History Entwined

If it were not for immigrant women, we might not be celebrating the 8th of March as International Women’s Day (IWD) today, where we honour and recognize women’s contributions, and also protect their rights. Although IWD has been observed since the early 1900’s when the world then,  cataclysmic owing to industrial expansion and booming population growth, witnessed impassioned women campaigning for change.  It made headlines when15 000 women, probably immigrant women among them,  marched  in 1908 through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.

The Past….
At the 1910 International Conference of Working Women  in Copenhagen, Clara Zetkin, working for the Social Democratic Party in her native Germany, tabled the idea of an International Women’s Day before more than 100 women from 17 countries, among them members of political parties and working women’s clubs,  including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament. Zetkin’s suggestion was unanimously approved at the meeting.Thus was IWD celebrated for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on 19 March 1911 with more than one million women and men attending.
But less than a week later on 25 March, the tragic ‘Triangle Fire’ in New York City occurred, taking the lives of 146 garment workers, mostly Italian and Eastern European -Jewish- women immigrants. The tragedy  underscored  the dangerous working conditions of immigrant women workers  in New York’s  sweatshops. It was a turning point for women workers and  hence became instrumental in changing American labour laws.
From then on, the meaning of the tragic event would later be incorporated into the empowerment  thrust  commemmorated on March 8th, now known as  International Women’s Day, IWD, with special stress on women workers. That was exactly a century ago on March 8 this year in 2011..
The present…
A whole  century of struggle for rights has certainly brought significant changes to women workers lives but in  many parts of the world, women’s work continues to be undervalued, underpaid, or unremunerated and every single day in the calendar, women and girls in the Global  South,  following their dreams of a better life, leave  home to find jobs to secure their future by moving to the developed world of the North/West. They migrate to continents and cultures so far from their own.

Feminisation of Migration
According to I.O.M (International Office for Migration)’s bi-annual World Migration Report in  2010, 3% of the world’s population or 214 million people were on the move, and  49% of  these international migrants were women or girls, the portion of females reaching 51% in more developed regions. Constituting 50% or  more of the migrant workers in Asia, Africa and Latin America are now women heads of households among these, who see it as their duty to go abroad and earn so as to support  their families’ well being, eg. the education of their children. Yet there is no indication that  guarantees exist so more women can migrate in  safety and protection. On the contrary, the area of protection has been marginalised, women migrants are still subjected to multiple discrimination, and the incidence of irregularity and of trafficking is rising..
But even without this criminal twist to female migration, women workers still pay the social costs of migration since they suffer psychologically and emotionally from the separation from their  children which take a toll on their health and quality of life.

Gendered Trends
According to the same report,  the trend of female migration will continue owing to the demographic factor of  an ageing population in the developed world requiring the extra hands of female immigrants to provide care. Yet  employers, governments and society  in receiving countries fail to value women’s work  which is considered of  low status. Care, esp, when it is expended within the domestic sphere is invisible. And not valued.
Additionally,  women workers  are denied their right to fair wages and humane working conditions. When they come into contact with the law, they are deprived of their right to due process, the right to be protected against inhuman and degrading treatment, the right to be heard and air grievances, including the right to complain without the threat of verbal abuse or withholding of salary. These are everyday happenings for migrant women in certain parts of the world.. aside, from these, they often have noaccess to counselling, legal and social services. More so than other workers, domestic workers including  the new arrivlas, the au pairs found in iincreasing numbers in norther Europe, are vulnerable to deprivation oe abuse of their rights, and maybe be exposed to physical violence, including sexual harassment and rape.

Trafficking and smuggling for labour and the sex industry mainly involving women and children is a more lucrative business than the drug trade. With the financial crisis still unresolved, unscrupulous elements in this nexus of migration and criminality will ply their trade more vigorously to bring in their ill-gotten incomes.
MDGs and Migrant Women:“Empowering Women to End Poverty by 2015”
In 2000, the Millennium Development Goals  or MDGs were set by the world’s leaders who agreed on a global cooperation to fight poverty by formulating 8 specific goals. Not one of the 8 however was on international migration,  inspite of the role of remittances and diaspora communities as agents of change in home countries. Indeed, it is  a crosscutting phenomenon,  rather like  gender equality which is one of the MDGs, ie./Goal 3.

