LESS is More for Women Migrant Workers by Andrea Luisa Anolin, 2011

Transcription

1 LESS is More for Women Migrant Workers by Andrea Luisa Anolin, 2011 Filipinos leaving for overseas work do so because they find a lot of things lacking in the Philippines. Foremost of which is the opportunity to work (gainful or otherwise), to receive income way above whatever it is they earn as laborers in the Philippines, and the perceived opportuni?es for growth and personal development. And in their actual country of des?na?on, many Filipinos either find, are promised, or perceive that there is an abundance of whatever it is they find lacking in the Philippines. In most cases however, overseas Filipinos workers (OFWs) get more than what they bargain for. Along with the perceived and actual benefits of migra?on, OFWs also invariably deal with the social and personal costs of their migra?on experiences. From wan?ng more out of life, many returned with less than what they were aiming for. Moreso for Filipino women migrant workers who end up mostly working as domes?c workers, entertainers, factory workers, and caregivers. These are jobs that leave women migrant workers vulnerable to abuse and exploita?on. The women during the opening of the laundry shop located in Panay Avenue, Quezon City. Ba?s Center for Women has been addressing the issues and concerns of returned distressed women migrant workers since the late 1980s. The women, spurred by their dreams of bener lives for themselves and their families, ended up in situa?ons of abuse and exploita?on. From a sea of despair in their countries of des?na?on, Ba?s Center for Women offered a stream of hope to returned distressed women migrant workers. From the provision of direct assistance and welfare services, Ba?s developed its programs and services un?l the ins?tu?on had the capability to address the medium- term needs of the women through awareness- raising, organizing, alterna?ve livelihood projects / social enterprise development, and other social and economic reintegra?on ac?vi?es. Through more than two decades of ins?tu?onal herstory, Ba?s was able to assist individual clients and groups of clients (through Ba?s AWARE and other group forma?ons) in seung up enterprises. From the earlier alterna?ve livelihood project such as the sewing shop, Ba?s has played a role in the establishment of Ba?s AWARE's vigil candle shop. Ba?s AWARE has since then established other enterprises such as the burger shop and a small canteen. Ba?s also assisted individual clients set up small enterprises in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao and the most recent enterprise set up by Ba?s with a group of the ins?tu?on's women clients is the laundromat in Quezon City. Women clients employed as staff of the laundry shop. In our desire to bring the services (recep?on to reintegra?on) for returned distressed women migrant workers closer to the ground and to create a direct impact in communi?es where the women come from, Ba?s Center for Women in 2007 ini?ated community organizing work in iden?fied areas in Bulacan and Nueva Ecija a]er it was established that a clustering of the ins?tu?on's clients were to be found in these provinces. In 2010, Ba?s included Ilocos Sur in the scope of its geographic work. Ba?s' vision was to create a local social and economic support and reintegra?on network to create the environment at the local level for the individual ini?a?ves of the Ba?s clients to fluorish and become sustained by connec?ng it with available services and on- going ini?a?ves in the area with the support of the local government, the business sector, the private sector, migrant associa?ons, and other stakeholders. Migra?on, development and human rights forum in Nueva Ecija. In a nutshell, Ba?s calls this strategy LESS (Linking Economic ini?a?ves for Support, Scaling- up and Sustainability) is More for Women Migrant Workers. The link that Ba?s would like to develop is four- fold. Ba?s is working to link the economic ini?a?ves of its clientele / beneficiaries with the following: 1) the economic ini?a?ves of successful migrants in the same geographic area; 2) the pioneers / experts of a similar or related enterprise; 3) the ini?a?ve of ac?ve migrants who are looking for viable alterna?ve investment opportuni?es back home; and, 4) the available and exis?ng services of the local governments, offices of na?onal government agencies, and the private sector towards local economic development. By linking the economic ini?a?ves of returned distressed women migrant workers to create the enabling environment for support, scaling- up (growth) and sustainability, star?ng out with LESS can translate to more opportuni?es for the returned distressed women migrant workers, their families and local economies to benefit from these linked economic ini?a?ves. In the long run, these linked ini?a?ves is envisioned to become a local social and economic support and reintegra?on network for prospec?ve, confirmed, ac?ve, and returned migrant workers and their families in order to minize the social costs and op?mize the gains of migra?on for local economic development, and wealth & job genera?on.!

