Thursday, November 06, 2008 Oledan: Altered state By Radzini Oledan Slice of life
IN THE Second Global Forum on Migration and Development, governments were encouraged not only to implement the International Labor Organization and United Nations conventions and instruments but to also ensure that national laws and practices meet international standards.
Around 200 million migrants around the world continue to suffer from problems ranging from illegal recruitment, racial discrimination and physical abuse. Women, who comprise half of the total migrant population, are especially vulnerable.
The UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) said most of these women are employed as unskilled workers and are not fully aware of their rights. This makes them vulnerable to physical and social isolation, sexual harassment, and sexual and physical violence.
Often, too, they are employed in industries that are not regulated by the government, making monitoring of rights difficult. Migrant women face extra risk. Most women are in domestic work, agriculture or entertainment, which are not regulated by the government making those who are involved in these more vulnerable to abuse.
Since 1970's when the export of labor became an official policy of the government, close to nine million Filipinos have tried their luck in foreign countries where they work on oil rigs as nannies and nurses, on construction sites, in factories and in the entertainment industry. The most common destinations are Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.
Overseas Filipinos sent home more than $8.5 billion last year, putting them third by this measure behind Indians and Mexicans. This amount is larger than the value of the top five Philippine export products and the combined amount of foreign aid and foreign direct investments.
Two-thirds of the Filipinos working abroad are women yet, despite their huge contribution to the national economy, protection programmes are weak if not non-existent.
It is this invisibility of the female face of labor which makes women vulnerable.
"International and national regimes must be adopted to recognize and protect the rights of domestic workers and other informal workers, many of whom are women. They (governments) must also promote the empowerment of migrant women and the achievement of gender equality," the statement during the global forum said.
The processes of migration are fuelled by extensive business interests involved in recruitment and placement and the financing of migration for employment that continually place a debt burden on individual migrant women workers and their families.
In foreign land, women workers face long working hours, deceptive contractual arrangements, contract alterations and substitutions, the exploitative role of some intermediaries and lack of avenues for redress of grievances.
Those with undocumented status are especially prone to abuse considering the asymmetry of the status of the employers and employees, which also entailed a relationship of dependency on the part of the employees towards their employers and their agents.
Complicating matters is the current global financial crisis, which is likely to lead to higher unemployment rates and poverty levels in many countries. The ILO forecasts that the current credit crunch will result in the loss of some 20 million jobs.
Migrants, especially women will bear the brunt of unemployment. Most of them who are employed as domestic workers and caregivers are likely to lose their jobs, go home and face poverty and unemployment in their own countries.
Hard times affect everyone but most especially women who bear the cost and responsibility of fending for their family and of ensuring that each child under their care are able to have a decent life, including access to quality health and education. Today, a large number of women are migrating through illegal, undocumented and clandestine channels.
The risk is regarded as a given and must be faced by those who want to work overseas to provide a better life for their families. The violent experiences of our migrant workers underline the inability of government to provide better economic opportunities in its own country, and the inutility to protect migrant workers who have contributed so much in the national coffers.
And there's the mockery that they are the modern day heroes.