Inspite there being one specific goal on gender equality, without progress towards the empowerment of women, including migrant women, none of the other goals will be achieved. Women disproportionately experience the burden of poverty  as victims of discrimination, and yet they put their lives at risk every time they become pregnant because more often than not, they have no access to basic health services  nor reproductive rights orientation, showing an interplay of several unfulfilled MDGs.
Last year’s UN MDG Summit in New York in September  2010 concluded with the adoption of a global action plan to achieve the eight anti-poverty goals by their 2015 target date and the announcement of major new commitments for women’s and children’s health and other initiatives against poverty, hunger and disease.

The UN Migrant Workers Convention and International Migrants Day
20 years has passed since the UN attempted in 1990 to enshrine migrant workers rights in a Convention adequately entitled the UN Convention for Migrant Workers and Members of their Families,  UNMWC for short. It first entered into force in 2003 but already in 1997, Filipino migrants began to celebrate the 18th of December to commemorate international migrants solidarity day. And finally on Dec.4th 2000, it was decided by the UN that there ought to be  an International Migrants Day to remind member states, intergovernmental actors as well as NGOs  of their obligations to ratify the Convention as well as to disseminate information on the human rights of migrants, recognizing their contributions to the well being of host societies.

The UNMWC is the only Human Rights instrument that specifically addressesthe rights of migrants but unfortunately it is also the least ratified…Not one European or North American state has come forward to lead the way.  There is a long way to go, in fact, it has almost not started .As of last count there were only 44 nations who have ratified  the Convention, and all of them from the Global South. There are  further some 15 signatories to the Convention, again none from the so-called developed nations.

The ILO Domestic Workers Convention
The ILO has a number of Conventions thru the 1980s and ’90s, all of them having to do with questions relevant to migrant workers but none seem to cater directly to women migrants. In 2011, a new Convention will likely be passed and this will be about domestic workers rights. Considering that   domestic workers are predominantly women, and the demographic deficit will require more and more  care from the Global South,  and with a fast ageing population in the developed nations,  such a Convention will secure aspects to this grey and unprotected  labour area but will not  necessarily address  ALL  migrant women’s rights.

The new convention was passed at the ILO’s June 2-18 2010 meeting in Geneva, attended by more than 2,500 delegates from member countries, trade unions and employer’s confederations. This new DWC provides for freedom of association, fair terms of employment and decent working and living conditions, easy access to dispute settlement procedures, regulation of employment agencies and protection of migrant domestic workers. This part will require hard bargaining since it is about  substantive provisions to  include protection from abuse, wage regulation, fair and decent conditions of work and social security for domestic workers — migrant, live-in and other categories of this extremely vast, unregulated and unprotected workforce. The ILO also called for state parties to hold consultations with stakeholders and provide comments on the proposed convention to set fair labour standards in domestic work.

This year 2011, it is expected,that we will see both international and domestic law on this important subject in place. The fact that the work site for domestic work is often the home of the employer, not a public place, is considered problematic because the right to privacy of employers is put forward as contradictory to the rights of the domestic worker supposedly in  regulated employment. Also, the aforementioned  rapid rise in crossborder trafficking calls for special protection for migrant domestic workers, many of whom cross international  borders without proper documentation. The Convention must also address  the important issue of reintegration and/or return after end of contract, a time when the women workers  are particularly at risk. It is also established that domestic workers are especially vulnerable to sexual harassment and sexual assault, and often find it impossible to access the criminal justice system. Protection must be offered to domestic workers against sexual harassment, especially more relevant to certain areas in the world than others.
ILO in the Middle East
The ILO is also encouraging the  drafting of labour legislation to provide foreign domestic workers (FDWs) in the Middle East with legal protection.Arab trade unions agreed on a statement of principles, including the right to decent wages and union representation for FDWs, after a workshop in Beirut, Lebanon, earlier in November 2010. The phenomenon [FDW] has taken off in recent years as family networks are taking on workers to help with social care, such as caring for elderly parents, people with disabilities and children.Only Jordan has comprehensive labour legislation covering FDWs in a region that employs 22 million domestics, a third of whom are women, mainly from Asian and African countries, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Ethiopia.

