Women Overseas Workers

          The presentation we received and the experience we gained at the Commission on Filipinos Oversees (CFO) brought emotional reactions that later affected the way I thought. Hearing and learning about the challenges of the children who migrate to other countries was heartbreaking but more was the stories about the women. Women leave the country on fiancée visas and others on work visas thinking that their life will change for the good but not all cases do their lives change as they envisioned it. Some are caught up in the net of human trafficking. They end up working as prostitutes, underpaid housekeepers or enslaved to the man they married. When I heard the stories of the conditions that women were in when CFO workers rescued them I was sad but angry of how reality hit me. I had heard stories and learned about human trafficking but just the feeling that I got of being there made it worst and it was as if it was my first time hearing about the 

issue.

            In this blog my argument is based from comments by President Arroyo and President Aquino. They both expressed their ideas of overseas workers and the well being of the Philippines. I feel that the Filipino government thinks they are benefiting when Filipinos go abroad as workers. The country’s economy may benefit from remittances received but the money they obtain is often tainted with tragedies of the Filipino worker abroad. The economy may benefit but the benefit is not comparable to what the people have to go thru. Overseas workers, often women, have to pay a high price to send money to the Philippines. Not only do they have to put up with hard labor but unacceptable treatments from their employers.  In this blog I would like to argue against making “the Filipino the best worker in the world” as President Arroyo addressed in a crowd of state universities and college officials (Viola, 2).  Arroyo encouraged colleges and universities to tweak the curriculum to strengthen the overseas workers base.  The presentation given by CFO, reading the articles for this week and looking back on an article I read in Sociology 110 made me come to this conclusion. There might be some benefits to Filipinos going oversees but just knowing how people suffer for financial reasons brings sadness and anger to me and it bothers me to know how the government thinks they are benefiting from the workers when their people might be having a hard time in an unfamiliar country.

            I first learned about Filipino women going overseas in Sociology 110, we read “The Nanny Chain” by Arlie Hochschild who mentions Parenas work. Hochschild calls "The Nanny Chain" what Parenas talks about when she shares the story of Carmen who “exemplifies how three distinct groups of women participate in the international transfer of caretaking” (Parenas, 13).  Hochschild explains the chain, “A typical global care chain might work something like this: An older daughter from a poor family in a third world country cares for her siblings (the first link in the chain) while her mother works as a nanny caring for the children of a nanny migrating to a first world country (the second link) who, in turn, cares for the child of a family in a rich country (the final link). Each kind of chain expresses an invisible human ecology of care, one care worker depending on another and so on.” The chain that Hochschild describes is a harsh reality that connects to what Parenas says “being in the middle of the international division of reproductive labor entails geographical distance in families and consequently emotional strains for “lonely” mothers and “miserable” children in the Philippines. The “Nanny Chain” is not only related to the Philippines but it involves many other developing countries.

            As I reflected on why I got so emotional about the experiences of the Filipino women and the comment by President Arroyo I realized it was because as a Latina I know about this issue affecting my community. Parenas mentions the Latina women working as housekeepers along with Filipina overseas workers. When I visited El Salvador I quickly noticed that in the department (or province) that I stayed in the people who live there are mainly older people and children. Many people leave the country to look for work outside the country, the government encourages them because they think it benefits the economy but in reality they have more to lose. People leave their country of origin which opens doors to loneliness and people becoming miserable due to leaving their families behind and having to adapt to new cultures. The one who benefits is the country where the people go to find work, foreign workers become bodies of cheap labor.

            The comparative advantage of Philippine economy has been the exportation of Filipino bodies throughout the world as cheap labor (Viola, 2).  The economy benefits from the cheap labor done by Filipinos overseas. Viola informs us that “Overseas Contract Workers are glorified as the “mga bagong bayani” (the new heroes) with their annual remittance from abroad keeping the Philippine economy afloat, repaying the interest of foreign debt, and supporting the luxury and privilege of less than 1 percent of the Filipino ruling class”(2).  The workers are seen as heroes because they are helping the economy by becoming bodies of cheap labor.  President Acquino added by declaring migrant women the new heroes of the Philippine economy (Chang, 6).  To me it seems the government sees them as heroes because “women migrant workers send home a larger proportion of their wages than their male counterparts do, even though they tend to earn less than men” (Chang, 6).  When I think of heroes I think of brave people and to me women workers are heroes because they are brave to leave their family and a country that they are familiar to provide a better living for their family. They put aside the dangers that they might encounter in hope of providing the best for their families. I am sure that when these women leave their country they first think of their family and the last thing may be the country’s economy and debts.

            People may argue that regardless of the dangers that women may face there is nothing wrong with striving for Filipinos becoming the best worker in the world. I am strongly sadden by this idea because it is the lives of desperate women who leave the country seeking to provide their family a better life that often end up in horrible situations. I put more importance to the dangers that the women workers go through when going oversees than to the economy that benefits from the remittances.  The government thinks the economy is benefiting but I believe it is not, they have to pay a big price for the benefit, the well being of the Filipinas and their families. In the Chang article a manager of the adult services branch of California Department of Social Services comments on having IHSS workers, he said “it’s a good deal for the government” (pg. 6).  Having oversees workers is a good deal for the country where the workers go to, they receive bodies of cheap labor with no benefits.

            Women go oversees with the interest of providing the best for their family and the government’s interest is the country’s economy. It is a harsh reality that it is difficult not to get sadden or angry about. Women leave their family and country to provide their family a better living while they risk becoming tangled in working as prostitutes, underpaid housekeepers or enslaved to the man they married.  If Filipinos strive to become the best workers in the world there will be more chances of Filipinos leaving the country and simply becoming more bodies of cheap labor.

            I will stop adding to my argument but I would like you to reflect on this “we take of everybody’s else’s weaker members of society, while we let our own society go to hell” (Chang, 4).  From reading the article Chang article what comes to your mind when you read that the women see their society going to “hell”?