Overseas Filipinos: Asserting Human Rights in Two Societies

This article is written from the point of view of a Filipino living overseas, in this case in the Netherlands, in Europe. It is not written in any official capacity - I do not represent the official views of any organization in the Philippines or abroad. Hopefully, this more informal and unofficial style would make it easier to share insights and concepts on the human rights situation of Overseas Filipinos. While my insights and experiences are those of an OF in Europe, from time to time I will try to also reflect the situation of Filipinos in other global regions.

I prefer to use the term Overseas Filipino (OF) to refer to our sector. This term includes all those of Filipino origin who live outside the Philippines. This includes Overseas Contract Workers, other Filipino overseas workers, Filipinos married to host country nationals, transients (e.g. students) and even the children of migrants. The term OCW does not apply to at least a half of us abroad, and to only very few Filipinos in Europe. The term 'migrant' includes most of us here, except for the second generation OFs (they didn't migrate, their parents did). Some OFs would prefer to call themselves as 'Filipino expatriates'. The categories of: migrant, immigrant and refugee are not really useful; since the distinction among them is rather vague in practice. (Besides, for me, all these categories are migrants, anyway.) In the rest of this paper, I will often use the term 'migrants', which would usually refer to migrants of all nationalities.

I would also like to make a number of points to contextualize this paper. First of all, the situation of OFs differs per country. There are also differences in the situation of various parts of the Filipino community in any given country. This all means that we have to be wary about making sweeping generalizations. Also, while it is true that we face a lot of difficulties, this does not mean that our lives are all struggle. Like our kababayans in the Philippines, Filipinos abroad also know how to make the best out of the situation they're in. Most of those among us who have lived abroad for more than a couple of years are satisfied with their lives. They have gone abroad seeking to improve their lives, and to earn money for their families, and they are able to do so. Even many of those who live in constant fear of deportation would say that their lives abroad are better now than when they were in the Philippines, they also had problems in the Philippines after all.

Overseas Filipinos are part of two societies: that of the Philippines, and of their host country. OFs are affected by the human rights situation in both societies. While OFs are affected, to a greater or leser degree, by the policies of the Philippine government; most of the time, it is the repressive conditions in our host countries that are the main cause of our problems. This is not to say that the Philippine government is without blame - its policies often tolerate or aggravate human rights against Filipino migrants. To make the point even stronger, many of us would say that the Philippine government is more negligent than many other governments when it comes to the protection of its citizens abroad.

Anti-migrant Conditions in Host Countries

Host countries have laws that restrict the kinds of activities that migrants can do, reserving the full exercise of many rights for their nationals. Thus, while their citizens may have the freedom to organize and join unions and other associations, to practice their religion, participate in elections, to travel, to raise a family and to enjoy privacy, migrants in these countries have many limitations in the enjoyment of these rights.

The system of residence/work permits is supposed to limit the entry of migrants into the job market of the receiving countries. For many countries, it is almost impossible for nationals of Third World countries to get work permits, since one often has to prove that no unemployed citizen is qualified for such a job. Within the European Union (EU), you not only have to prove that no citizen of the host country is qualified or willing to do the job, but also that no citizen of other EU countries could fill that job. In addition, these work permits are usually limited to a very specifically defined job; if the permit-holder loses that job, she/he should immediately leave the country.

It is no wonder that few migrants (not only Filipinos) bother to get a work permit. One common strategy is to come in by any means (as tourist, au pair, student, or even by entering clandestinely), then to stay on as unauthorized worker (we do not want to use the term ' illegal worker' ) , and hope that you would not get caught till you have found a way to legalize yourself. Legalization is often achieved by availing of periodic amnesties for unauthorized migrants, by marriage to a citizen, or by getting into special categories of jobs that don't require work permits (e.g. employees of international NGOs,foreign embassies, churches, and some multinationals). Many Filipino domestic workers in Europe are 'runaways', having escaped from the hands of exploitative and abusive employers (often from the Middle East) who visited Europe on family vacations. There are thus a large number of Filipino migrants in Europe who are 'unauthorized' (i.e. without residence and work permits); there are also others who have residence permits but no work permits (e.g. students who work).