2 Marriage of Convenience: Causes and Consequences By Rose Otero Why would anyone risk marrying a stranger? It may sound fussy but it happens. Marriage could be arranged as a joint undertaking of two people for prac?cal or financial benefits rather than out of love or personal anachment. This is called marriage of convenience and is the current and common way taken by several Filipino women going to Japan. With Filipino Japanese marriage, the Filipino spouse then becomes eligible for a Spouse of a Japanese Na?onal visa which would enable her to enter and work in Japan. In March 2005, Japan started to employ restric?on measures to Filipino entertainers going to Japan as part of its efforts to combat human trafficking. Japan no longer accepted the Philippine government issued cer?ficate to prove that the holder is a bona fide performing ar?st. Rather, Japan requires that an entertainer must have at least two years work experience in an entertainment industry outside Japan. This strict policy has caused a sudden drop of the deployment of Filipino entertainers to Japan. Consequently, Filipino- Japanese marriages intensified and many of which occurred for convenience purposes only for the sake of a spouse visa. This is a reality which Ba?s Center for Women eventually verified through its own cases. From 2007 to 2010, Ba?s provided services to 42 cases of women migrants returning from Japan who were vic?ms of trafficking. Twenty- seven of them entered Japan through spouse visas, 11 had entertainer visas while four had tourist visas. All of them have similar reasons behind their determina@on to go to Japan. Illustra?on downloaded from hnp:// More o]en than not, recruiters and traffickers took advantage of the women s vulnerability, offering them help to enter and find work in Japan. This help however involves decep?on and fraud which are present in cases of trafficking. The women were recruited to work as entertainers in Japan, promised with good pay and benefits but were told that they would need to marry a Japanese man in order to get a visa. In some instances, when the women observe ambigui?es in the process, the tendency is for them to withdraw from going to Japan. Nevertheless, some would s?ll pursue the flight despite the uncertain?es as they and their families would be coerced or threatened by the brokers should they back out. The lack of economic opportuni?es in the Philippines on one hand and the push factors (i.e. financial needs for medica?on of a sick family member, educa?on for siblings, payment of debts, housing, etc.) coming from the family on the other hand are among the reasons behind the aspira?ons of the women to work overseas. For someone who is desperate to work in Japan and earn money for the family, they would be willing to do anything even marrying a total stranger. Recruiters would convince the women that the marriage is fake and will just be done to facilitate their entry to Japan. The women then become more vulnerable on- site and would find themselves manipulated and coerced by traffickers, verbally and physically abused, trapped in an exploita?ve work, with restricted mobility, and in a debt bondage. Low salary, unjust deduc?ons and penalty system in the club on top of the payment for the Japanese husbands would make the situa?on even worse. Lucky are those who were able to escape or be rescued during raids in the club and were provided with necessary assistance and repatria?on services. For some women, they get a divorce before they return to the Philippines. For those who do not know any bener, they stay married?ll they return to the Philippines. However, divorced or not, the consequences are all similar when they return home. There is no divorce in the Philippines, only annulment. So for the women who got divorced in Japan, they s?ll would need to obtain an annulment in the Philippines in order for the divorce to be recognized in the country. This process is called Pe??on for recogni?on of foreign judgment. Marriage annulment in the Philippines is a difficult and tedious process that would require a large amount of money for legal services. Annulment of marriage on the average would cost around PhP250,000 an amount which the women hardly have. To date, none of the 27 women who entered into marriage of convenience pursued an annulment of marriage. One step towards the recovery of the women from their nega?ve migra?on experiences is the legal dissolu?on of their marriage. But since they could not afford the legal process of annulment, the women un?l now bear the effect of engaging to marriage of convenience. They might have recovered from trauma but they were not able to regain their civil status. Those who want to get married with their real boyfriends could not marry because the previous marriages with their Japanese husbands are yet to be annulled. In this case, the social cost of marriage of convenience could be for life?me.!