Domestic labour is used worldwide but is especially widespread in the Middle East and where according to Human Rights Watch (April 2010), FDWs face a wide range of abuses and poor working conditions, such as needing permission to leave the house, a lack of leave days, having their passports taken away and, in some cases, physical and emotional abuse. The report also noted that access to justice was limited. Experts say the recruitment system –  kafala – in which an employing family sponsors the domestic worker, is the first issue to tackle. Also advocacy for the rights of domestic workers is weak and language is a barrier.

The ILO is also working with governments on other initiatives, including awareness literature, hotlines for FDWs, communal housing that would offer domestic workers an alternative to living in the employer’s home, and government bodies rather than private agencies to manage recruitment.
Governments, trade unions, and other civil society organizations in both the countries of origin and destination need to be more engaged. Private employment agencies are making a profit out of workers who are coming to the region to take care of the social care needs of households here. These needs should be a part of social policies and programmes of the countries’ governments, rather than being left to private households.

Conventions aimed specifically at Women
We work with women before they depart to train them in their rights as workers, employment responsibilities and basic information about contracts.  We work with women once they arrive in the country to ensure they have safe housing, legitimate contracts and workplace rights.  We also   work with women who are returning to their families after periods away and supporting them to     re-enter their family life. (UNIFEM)

CEDAW, Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
CEDAW is an international treaty that can also be invoked to address women migrants’ issues. With 178 ratifications by countries of origin, transit and destination, CEDAW is one of the most widely ratified of conventions, ranking second only to the Convention on the rights of the Child
This  Convention  was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 1979, and is one of the most comprehensive international human rights treaties for the promotion of women’s rights. It looks at women’s civil rights, their legal status, reproductive rights, but also cultural factors influencing women’s position in society and the enjoyment of their rights.

At some point, the UN Cedaw Committee, affirming that migrant women, like all women, should not be discriminated against in any sphere of their life, decided to issue a General  Recommendation on some categories of women migrant workers in these words:

Recognizing that migrant women may be classified into various categories and that these categories remain fluid and overlapping, the scope of the general recommendation is limited to addressing the situations of migrant women who, as workers, are in low-paid jobs, may be at high risk of abuse and discrimination and who may never acquire eligibility for permanent stay or citizenship, unlike professional migrant workers in the country of employment. These categories of migrant women are: (a) women migrant workers who migrate independently; (b) women migrant workers who join their spouses or other members of their families who are also workers; and undocumented women migrant workers who may fall into any of the above categories.

The General Recommendation 27, also known as GR 27, issued at its 32nd Session in January 2005  aims to elaborate the circumstances that contribute to the specific vulnerability of many women migrant workers and their experiences of sex- and gender-based discrimination as a cause and consequence of the violations of their human rights.
The full text  is available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/comments.htm..

CEDAW: the view from Europe
Together with a couple of other related organizations,UNIFEM organised a Roundtable on the CEDAW and Migrant Women during its 30th anniversary in Geneva in November 2009,  two migrant women were invited from Europe (one from WIDE/KULU/Babaylan and another from the European Netowrk of Migrant Women) to share their experience from the ground regarding human rights challenges for women migrant workers in Europe and the forms of multiple discrimination they are facing.
Bilateral agreements between countries to protect migrant workers are generally lacking, and that many migrant women do not have papers or contracts, as a result of trafficking or their illegal status, and therefore have no place to go for protection, nor for services such as health care.