Unauthorized migrants, by their nature, do not enjoy many rights. If they are caught by the police during a raid or a spot check, they are imprisoned and then deported. This uncertainty means that these migrants accept the worst kinds of jobs, get the lowest wages, and live in substandard housing. They also live in constant fear of getting caught and deported, so they avoid main intersections and all places where the police are likely to conduct spot checks (sometimes the police even check churches, schools or during community sport events). They also have to avoid getting their names or addresses on any list that the police or government may get . In the highly regulated societies of Europe (where everyone is supposed to be registered ), it is very difficult for unauthorized workers to get health care, insurance, good housing, education for their children, etc., since these require presenting identity papers. Being outside the official labor system, unauthorized workers are forced to accept lower paying jobs and are subject to very exploitative labor conditions (e.g. long hours, heavy work load, physical danger).

All migrants are affected by the human rights situation of the countries they live and work in. In those third world countries where workers do not have the right to organize, migrants of course also cannot organize themselves. If maltreatment of suspects is standard police procedure, migrants would also be maltreated. If the women in that country have less rights, so are Filipinas similarly affected.

In addition to problems caused by government policy, migrants also have to deal with racism, discrimination and stereotyping from the natives. Before going into these problems, let me point out that only a minority of host country nationals are really racist; most people are quite decent, and treat us well. European employers generally treat their Filipino domestics much better than Filipinos do. The problem is that many of these decent people are not conscious of the racist policies of their government and the racist actions of a minority of their people.

Racist treatment of migrants range from physical attacks (including arson, beatings and even the murder of foreigners), to segregation (there are all sorts of 'whites only' establishments), to insults, to refusing all contact with 'dirty blacks' (by the way, Filipinos are also considered 'black' in Europe). In England, there was a case when one white parent specifically requested that their baby not be touched by a 'monkey' (in this case, it was a Filipina nurse they were referring to).

We are also negatively affected by the stereotyping of migrants by the native population. For example, since many Filipinos are domestic workers in a number of countries (to the point that 'Filipino' becomes synonymous to 'domestic helper'), some people think that Filipinos are not fit to do other things.

The presence of large numbers of migrants - more than 10% of the population in many places are non-citizens - and there is a growing number of citizens of minority ethnic origin, threatens many of the natives of our host countries. They see migrants as competing for their jobs. They are also afraid that migrants would water down their native cultural identity.

OFs as ethnic minorities

Some years ago, during a Europe-wide conference of migrants, one OF activist met some German-based Turkish groups who did not like being called migrants. They said that they were ethnic minorities, and that the term migrant no longer applied to them, since they either migrated many years ago, or are children of those who did. They think that the terms 'migrant', or 'guest workers' imply that they are temporarily in the country and can be treated as such.

In England, people with dark skin are called 'immigrants', even though they and their parents were probably born in England. Those of Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi descent are called 'Asians'. For the Turkish minority in Germany and the black minorities in England, the term migrant is no longer applicable. Some will even feel insulted when called migrant. They feel that the term is used by the white 'natives' in order to discriminate against them. What they want is an acceptance by the natives that they are all co-equals living in a multicultural society.

Filipinos in Europe have not yet reached the stage where we are no longer mainly migrants. But, with the bulk of us having come over during the 1970s and 1980s, and with many of our children becoming young adults, we are fast approaching the time when the Filipino communities in Europe would become ethnic minorities. In the US, this has been the case for some time already (the US is also historically more ethnically diverse than Europe, being populated mostly by descendants of those who migrated).