3 Trip Pinas: The Japan College of Social Work Philippine Study Tour Experience By Julius Diyeng D. Canja Ba?s Center for Women is commined to raising the awareness of the general public on the plight of women migrant workers in order to generate a strong public opinion against the exploita?on and con?nued deployment of women migrant workers. To answer this challenge, one of Ba?s Center for Women s efforts is by hos?ng study tours for students and professionals from Japan and other countries for them to get to know about the work that we do and the issues confron?ng women migrant workers and their families. From February , Ba?s Center for Women hosted a study tour for students and faculty of Japan College of Social Work. The week- long study tour s primary objec?ve is for the par?cipants to develop an understanding of how human and social welfare differs according to society, culture, geography, poli?cal and economic systems and circumstances. Through the study tour, it was also hoped that the students who are all Social Planning majors be introduced to mul?- cultural social work by having a direct experience in interac?ng with Filipinos and women migrant workers and Japanese- Filipino children in par?cular in order for them to know more about the ways of life of the fourth largest minority group in Japan. It also aimed for the par?cipants to develop an understanding of the nature of poverty and disaster management, and the role of gender empowerment and social ac?on in bringing about social change. The study tour which was dubbed as Trip Pinas was par?cipated in by seven students and they were joined by two of their professors, Prof. Helen Fujimoto and Prof. Masaki Soeta. The study tour program included the following ac?vi?es: workshops and discussions on Philippine history and culture, social reali?es and migra?on situa?on; homestay with Ba?s AWARE and Ba?s- YOGHI members; exposure to a rural community in Nueva Ecija; interac?on with former migrants from Japan, Syria and Lebanon; visit to San Jose Orphanage and interac?on with the children; sightseeing and historical tour in Corregidor Island and Camp Panga?an; community service with Buklod Tao in San Mateo and; interac?on with UP Social Work and Community Development students. In the first day, the students anended the lecture about the Philippine history and culture, social reali?es and migra?on situa?on which was discussed by Ba?s Center. The discussions imparted to them significant events in the history which helped shaped the country to where it is now, its peculiari?es and some similari?es from Japanese culture and the different places, tradi?ons and celebra?ons which are worth seeing and experiencing. The lecture about the current status of the Philippines showed the crisis, that the country is facing. Poverty, scarcity in jobs and resources and the reali?es in life of Filipinos par?cularly from the marginalized sector were discussed to enable them understand and be cri?cal of what is happening in countries other than their own. Aside from the lectures, ac?vi?es to enhance team work and crea?ve thinking were conducted. The JCSW students acer successfully comple@ng the teambuilding ac@vity. The students were also able to experience an overnight home stay with a Filipino family. They were assigned to either a member of Ba?s AWARE or Ba?s- YOGHI s family or to a Ba?s Center staff. Students were asked about their experiences during their home stay and everyone said that they got to experience or see things which they have never done or seen before. Some were able to go to the wet market, interact with other family members, got a glimpse of how Filipino families are like, felt the warmth of other rela?ves of the host families and the hospitality even of other neighbors, went around the local community, ate na?ve cuisines, played with the kids and a lot more. The students said that it was a posi?ve experience for them and some even said that it was the highlight of their study tour. They were hoping that the home stay had been longer. To get a glimpse of life in the rural community, the group was brought to Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija. They were able to meet local leaders, visit a public school, tour a barangay and most importantly interact with Ba?s Center clients who were former migrants from Lebanon and Syria. Going around the community they saw the big houses which were owned by families of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). However, they also learned that not all OFWs have successful migra?on experiences just like the Ba?s Center client who had a nega?ve experience in Syria.