Migrant women in Europe also often lack access to social benefits (e.g. pensions), and might therefore face poverty at old age. A further complication is that many migrant women that do domestic work are not protected, for example regarding domestic violence, as the ‘home’ by law is not seen as an official workplace, but as a private area.

One of the difficulties to protect migrant workers arises from the fact that the women leave on their own initiative and do not go through official organizations or networks, nor do they seek advice with State institutions. This makes it very difficult for States to provide these migrant workers with support.
Other issues raised during the discussion ranged from good practice examples in training and education of migrant workers, which nowadays is primarily a task taken up by civil society and which many said should also become the responsibility of States, so is  protection of families, domestic migration and national streamlining of migration policy among various ministries.

Concluding words
IWD is a global  celebration to focus on the  economic, political and social achievements of all women without regard for differences among them. Maybe with the newly established United  Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women — or UN Women —  now fully functioning,  the UN can help member states to “accelerate progress towards their goals on gender equality and the empowerment of women.” And put power and meaning into the celebration of International Women’s Day hopefully for generations to come.

                          

NEW YORK, United States—State Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton is probably the highest American official who has an intimate knowledge of Filipinos, their dreams, and aspirations.

This was manifest during the signing of the $434-million US Millennium Corp. grant that she and visiting President Benigno Aquino III presided over last September 22 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.

Speaking extemporaneously, Clinton—who speaks openly of her close relationship with Filipinos, especially during her term as senator representing New York—gave a glimpse of how much she knows about the Filipino psyche.

She said:

“Millions of people in the Philippines have left their native land for a better opportunity. They love the Philippines. I know because I know many of them. They try to go home when they can afford to do it. They retire back to the Philippines. They want to be sure their children and grandchildren are raised in the Philippines.”

Then Clinton, dressed in an elegant indigo blue suit, addressing the new Philippine president continued:

“We hope that, Mr. President, the people of your country will be able to make a good living in their own country. And in order to do that, there must be a partnership that creates the conditions for economic opportunity.”

But what endeared the charming state secretary to the Filipinos in the audience were these words:

“I know how smart the Filipino people are. I know how hard they work. I’m not sure there’s any group of people anywhere in the world that work harder than Filipinos.

“But let’s be very honest here. Too many of them feel that they cannot progress in their own country. Too many of them feel that the elite in business and politics basically call the shots, and there’s not much room for someone who’s hardworking, but not connected. Too many of them believe that even if they get the best education they can, that there won’t be an opportunity for them, and so they take that education and help build someone else’s economy, very often here in the United States.”

This writer observed that as Mrs. Clinton made her way to the stage where the signing ceremony was to take place, she hugged some Filipino friends in the audience. And on her way out, she blew kisses to the same groups of Filipino American friends and constituents from New York state.

Not too many top diplomatic officials would risk speaking these strong words in an official function. But Hillary Clinton, because of her close relationship with the Filipino people has the inside track—and the charm and candor—to speak up.

Even the usually skeptical media people covering the event were quite impressed by the gracious top American diplomat.

Clinton’s remarks—and how she delivered them with graciousness and tack—were the topic for conversation during dinner among the Philippine media people who covered the event.

Here is a powerful US official who knows and understands the dreams and aspirations of Filipinos, especially the three million Pinoys who have chosen the United States as their adopted country. For most of us who toil in the “land of milk and honey,” it’s really nice to know that Hillary Clinton is there for us.

Jun Medina, FilAm Star

                          

POSTED by newly established K.I.M.E.N, Kvindelige Immigranternes Media ENhed, Filomenita Mongaya Høgsholm, M.Sc.,B.A. Dipl.Pæd., Founder

Women are still significantly underrepresented and misrepresented in news media coverage, according to Global Media Monitoring Project research in 108 countries coordinated by the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) despite significant change since the project began 15 years ago.

76% of the people heard or read about in the world’s news are male. The world seen in news media remains largely a male one.

The GMMP monitored 1,365 newspapers, television and radio stations and Internet news sites, 17,795 news stories and 38,253 persons in the news in 108 countries with 82% of the world’s people.

