Seminar Summary
February 13-15, 2003
Bangkok, Thailand
Day 2, Feb. 14
Who is the Asian migrant worker?
Dr Michael Tan, chair of the Anthropology Department of the University of the Philippines, said that while a lot has been said or written about migrant workers it is important to put things in context because there is a real danger in media to stereotype or make generalisations about overseas workers.
In terms of age, overseas migrant workers are mostly young, at economically productive ages but they may also include children and the elderly. Both males and females migrate for work, though in some countries the ratio is skewed. This is most evident in places like Hong Kong where most of the migrant workers are female, and employed as domestic workers. Seafarers, on the other hand, are mostly male.
| Tan: 'People don't just migrate as workers. They have personal lives.' |
Their occupations are diverse: professionals, manual labour, domestic workers. In the case of the entertainment industry, Tan explained that this is a euphemism for the many sectors that overlap with the underground: casino, sex trade, etc.
In relating migrant workers and reproductive health, and especially in writing about the subject, it is important to understand the meaning of reproductive health in its broadest terms when working on stories, he said. Tan gave the definitions of reproductive health as:
'The state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease, in al all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its structure, functions and processes," as defined by the World Health Organisation.
Sexual health, as defined by the United Nations, is: 'The integration of somatic, emotional and social concepts of an individual in ways which enrich and enhance one's personality, communication, love and human relationships.'
It is therefore important to remember that people don't just migrate as workers, they have personal lives, Tan said. They have physical, emotional and social needs, and how they respond to these needs could determine whether they will find themselves in vulnerable situations or not.
He noted that discussion of migrants is often associated with work conditions, and oftentimes, this creates wrong impressions. "If we look at reproductive and sexual health, there is danger that if we keep that mindset of thinking of risk for sexual health as being only occupationally-related, then we will fall in to the trap of not seeing the risks that are outside of those."
The desire or need for connectivity, intimacy and security impacts on sexual health in different ways and this is where risks could come in, he said.
A female worker's need for companionship, for instance, may shape her behaviour while away from the country. Take the case of a woman in the Philippines who would not think of looking at another man other than her husband, he said. "But if she's in another situation, where is feeling without her moorings, without social anchors there, she is vulnerable."
In an alien culture, there is more anxiety, more vulnerability and how workers handle or respond to risky situations depend on factors such as their value system, educational background, economic situation, even gender. "Risk factors are relative depending on where you are from and where you are headed," said Tan.
The advances in communications technology have helped bridge the physical gap between migrants and their families back home and connectivity is a factor that could keep migrants from risky behaviour, he explained.
The families left behind at home also influence or shape the behaviour of workers overseas, Tan said. Just like the migrant workers, their spouses, children or parents back home also have emotional and social needs. "They face the same risks."
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As journalists and other participants shared their insights about the issue of migration, it was clear that sending countries have common problems and concerns while labour-receiving countries, which although they benefit from the services and economic contribution of foreign workers, regard migrant labour as a source of problems.
As Kim Kyna Tan of Singapore's NewsToday aptly put it, "There is love-hate relationship between foreign workers and the host government/employers. Sometimes this can be a traumatising relationship."
It is a fact that the more affluent countries in the region, whose local population shun dirty, dangerous and demeaning jobs, are in need foreign labour, and yet they tend to restrict the entry of foreign workers. This is true in the case of Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.
Singapore, for example, is very much dependent on foreign workers to run its labour-intensive manufacturing and construction sectors, and yet it continues to put restrictions on their inflow through the foreign workers' levy, which is its instrument of regulation and control.
The coverage of migration issues in Singapore, Kim Tan said, is such that it criminalises foreign workers, so much so that stories about them hit the headlines only when some of these migrants get involved in drunken brawls, or arrested for some minor misdemeanor.
In Malaysia, one of the larger groups of migrants are Burmese fleeing political persecution at home. Although the government recognises them as asylum-seekers, they still fall under the same laws that are used to control economic migration. So they are sent to camps, to jail, even caned, according to Yap Mun Ching of Malaysiakini.
They find themselves in a much more difficult position than the Bangladeshis, who are also in Malaysia in big numbers. "If you are a Bangladeshi worker and you get caught, the worst thing that can happen to you is you are sent home, poor. But for these Burmese, they have nowhere to go. They can't go back (home)" she said.
In India, which is both a sending country (to the Gulf and parts of South-east Asia), and a receiving country for Bangladeshi and Nepali workers, migration poses different challenges.
But unlike in other countries, there are no visible NGOs or groups working for the welfare of migrant workers in India, according to Rajashri Dasgupta, a journalist from Kolkata in eastern India.
There is a large migration of skilled and semi-skilled workers from the southern state of Kerala to the Gulf. A lot of households depend on foreign exchange from these workers, But this has also created lot of social tensions, even suicides especially among women.
Being such a huge country internal migration is a big phenomenon, like men in the eastern state of Bengal migrate to the west. "But whenever there is tension, they are forced to go back and a lot of it has got on religious lines, or communal lines," said Dasgupta.
The migration of mostly males has left women to take care of households and has spawned what is known as the mail-order economy, she said.
Despite their economic contributions, migrant workers are depicted largely in a negative light, she lamented. "When we talk of the migration of the goldsmiths to the western regions India, we talk about them as bringing back AIDS to the village."
The same is true with stories about Nepali women trafficked as sex workers in India. There is a lot of stereotyping of these women as being afflicted with AIDS, she said.
In Pakistan, there were refugees from neighbouring Afghanistan who crossed the border many years ago for economic reasons. They stayed on and had families and therefore may no longer be termed as refugees but migrants.
