Week 4_Miguel Flores_ASA114

Pei-Chan Lan expanded the discourse on the legal provisions and loopholes on the protection of migrant laborers working overseas, specifically, in Taiwan. Lan used the case study of Priscilla, a Filipino Overseas Contract Worker (OCW), who was assigned to stay-in as a guest worker in one of many households in Taiwan. Her documented status offers a complicated paradigm that highlights the downsides of being a guest worker overseas. Lan exposes, through the experiences of Priscilla, the risks that people take when signing off a contract overseas. “Three-D jobs: dirty, dangerous, and difficult (254)” surmises the working conditions of most migrant laborers in the industry of “guest workers.” Though some legal policies and mandates protect guest workers, the provisions are limited, and it has loose translations of mandates on an international scale. Employers and recruitment agencies find loopholes in the contexts of these policies and take advantage of desperate people who are willing to try their luck abroad in exchange for a better life for their families at home. Countries that export laborers is valued as a commodity and named as “national heroes” of the country. It promotes the idealization of migrant laborers and their financial contribution not only for their families but also for their homeland (256).

Speaking from experience, I have friends whose relatives tried their luck to work abroad by setting up appointments with recruitment agencies. Most of the time, their legitimate, but some, unfortunately, projects false hopes by faking people’s documents and leaving them on their own once they signed off a shoddy contract with an unknowingly abusive employer abroad. Cases like these make laborers vulnerable to unjust working conditions without pay and sometimes imprisoned in their workplace while some, if they are lucky, return home severely injured and traumatized by their experiences abroad. There’s a rising case of maltreatment of guest workers in the Middle East and many grassroots organizations are rallying and demanding the Philippine consulate and embassy in the Middle East to have stricter laws and protection for laborers against abusive employers and shoddy recruitment agencies. Maralie Brua is one of many laborers who endured maltreatment from her past employers so that she can send back money to help her family at home. Most of these migrant laborers are contracted, but after their contracts expire, they illegally continue their employment and still work as they become a hostage in their own workplace. Currently, there are no strict labor laws in the Middle East and this brings in a disturbing query if the Philippine government even cares about its people? This has been going on for quite some time through different administrations; the Philippine government still continues to fail in protecting its people working overseas – a radical change needs to happen!

Citations:

Human Rights Watch. “Domestic Workers Trapped, Exploited, and Abused in the UAE.” YouTube. 22 October 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXqHLFngobw

Pei-Chia Lan, “Legal Servitude and Free Illegality: Migrant “Guest” Workers in Taiwan.” Asian Diasporas.