The report Who Makes the News? The Global Media Monitoring Project 2010  was released today in Arabic , English, French and Spanish, along with numerous regional and national reports.

24% of people in the news are female, compared to 17% in 1995. 44% of persons providing popular opinion in news stories are female compared to 34% in 2005.

News media show significant gender bias with 46% of news stories reinforcing gender stereotypes. 13% of news stories focus centrally on women. Expert commentary is overwhelmingly male with only one female in every five experts. The age of women in the news is mentioned twice as often and family status almost four times as often as for men.

Today female reporters are responsible for 37% of stories compared to 28% fifteen years ago, and their stories challenge gender stereotypes twice as often as stories by male reporters.

Gender bias in Internet news is similar and in some respects even more intense than that found in the traditional news media.

The 2010 report contains a plan of action for media professionals and others committed to gender-ethical news media.

The GMMP is the largest and longest running research and advocacy initiative on fair and balanced gender representation in the news media. It is coordinated by WACC, a global network of communicators promoting communication for social change, in collaboration with data analyst Media Monitoring Africa, and with support from the United Nations Development Fund for Women.

Excerpted by WORLDSCAN
News and Features from “Who makes the News”
WACC Secretariat, Toronto, Canada

                          

International Artist group
(Danish,Swedish,Faroese,French,American)

TINGHUS GALLERY
Fredensborg,Denmark Tinghusvej 13
October 8-20th everyday! 12 to 5pm

Invitation to Art Exhibition, Jazz ,Blues and more, Jam ,Party,Concert, Poetry
Refreshments, Wine Tasting, Filomenita’s Jewelry
October 9th *Saturday kl 13-17.30

For more info go to Faith Copeland
Tel 31385421

                          

EMKR is  having elections on Saturday, 25 September. Everybody who can, please come and support the only Asian on the 9-person Executive Board.

See you soon!
(‘te) Nitnit
Mumchai and Mutti

                          

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said the adoption of the Manila Declaration containing a provision protecting migrant workers abroad will provide the government a platform “to follow up on these [Arab] countries.”

The Manila Declaration was adopted by some 118 members of the NAM at the conclusion on Thursday of the Special NAM Ministerial Meeting held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).

The Philippines is the world’s third-largest source of migrant workers, next to China and India. Their remittances reaching $18 billion this year also continue to buoy the ailing local economy, which is marred with rampant corruption and lack of effective governance.

However, half of the overseas Filipino workers (OFW) are domestic helpers but they do not provide the biggest bulk of OFW remittances because they are mostly underpaid and suffer from various forms of physical and sexual abuses.

The NAM document stressed on “the positive contributions of migration and increased people-to-people contacts in increasing understanding and fostering tolerance and cooperation among cultures and religions.”

The provision also reiterated the “responsibility of the [NAM] governments to safeguard and protect the rights of all migrants against illegal acts, in particular, acts of incitement to ethnic, racial and religious discrimination, hostility or violence and crimes perpetrated with racist or xenophobic motivation by individuals or groups.”

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Policy Erlinda Basilio admitted that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and their Families “is not universally signed and ratified.”

This, she said prompted the Philippines to push for the creation of a global platform at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to campaign for the ratification of the treaty.

The Philippines has more than 2 million migrant workers in the Middle East countries, half of them in Saudi Arabia.

The treaty on migrant workers was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1990. The Philippines ratified the treaty in 1995 following the death sentence by hanging on Filipino domestic helper Flor Contemplacion in Singapore.

Most of the countries in the Middle East and Europe which are host to migrant workers refuse to ratify the UN treaty as it allows for the equal social protection of undocumented workers.

Of the 192 UN member countries, the ratification of the UN treaty has not even reached 50 despite the global campaigns for the protection of the rights of migrant workers. Most of the countries that ratified the treaty are sending migrant workers like the Philippines and other developing countries in Asia and poorer states in Africa.