4 Con?nua?on. Trip Pinas The visit to the Bahay ni San Jose Orphanage was also a moving experience for the group. Here they were able to interact with children who were abandoned by their parents and children with special needs. The kids prepared a heartwarming presenta?on to welcome the group. In turn, the students played with the kids and taught them how to make origami. They also brought snacks which they shared with everyone. The group le] with smiles on their faces knowing that even for a short period of?me they made the children happy. Community service was also an important part of Trip Pinas. It was fulfilling to be able to contribute to the development of a community. The group visited Buklod Tao, a people s organiza?on that aims to strengthen the capaci?es of the community in disaster preparedness and environmental conserva?on. Ka Noli, the president briefly discussed in the morning the nature of work of the organiza?on. A]erwards, the groups was then introduced to gabion box making, a wire- mesh box that has to be filled with rocks and are to be placed along the riverbanks to avoid the erosion of the soil and flooding in the community. The group formed a human chain to pass along the rocks that will be stacked inside the gabion boxes. This was also a good opportunity for the JCSW students to interact with the Community Development students from the University of the Philippines and the members of Buklod Tao. The group was also able to help plant pechay in the organic urban garden of Buklod Tao. Despite the burden of carrying heavy rocks, everybody was just grateful that they were able to help the community and enjoyed doing the tasks as well. Of course it is not just work all the?me, the group was also able to do sightseeing in historical spots such as Corregidor Island in Bataan and Camp Panga?an in Nueva Ecija. These two sites were very significant to World War II par?cularly during the Japanese occupa?on in the Philippines. The visit to these sites was not to point out the atroci?es of the Japanese during the war but to show them the consequences of war and how it affects the lives of people especially the innocent ones. It is also a call for everyone to strive for peace at all?mes. The trip ended with a Sayonara Party anended by the JCSW study tour par?cipants, Ba?s Family and students from UP. The JCSW students had a song presenta?on and showcased their clay sculptures which represent how they feel about the whole program and what they will remember most about it. Experience plays a major role in learning. In this case, the study tour experience allowed the students to see what is happening outside of Japan, know more about the social issues and at the same?me interact with people from other culture. Hopefully through this experience, they have come back to Japan with raised awareness, has grown more compassionate towards people from other cultural background and learned lessons that will aid them to become bener persons and contribute to a bener world. Natsumi of JCSW, teaching the kids how to make a crane origami. JCSW and UP students with Buklod Tao members acer the community service. Together with the Ba@s Family before leaving for the airport.

5 Spreading our Wings by Beryl Cruspero One of the core services of Ba?s Center for Women in its more than twenty years of existence is organizing of its women clients. In the Women Empowerment Program, the women are helped to regain their self- confidence having been in distressed situa?ons through advocacy campaigns and awareness raising ac?vi?es such as workshops, trainings and discussions on women s issues and rights. In the year 2007, Ba?s Center took a major leap when it decided to go into community organizing in order to reach a wider range of women migrants and their families. From being a center- based ins?tu?on and catering only to walk- in or referred clients, it broadened its scope of work to extend its services and programs to the grassroots level. In an internal study conducted, it was established that majority of the women who sought Ba?s Center s services were from the provinces of Bulacan, Nueva Ecija and Ilocos Sur. These three provinces were also iden?fied as top sending provinces for undocumented migrants based on the data given by POEA. Most of the women migrant workers applied for domes?c work but ended up in exploita?ve situa?ons in their country of des?na?ons. In September of the same year, Ba?s Center pioneered its organizing work in Bgy. Dalig, Balagtas, Bulacan by forming an informal support group of migrant women. Ba?s Center then replicated its work in Bulacan to Nueva Ecija and in Ilocos Sur in The clients that we happen to organize in the above men?oned areas were trafficked vic?ms and severely exploited women from Malaysia, China, Middle East, Lebanon, Syria, etc. Services such as airport assistance, temporary shelter, medical assistance, legal assistance, educa?onal assistance, and reintegra?on assistance were provided to them by Ba?s Center for Women. Through the community organizing work, several good prac?ces have emerged. This includes: awareness- raising through the conduct of social inves?ga?on conduct of fora on the an?- trafficking law and migra?on human rights and development family mee?ngs and orienta?on on the legal process of migra?on educa?onal discussions related to migra?on organizing and mobilizing of a core group of women migrant workers and trafficking survivors mobilizing of community resources for local development Most recently, Ba?s Center engaged the returned women migrant workers into Social Entrepreneurship (SE). The women s career interests and their level of entrepreneurial skills were first measured through an assessment. The women then undergo the training, How to Start your Business Right and a mentoring session to help them develop their business plans. The enterprises being put up serve as reintegra?on assistance to the women. Aside from providing them the opportunity to gain economic opportuni?es, the SEs also hopes to serve as therapy to help in rebuilding the lives of the clients. Ba?s Center also encourages the local government units to help the women in accessing their exis?ng programs and services such as monitoring services, livelihood assistance, referral to agencies that provide services for migrant workers, legal assistance, con?nuous psychosocial assistance and educa?onal and training assistance. Organizing work will lead to the existence of extensions or satellite offices of Ba?s Center for Women in the different communi?es we work in. In the coming years, we see Ba?s Center spreading its wings in the field of community development and empowerment. We s?ll have a long way to go through. All this would only be possible with the efforts of the women in the community, their families, the local leaders and other stakeholders. With efforts like these, we see in the coming years the fulfilment of Ba?s Center s Empowerment Framework of Self- Help, Help Other, Help Society.