Unlike earlier waves of migrants who stayed, it is now possible for second and third generation Filipinos in Europe (due to advances in technology) to maintain intimate links with the Philippines, while fully integrating in their adopted countries. When Filipino migrant communities turn into ethnic minorities, it is wrong for people in the Philippines to dismiss them as 'no longer Filipinos'. These communities will still be tied to the Philippines in various ways, and they provide vital links between the Philippines and their countries of residence. They would also be able to help the Philippines generate investments, trade and tourism. Also they provide support during calamities, support community projects, promote the transfer of technology and knowhow. And they could help transmit progressive ideas from the rest of the world. At the same time, ethnic Filipino minorities abroad will have specific human rights concerns. First of all, they would still fall victim to racism and racial discrimination for some time. Second, they will feel the pressure to full assimilate with the culture of the host country, which would deny them their cultural rights.

These minorities would need help from the Philippines (government, NGOs, etc.) in maintaining their cultural links with the Philippines. This is very important for those who want to integrate - i.e. adopt the native culture while maintaining their Filipino identity. At the same time, we should keep an open attitude to those who choose to assimilate - i.e. adopt the native culture and drop their Filipino identity.

Philippine Government Neglect

The Philippine government is quite consistent in its neglect of Overseas Filipinos. First of all, it doesn't act as if the welfare of its citizens abroad is one of its prime concerns. This shows in the often inadequate support to Filipinos in trouble (e.g. deported, imprisoned, etc.) and in the sloppy treatment of OFs who go to our embassies and consulates for various consular services.

Overseas Filipinos are not able to exercise their right to vote in Philippine elections. Ironically, Filipinos could vote in local elections in some countries in Europe, but they could not vote in Philippine elections. Despite the Constitutional provision recognizing OF's right to vote, Congress is forever postponing passing an implementing law for this. Also, as far as I know, the laws that are on the pipeline would keep most Filipinos abroad disenfranchised. I am referring to the usual provision in these laws requiring registration in the Philippines, and Philippine residency requirements. For those of us who are longtime residents abroad, and who only visit the Philippines once in a few years, there is no way we could satisfy either registration or residency requirements. Also, there is no proposal for us to elect OF representatives to Congress.

The Philippine government's policy seems to be to make Filipino overseas labor competitive by keeping our wages cheap. It also clearly subordinates the interests of migrants to the trade, aid and investment relations with the various countries receiving OFs. In addition, Philippine embassies and consulates are not given enough resources to do their work well.

The role of the Philippine government should be to work for 'migrant-friendly' conditions especially in countries with many OFs. For starters, the Philippine government should negotiate bilateral tax and labor treaties with host governments. A bilateral tax treaty eliminates double taxation for workers and businesses of both countries. A bilateral labor treaty would help to insure fair treatment of workers coming from both countries. Agreements to mutually recognize diplomas/work qualifications would help many of us here to find jobs that are more fitted to their level of training and education. The news that the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program that was signed into law recently exempts OFs from Philippine income tax is welcome. However, before we get too excited, we should note that this corrects the previously very abnormal government practice of taxing Filipinos' income even when they are abroad. Very few countries (the US is one of those few) tax their citizens' income when they are residents abroad. So, the Philippines has now at last become normal in this respect.

The Philippine government should also work hard to 'regularize' the many unauthorized Filipino workers abroad. It could work towards prodding the host countries to declare an amnesty for unauthorized workers. It should also take steps that host countries respect the basic human rights of unauthorized workers. Also, it should take the initiative to ask for extended stay permits for Filipinos who have pending court cases against employers for illegal dismissal, cases of wives battered by their native husbands or cases against women traffickers.

The Philippine Left

It is not only the Philippine government which treats OFs badly, Philippine progressives also unintentionally hurt migrants.