Meanwhile, the Manila Declaration highlighted the importance of continuing interfaith dialogue “to prevent cultural homogenization and domination or incitement to hatred and discrimination, combat defamation of religions and develop better ways of promoting tolerance, respect for and protection of the freedom of religion and belief.”

The declaration also provides for the respect of the NAM member countries on their “right to preserve one’s cultural identity, stressing the role which the [UN] General Assembly and the relevant UN organs can play in that respect in particular through furthering the much-needed dialogue on those important and sensitive issues.”

Written by Estrella Torres / Reporter
First published in Business Mirror Online Space, 19th March, 2010

                          

The body of 20-year old Anget R. of Madagascar was found hanging from a rope at her employer’s bedroom door Nov. 11. A newspaper in Madagascar reported the deaths of two other Malagasy women in October. One, identified only as Mampionona, was said to have fallen from the balcony of her employer’s house. The other, identified as Vololona, died after reportedly jumping from the balcony.

Sunit Bholan of Nepal, who was 22, allegedly committed suicide Oct. 8. Ethiopian Kassaye Etsegenet, 23, died after reportedly jumping from the seventh floor of her employer’s house Oct. 15. She left behind a suicide note citing personal reasons.

On Oct. 21, 26-year-old Zeditu Kebede Matente of Ethiopia was found dead, hanging from an olive tree. Two days later 30-year old Saneet Mariam also of Ethiopia died after allegedly falling from the balcony of her employer’s house.

The list goes on: Nepalese national Mina Rokaya, 24, and then Tezeta Yalmoya of Ethiopia, 26 – who also died, it was said, when she fell from the balcony.

“It’s a national tragedy,” Nadim Houry, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, tells IPS.

The workers leave their families behind to travel to Lebanon and look after strangers. Many are treated well by their employers; others are less fortunate.

Once in Lebanon, the women may be confined to their employer’s house, and have their passports confiscated and their salaries withheld, increasing their sense of isolation. Many women say they are not allowed out of the house, or get a day off. Complaints of sexual or psychological abuse are not uncommon.

Lebanon’s controversial sponsorship system means that workers are bound to their employers, and face incarceration if they leave. “It’s distressing to note that suicide for some is the only recourse to release from an abusive situation,” says Azfar Khan, senior migration specialist at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) regional office for the Arab states.

Police investigations are often inadequate, usually taking into consideration only the employer’s testimony and failing to cross-check it with neighbours or the worker’s friends or family, says Houry. If the woman is lucky enough to survive a suicide attempt, the police almost never provide her with a translator, or ask whether she had been abused. Cases where abusive employers are imprisoned “are the exception, not the rule,” says Houry.

The recent spate of deaths is not the first. A HRW study last year found that at least 95 women had died between Jan. 1, 2007 and Aug. 15, 2008 – a rate of more than one a week.

Aimee, a freelance domestic worker from Madagascar, has been in Lebanon for almost 12 years. As a community leader now, she helps workers in distress by offering a sympathetic ear and advice.

Many of the women she counsels do not receive a regular salary, or have been abused by their employers or recruitment agency officials. Agencies “check the women’s bags for phone numbers or addresses of their consulate,” Aimee tells IPS. Any numbers found are destroyed to prevent the woman seeking help. “How can they ask someone to work so far away from home and treat them like that?”

Lebanon’s growing notoriety as a hotbed for abuse of rights has compelled the governments of Ethiopia and the Philippines to issue bans on their nationals working in Lebanon. But this hasn’t stemmed the tide of migrants entering through third countries. Bans in any case only “transfer the problem from one nationality to another,” says Houry, because recruitment agencies simply look to new countries for women workers.

One reason for suicides is the false expectations recruitment agencies raise among migrant workers. Many women are led to believe they will work as nurses or as other professionals. “A lot of these women are recruited in rural areas – it’s like taking someone and plucking them into a totally different environment,” says Houry.

One Nepalese woman he spoke to after she broke her leg trying to escape her employer’s house said “she saw the snow on the mountains and thought if she could cross the mountain, she’d be in Nepal.”