Zofeen Ebrahim from Pakistan says Karachi has 200,000 largely second-generation Afghans in the recycling business, whose 'control' of that industry has in fact caused unemployment among Pakistani workers.
With regard to Pakistani workers abroad, she said they have little access to communications facilities that would enable them to keep in touch with their families. They have no access to mobile phones, Internet or even newspapers where they can read about what's happening in their own countries.
* * *
Fr Bruno Ciceri, a Roman Catholic priest, spoke about the situation of foreign workers in Taiwan based on his experience as director of the Stella Maris International Service Centre in Kaoshiung in the country's south, which caters to migrant workers and also serves as shelter.
Since 1999, more than 800 foreigners: migrant workers, seafarers, fishermen, foreign brides who had problems with employers, husbands, ship owners, etc, have taken refuge in the Stella Maris Centre. They stay from one day to one year, depending on the seriousness of the problem, and how fast it is resolved.
Among the problems that are brought to the Centre are physical or sexual abuse by employers, non-payment of salaries, or overtime pay. Others are victims of work-related accidents with no proper compensation or medical treatment, or victims of domestic violence, he said.
'If we don't welcome them in the Centre, they would be in jail or be forced to stay with their abusive employers because the Taiwanese government cannot provide this kind of service," Ciceri said.
The phenomenon of migration in Taiwan is quite recent. It was only in 1992 when the government started importing foreign labour. At the beginning, they came mostly from the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand. In 2001, Vietnamese migrants joined the workforce.
These foreign workers were intended to fill the manpower shortage in the face of the country's industrialisation, and also because the locals did not want to do the so-called 3-D jobs.
Their numbers are fluctuating because of a ban which the government uses whenever its relationship with a sending country turns sour. The labour policy is not dictated by economic forces but by political reasons, Ciceri said.
Right now, the Taiwanese government would like to import workers from Mongolia because it has just established diplomatic ties with that country, he said.
Migrants, when they arrive in Taiwan, are a bit lost and afraid because of the unfamiliar environment, although they are also excited because it is a dream-come-true for them. But this initial enthusiasm is deflated as soon as they start work.
Contract workers in factories live in dormitories and have therefore a support system among themselves. Domestic workers and caretakers who live with their employees are generally accepted by the families, and have relative freedom. They are able to cope with the stress and pressure of their work.
There are certain cases, however, of domestic workers and caretakers treated more like commodities: they have no freedom to interact with others, are isolated. "These people are candidate for mental breakdown, and in some cases, suicide," Ciceri said.
The Catholic church in Taiwan, he said, is more a venue for social activities rather than religious ones for FiIipinos, who are predominantly Catholic as they need a place to unwind, meet new friends and find out about what's happening around them. It is a point reference not only for FiIipinos but for all other nationalities, he added.
Most of the workers in Taiwan are female (55 percent), in their most productive years, although it is difficult to determine their real ages as there are cases where workers come into Taiwan on falsified documents.
Why do these workers come to Taiwan? "I have come to realise that it is not necessarily economic reasons that make them migrate." Ciceri said. Some come for adventure, others escape from problems back home. Others are 'old migrants' who have worked in several countries and returned home but could not readjust to their old lifestyles.
The new environment workers find themselves in gives them the freedom to do what they normally would not do back home as there are no more social controls. In other words, "no more inhibitions, no more taboos", Ciceri said, adding 'the worker is just one of the thousands".
The anonymity and the fact that many return to Taiwan bearing false identities put workers in a situation that make them prone to risky behaviour. "In Taiwan, everyone is single," he said, referring to the practice of even married people getting into illicit relationships, including lesbian and homosexual relationships among fishermen.
Heterosexual relationships among workers sometimes result in pregnancy, which is unwelcome and prohibited under their work contracts. This leads to abortion, he said.
"Brokers consider workers a milking cow to squeeze as much money from and the people at large consider migrant workers dirtier, less intelligent, less reliable than the local people and, in the midst of an economic crisis, blame them for the high unemployment."
In the case of 'foreign brides' or women who are brought in as wives for local men, Ciceri said this is a common practice in Taiwan but has grown in magnitude over the last 15 to 20 years. He said the first wave of foreign brides was from the Philippines, followed by those from Indonesia and Thailand. Now, the Vietnamese are coming into the trade.
These women are procured through an agency by men whom Ciceri described as coming from the low-income bracket, with physical or mental handicaps with an addiction to either alcohol or drugs who cannot get a local woman for a wife.
"Cultural differences, lack of love, language barrier make these marriages doomed from the beginning."
* * *
Indian demographer Ashish Bose painted migrant workers in a positive light, calling them a dynamic element in society. "Migrants have historically played an important role in economic development, in progress, in dynamism, making societies vibrant," he said in his presentation.
The United States, he said, can trace its success to migrants, who are generally more hardworking than the native Americans, he said.
The academic researcher went on to say that industrialised countries face a demographic problem as the number of old people will soon exceed the young. This, he explained, would lead to labour shortages. "Therefore migrants from Asia, Africa, Latin America have a great role to play in the sustenance of the developed countries."
He said while it is true that migrant workers do experience loneliness and isolation while away from their families, and may suffer abuse in their work places, there is positive side to migration that is sometimes overlooked.
Bose urged the journalists not only to think of migration's social costs, but also its positive effects: high income, higher level of education and upward social mobility.
It would be ideal, he said, if stories on migrant workers could have a human element, backed by facts and figures and linked to development, urbanisation and general health concerns. "Don't get hooked up only with HIV/AIDS," he said.