The Philippine Left has yet to recognize Overseas Filipinos as a full-fledged sector of Philippine society. We are not a temporary, government-initiated phenomenon. We have our own problems, and we have our own contribution to the progress and social development of the Philippines. As in the case of any sector, we need solidarity from the other sectors of Philippine society, not charity. In countries where we have set up our own organizations and support structures, we need to be involved in initiatives being undertaken for us. Otherwise, there is a big chance that nothing positive will result from such initiatives. One example where things could go wrong were (Philippine-based) women's organizations' campaigns against women trafficking. While we agree that tough measures should be taken against women trafficking, there is a need to be quite careful in handling this. Once, the campaign centered its attacks on pen-pal clubs, where white men choose Filipinas from a catalogue. As a result of the wide media coverage of this campaign, Filipinas were accosted in the streets and asked how much they got paid for marrying a European. Naturally, the OFs got mad at those who started the campaign; after struggling so hard to earn the respect of their colleagues and their community, all of a sudden they are portrayed by Philippine progressives as cheap playthings. On the other hand, when a Filipina who was tricked into prostitution in the Netherlands filed charges against both the Dutch 'sex farm' owner and his Filipino accomplice, there was widespread support from the community here. (The Dutch man was imprisoned, but the Filipino accomplice was freed because the Philippine judge chose to believe his word, instead of that of a 'prostitute'.) The case actually resulted in strengthening Dutch laws against women trafficking.

OF contributions to the Philippines

Progressives treat the fact that OF remittances are one of the Philippines' main sources of foreign exchange as a negative thing. Some go on to say that our remittances mainly go into buying expensive consumer articles. They also decry the fact that many Filipino 'professionals' are forced to be 'merely domestics'. The effect of all this on us OFs is very negative. After all, many of us work very long hours in order to be able to send money to the Philippines, and to visit the country every few years. As a result of all our efforts, many of our relatives have gone to good schools, bought houses or improved them, started small businesses. Some part of our remittances also go into supporting part of our relatives' day-to-day expenses, and into health care. What's wrong with that? If someone from the provinces goes to Manila to work, and then helps their younger brothers and sisters go to school, we praise this as an example of the Filipino value of a family supporting each other. When we go abroad and do the same, we are portrayed as victims, as gold seekers, as 'helping to prop up an oppressive system', as having sold our souls by doing manual work, etc.

In case our progressive friends forgot, let me remind them that we OFs are not mere macroeconomic statistics, naive victims nor charity cases. In order to be consistent in upholding human rights, shouldn't your starting point be our individual human rights? By this, I refer to our right (and duty) to feed ourselves and our families (both here and in the Philippines), to send our younger relatives to school, and to help ensure that our families in the Philippines have decent housing and can afford medical treatment. And we do all this under conditions that are often unfavorable to migrants. We are individuals struggling to uphold our human rights.

Besides, what is wrong with our remittances being a big part of the Philippines' GNP? In the 1996 Human Rights Report, OF remittances are lumped together with 'Foreign Direct Investments' and 'Portfolio Capital' as being temporarry/artificial support to the economy. Our remittances are not unreliable nor temporary. OFs won't stop remitting when times get rough (on the contrary, we will probably send in even more money). Second, a big proportion of the remittances are sent in by those with stable jobs (i.e. not OCWs) in our host countries. Some of us, in fact, already hold other passports. This is the case for us here in Europe and in the US. While it is true that the Filipino OCWs are losing out to migrants coming from even poorer countries who could make do with lower wages, the number of us who have stable jobs (many of whom coming from the ranks of the OCWs or unauthorized workers ) is also growing.

Nationalism as anti-migrant

Nationalism is an ideology that sees the state as an instrument by which a 'nation' is given preferential treatment within its borders. As migrants, nationalism in our various host countries result in discrimination against us. This ranges from expulsions and physical attacks to restrictions on the kinds of occupations that foreigners could practice. Nationalism also serves as a basis for the strict immigration laws, the system of work permits, and other similar measures, which many of us suffer from. Overseas Filipinos know how it is to be held for hours at customs/immigration, and to fear police spot identity checks (even those who are naturalized are affected, since the police will check all those who 'look like foreigners').

The leftist ('Leninist') explanation that nationalism is negative in imperialist countries, and positive in the colonized Third World does not hold water. Nationalism hits migrants everywhere, because it necessarily results in less favourable conditions for us, in comparison to the natives. This is preferential treatment on the basis of race, and this is not good even in the Third World. It is probably even worse for migrants in many Third World countries, since these societies often have weaker democratic traditions and human rights practices are not yet that well established.