Lebanese labour laws do not cover domestic workers. Without any legal protection, foreign workers are vulnerable to exploitation.

“The ILO has been pushing for domestic workers to be covered under labour law – not just in Lebanon but in other countries of the region – so that at least institutionally they enjoy protection and have the option to have their grievances addressed in court,” says Khan. “They are workers, so why should the labour law not apply to them?”

Lebanon has signed the International Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, but has yet to move towards signing the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families – a measure that would obligate it to take protection measures for the migrant community.

But more practical measures the Lebanese could take are to create a national hotline for distressed workers and a labour inspection force to monitor the treatment of migrants, says Houry. “More broadly, society has to mobilise. Not everyone is guilty of ill-treatment, but everyone has to feel responsible. People need to start speaking out and express that this is unacceptable.” (END/2009)

                          

Daughters of globalisation

According to Ms. Mongaya Hoegsholm, in her talk entitled ‘Daughters of globalisation: Filipino women bridging the development gap’, the main push factor for Filipinas leaving the country in such huge numbers is poverty and its flipside: the lack of jobs or at least underemployment. In the Philippines, as in most Asian countries, the main focus is the family, and the main family value is education. In the case of the Philippines (which has a significant segment of its population in poverty in the rural areas), families still prioritise education, and without discriminating against girl children. But while the females in society educate themselves well (more women than men in the Philippines have PhDs), there are not enough possibilities in the job market, if at all. Therefore, the move from countryside to urban areas, thence from the overcrowded cities to leaving for abroad – even when accepting jobs not commensurate to their education – is a more and more common phenomenon, exemplified by au pairs in Europe.

Push and pull factors

Together with KULU and FOA (a labour union of unskilled workers), Filomenita Mongaya Hoegsholm founded a network of au pairs in Denmark with the aim of helping out the new arrivals from the Philippines. In her talk, she focused on the pull factors in this kind of feminised migration, namely the demographic deficit of an ageing Europe, where the elderly people need care, young women are busy with their careers, and young families need care for their young children and other household chores. It is for the latter that European countries open up for Filipina au pairs. Europe needs its cheap labour harnessed under what should strictly be a cultural exchange scheme for young people but is nowadays used as a source for young and cheap labour.

The disadvantage to Filipina women in this situation is not only the unfair labour practice of unjust compensation but also the fact of deskilling where their own educational qualifications slowly diminish from lack of use because they are mainly doing housework or ‘dirty work’. They also run the risk of becoming undocumented because of expired visas, which can occur unintentionally.

Double jeopardy

Filomenita also discussed diaspora philanthropy in the course of the evening. It is widely known that Filipino migrants send high remittances home. Filipinos rank among the top three worldwide in sending billions of dollars of money home. Here the Filipina women workers in Europe experience a double jeopardy: not only do they have obstacles in their everyday situation, fighting for labour rights and against discrimination, racial and gendered, but they also have to argue against European feminists who look at remittances as problematic.

While Filipina migrants see it as their primary aim in migration to help their families and thus send most of their earnings home, this is often seen negatively by European women coming from nuclear families. According to some views, remittances not only impinge on Official Development Assistance (ODA) but also affect a concept of family (as migrating women often leave their children back at home).   

But in fact there is a paradigm shift today, so even in the UN the annual assembly called the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) is precisely looking at the question of remittances – of course, without reneging on migrants’ rights in either the receiving or sending country.

The evening’s panel also consisted of Renate Anderl, the Chairperson of G-mtn frauen, and Helga Neumayer, who is Frauensolidaritaet’s Editor-in-Chief. There were quite a few questions fielded by the participants who came with other competences to add different perspectives to the topic of women and migration and how women mobilise against the current multiple crises resulting in poverty.

First published: WIDE October 2009 Newletter

Filomenita Mongaya Hoeghsolm is also one of five members of the Executive Committee of newly joined WIDE member, Babaylan, the Philippine Women’s Network in Europe, and is the Founding Chair of Babaylan Denmark. She will be addressing a CEDAW+30 Roundtable in Geneva on Women and Migration on 4 November.

