P H I L I P P I N E S
Migrant Workers' Children Left Behind, Left Out
by Diana Mendoza
MANILA — "We didn't talk the last time you were here. I was afraid of you; I didn't know how to talk to you. I want you to know that it's very difficult to grow up without a father" — Your only girl, Jessa
If Jessa (not her real name) could write a letter to her 'Tatay' (father in the local Tagalog language), this is what she would say.
The girl's handwritten letter was one of hundreds shown to IPS in December by the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People (ECMI) of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
It came from one of the young participants to the seminars the commission carries out in Catholic parishes as part of its mission to reintegrate and strengthen families affected — often divided — by overseas migration of millions of people from this South-east Asian country.
Edmund Ruga, ECMI coordinator for Luzon that covers Metro Manila, said the letter-writing exercise, done at the conclusion of every seminar, is a means of bringing out the feelings and thoughts of children of migrant workers. "Only then can we see that the stories we often hear are true," he told IPS in an interview for International Migrants Day, Dec. 18.
But a look at the children's thoughts in a pre-test they fill out before the seminar could be more upsetting, he said.
In Jessa's pre-test paper, she left blank the spaces that asked for her father's age, his job destination, length of time he has been in the host country and how often he comes home. "She didn't know the answers. She told us the only thing that she knew was that her father was away," Ruga said.
As to a question about how Jessa felt when her father first left to work abroad — whether she was angry, happy, sad, or she "felt nothing" — she picked out the last. Asked why, she replied, "I had not been born yet that day."
Ruga said these sentiments are actually widespread among children of overseas workers — there are 6 million Filipino migrant workers — who grew up with only glimpses of their fathers or mothers.
There are some 8 million Filipino migrant workers in more than 100 countries from Asia to the Middle East and Europe, toiling as nurses, teachers, construction workers, engineers, seafarers and domestic workers. They send home remittances of up to 8 billion U.S. dollars a year, which the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau says is about 10 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product.
Often, the parents come home and stay for only two months at the most, then go back abroad to serve renewed contracts. "Children are left behind and left out. They may be the reason why their parents leave, but they do not have any idea about what's going on," Ruga said.
Everyday, an average of 2,400 Filipinos leave the country to work abroad, according to the Department of Labour and Employment. Some obtain work visas illegally, so they remain undocumented in the labour-receiving countries, and unaided in case they are abused or their work documents violated.
A 1996 study published by the ECMI and its Asia Migration Desk, titled, 'Impact of Labor Migration on the Children Left Behind, said that only 42 percent of Filipino migrants in 97 countries are documented. More than half of all migrants are women.
There is a dearth of data about the effect of migration on families. Organisations that work with migrant families say there are good stories to be shared, but the bulk of them are heart-rending.
"What is lost in the Filipino migrant family is communication," said Ruga. "If we help them recover this, we can reduce the devastation that migration has caused on the family. We know this won't be easy."
The same difficulty is encountered by UGAT Foundation, a Jesuit-founded apostolate based at the Ateneo de Manila University that conducts psychological interventions especially among poor families with migrant members.
"When we're in pain listening to their stories and witnessing how their children live, we beg them (overseas workers) to come home," said Carlos Lagaya, assistant executive director of UGAT, told IPS. "But they always tell us that's so easy to say."
Lagaya's work is focused on Hong Kong, where majority of Filipinos — some 100,000 or more — are female domestic helpers.
He shares the story of Ester, who has separated from her husband because of the void their distance and lack of communication has created in their marriage. The husband now has a family of his own, and Ester has a lesbian relationship.
Although the flight Hong Kong to Manila takes just a little over an hour, Ester came home only twice in her 10 years of work. Her eldest daughter, Mary Ann, now a teenager, is into her second pregnancy out of wedlock and has discontinued school. She and her siblings are taken care of by their grandmother.
Lagaya recalls Mary Ann telling him, "Every time Mama talks to us over the phone, she's always in a hurry. I don't like my condition and I want to talk to her about it."
Lagaya finds himself trying to comfort the children by saying their mother must be busy with work. "But the children are growing up with anger and pain, and we know they can't accept reasons as vague as these," he said.
In truth, he says, most workers intentionally make hasty phone calls to avoid emotional discussions. Often, they end up only confirming if the family has received the money they sent and if 'the kids are all right'.
"They send photos of themselves and their co-workers looking happy at the park, but the children do not know that their parents are having a hard time at work," he said. "They think their parents are happy, but they can't even talk to them or be with them."
Communication becomes necessary for families to stay in touch. Some 90 percent of children write to their parents; almost half do it every month. Many parents — 95 percent — also write and send pictures; some send audio tapes and most make phone calls.
But activists say that society must consider the long-term impact of migration — the labour exodus began in the seventies — and say the social impact on the children will last for generations. ECMI's research shows that 90 percent of children are left to relatives.
Ruga, the ECMI coordinator, said many migrants' children expressed dislike for working and living abroad for long periods of time because of what they have experienced, but this is not the same with graduation-bound college students who do not see jobs at home.
"This will be a cycle," he said, "for as long as there are not enough jobs to keep young people from leaving the country." (END/Copyright IPS)