Migrants suffer during periods of nationalist-inspired conflict. People with mixed ethnic origins (e.g. many second-generation migrants) are victimized when their nations are at war.

Our human rights are best protected when there is no discrimination on the basis of race and ethnicity, and when equal opportunities are available to migrants. Why not? Migrants, after all, contribute a lot the economy of the host country. It is to the benefit of the host countries that foreigners come in to do work that their nationals cannot or will not do. Migrants had contributed a lot to the reconstruction of Europe, and the development of many countries in the Middle East, especially when there were labor shortages in those countries. Even the Philippine government's nationalism victimizes us by treating those among us who have other passports as foreigners. 'Former Filipinos' face limitations on inheritance and property ownership, among other things. The Philippines also treats 'illegal' Chinese and Indian migrants at least as badly as other governments treat Filipino migrants. The government would have no moral ground for demanding good treatment of Filipino migrants if it maltreats migrants in the Philippines itself.

Struggles and Solidarity

Overseas Filipinos are not passive victims of human rights violations. We have struggled to assert our rights and to defend our dignity, we have set up formal and informal social support structures, we have forged links with supportive groups and individuals in the various countries we are in.

In places where we are able to organize ourselves and where human rights practice is relatively well established, we are able to work to protect our own rights and welfare, at least in terms of the conditions in that host country. Where organizing is more difficult, we would need more support from organizations in the host country, as well as from supporters in the Philippines.

Our struggles to promote our human rights have taken many forms, ranging from physically defending ourselves against abusive employers, to organizing unions (many Filipinos lead unions and migrant associations/alliances with multi-ethnic memberships) and going on strike or collective bargaining, to public campaigns and lobby work in parliament. We have shown our capacity to defend ourselves, and have earned our right to be treated as equals in our host countries and in the Philippines.

We are thankful for the support of many groups and individuals in our host countries. Unions have been quite supportive of our struggles, and many of them treat Filipino workers as their own. One union told us that since they don't ask the nationality of their members when they join, they do not know exactly how many Filipinos belong to their union, but that they extend support to their Filipino when asked. When seamen go on strike, very often the harbour workers would support them by refusing to load, unload or refuel the vessel. They would extend legal and material support to the strikers.

We are equally thankful to migrant-support institutions in the Philippines who have done a lot to support our struggles abroad, and have helped our families back home. We only wish that the rest of the progressive groups in the Philippines would also really integrate our concerns in their political agenda.

Where we all need support from the Philippines is in ensuring our civil and political rights as Filipinos abroad. First of all, we need to be able to fully participate in Philippine electoral processes. This means that OFs should get not only the right to vote, but also the right to elect our own representatives to the House of Representatives. The law that will be passed to allow OFs to vote should be made in such a way that all Filipino passport-holders abroad could vote, that is, including the seamen, the transients, the unauthorized workers, etc. No enabling law that requires Philippine-based registration and/or Philippine residency would satisfy this requirement.

We need support for our right to be treated on the basis of international labor standards. Our wages and working conditions should be comparable to that of the host population , and we should have the right to organize ourselves. We also need support to force host countries to pay particular attention to protecting the rights of Filipino women migrants.

Need for Pro-Migrant Policies

There is a need for all governments to put in place policies that give the proper protection to migrants everywhere. Before this happens, they should first recognize the contribution of migrants to the economies of both the sending and receiving countries. Then there should be measures put in place to protect the human rights of migrants. The UN's International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, which the Philippines has adopted, is a starting point towards protecting migrants' rights. The Philippine government should push for the adoption of this UN Convention by all countries receiving Filipino migrants, and also by the countries of origin of unauthorized migrants in the Philippines. It should also take a more active role to protect Filipinos overseas, and not be so apprehensive that economic relations would suffer.