                          

On the European level, FMH was elected VIce-President for two terms (1992-94 & 1994-96) and President (1996-98) of BWEN, Black Women and Europe Network. She established Babaylan Denmark in 1997, and since 2004 has been Board member of Babaylan Europe, the Philippine Women’s Network. She continues to be Editor in chief of  ABAKADA, the magazine on women, migration, integration and development established in 2001.

Nitnit as she is fondly called by friends and her family is the onlyAsian among 11 to Denmark’s Women  Minority Council which has a big job to do: change the negative image of migrant women, make women more visible,and facilitate their participation in the Danish Society in the labour market, in politics and in the Danish culture.

Below is the Article published in Women’s Council Newsletter (Kvinderådet Nyhedsbrev nr. 66)

Etniske Minoritetskvinders Råd er dannet

Etniske minoritetskvinder er godt trætte af deres misvisende image som ressourcesvage ofre. Nu har en lang række vidt forskellige foreninger dannet en ny paraply Etniske Minoritetskvinders Råd, som holdt stiftende generalforsamling i København d. 26. september.

60 kvinder fra mere end 20 foreninger var mødt op til generalforsamlingen, der havde valg af bestyrelse som vigtigste punkt på dagsordenen. De 9 bestyrelsesmedlemmer og 2 suppleanter er Tresor Kankindi, AKUDA (Afrikanske kvinders union i Danmark), Hawa Hirsi Hussein, Kvindehuset i Århus, Vanessa de Oliveira Stephensen, NOVUM (Netværk for Videreuddannede med Minoritetsbaggrund), Margrethe Wivel, Indvandrer Kvindecentret, Susanne Langer, United to end racism, Kvindefraktionen i Danmark, Bayan Saleh, Center for Women’s Equality, Hakima Lasham Lakhrissi, Danske-Internationale Kvinder, Annam Al-Hayali, Kringlebakken, Alma Bekturganova Andersen, Verdens Kvinder i Danmark, Filomenita Mongaya Høgsholm, Babaylan og Mudje Husein, Interkulturel Kvindeforening (ICWO)

Formålet med paraplyen er at være talerør for de etniske minoritetskvindeforeninger, platform for samarbejde med andre organisationer – og så skal paraplyen bruges til at understøtte medlemsforeningerne i det praktiske arbejde.

Konsulenterne i Kvinderådets projekt “Ind i foreningerne – ud i samfundet” har været fødselshjælpere for den nye paraply. Projektet har haft fokus på empowerment af de etniske kvindeforeninger og dannelse af netværk på tværs af etnicitet. Og det er til overmål lykkedes med dannelsen af paraplyen.

Med Etniske Minoritetskvinders Råd har Kvinderådet fået en søsterorganisation, og de to paraplyer kommer til at indgå i et tæt samarbejde.

                          

Filomenita Mongaya Hoegsholm, Founding chair of Babaylan Denmark and co-founder of Babaylan EUrope is being invited as one of only two immigrant women in Europe to speak and participate at the CEDAW+30 celebration Roundtable on Women and Migration in Geneva, on November 4th. She will be representing WIDE (Women in Development Europe) and affiliated thru WIDE’s Danish platform KULU and member orgnaization Babaylan Europe.

The regional  event of celebrating CEDAW+30  is jointly sponsored by OHCHR, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN/ECE, the UN Economic Commission and UNIFEM, the UN Development  for Women.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is often described as an international bill of rights for women.  Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination. Learn more about CEDAW by visiting their website http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw.htm

Prior to Geneva, Ms.Filomenita Mongaya Hoegsholm will be in Athens where she is Official Delegate to the GFMD (Global Forum on Migration and Development) Civil Society Days on Nov.2-3 and will go back to Athens to input at the PGA (People’s Global Action), the NGO part of this global gathering from Nov.3-5. Please check the officail website of the GFMD Greece for more details. After GFMD she will join the  Babaylan Europe’s Bi-annual Congress Nov.6-8.