of revenue by the government. Definitely the passport fee will increase and so with the other fees such as the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) contribution which they increased by making it annually instead of a per contract basis. Authentication of contracts by Philippine Consular or Embassies, notarial services, NBI clearances, airport terminal fees and so on will definitely increase. Indeed, the government will rake a big amount of revenue. Meanwhile, the big tax evaders will be given an amnesty and foreign investors, tax holidays.
Anywhere, Filipino migrant workers see their own government as an adversary rather than their protector. As a common saying among them, "They (the government) are very efficient as far as collection of taxes and fees are concerned. But they have a thousand reasons when they fail to protect us." Just look at the newspapers and one can say that the government not only lacks the political will but also would even turn the other way around when it comes to the demands of migrant workers. In the recent news, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is seriously considering legalizing the brokers' fee in Taiwan. Migrant workers bound for Taiwan have to pay a huge amount of agency fee in the Philippines yet, they still have to pay the brokers' fee when they reach Taiwan. DOLE will even run after those migrant workers who ran away from their employers, without even an inkling that they will conduct an investigation on why they ran away.
The government's inaction on the plight of migrant workers is comprehensible by the fact that they don't want to kill the "goose that lays the golden eggs". More so, since there has been institutional denial by the Philippine government of the Labor Export program as a systematic industry, they peddle the notion that seeking overseas employment is a "choice" made by the Filipino worker. Thus, the abuses, injustices and danger that the workers experience are arbitrary and isolated consequences of the worker's supposed "choice". In simple terms, "Minalas lang (ran out of luck)." The government wouldn't risk confronting abusive employers and unjust, anti worker policies of host countries, else the latter might close their doors for overseas workers and subsequently reduce government foreign exchange revenues.
The Consulates and Embassies are more willing to encourage distressed workers to "just go home" instead of providing protection for them. Notwithstanding the money these consulates will save, they will lower the risk of having diplomatic conflicts with the host countries, thus ensuring the continuous flow of Filipino workers. And besides, what is one, two, or even ten distressed workers going home when you have 2,000 Filipinos leaving for work abroad every day?
This low risk and big business of labor export will run unabated until the present system needs a way to curb social unrest due to poverty and unemployment, until the government needs revenues to finance useless wars and fill the pockets of corrupt officials and cronies, and until this social order needs foreign exchange to keep the economy afloat.
And with the intensification of forced migration comes the heightening of the misery, loneliness and dislocation of the Filipino people and family. More Christmases will be ruined. More graduation rites will be senseless. And when planes again land, and Overseas Filipino Workers clap their hands and shout "MABUHAY!", it will still be hollow jubilation.
Unless, of course, we decide to end this mockery of our human dignity. Only then, when the migrant worker shouts "MABUHAY!" it shall be because we have been able to bring forth a new society where families are not anymore torn apart because of reasons of survival and the people have prospects for a free, prosperous and peaceful future. At last, the overseas Filipinos will be home for good.