Workshop: Racism and the discriminations against foreign workers and migrants. Migrants as part of the working class
Speaker: Matis Santos - Cordillera People's Democratic Front, Philippines

FILIPINO MIGRANTS IN FORTRESS EUROPE
By Migrante-Europe
Anti-Imperialist, Anti-Capitalist Meeting
Athens, Greece
4-7 May 2006

Situation of Filipino Migrants in Europe

There are reportedly more than 7 million Filipinos who are living outside the country to find work or settle permanently in other countries to seek a better life. This is nearly ten percent of the Philippine population. This is because the Philippines is an underdeveloped, unindustrialized, agrarian country dominated by foreign monopoly capital and the local ruling classes who have no interest in developing the country as long as they can extract rent and comprador profits.
There are 425.000-600.000 Filipinos in Europe, of which 80 percent are women working in the services sector, mainly as domestic helpers (DH) The bulk of DHs are in Italy, Spain, Greece, Belgium, Austria, Belgium and the UK. There are also Filipino workers in the construction, mining and garment industry.
There is a noticeable increase of Filipino nurses being recruited especially in the UK and Spain.
Among our Filipino compatriots, the issue of being undocumented or irregular workers is getting to be a big problem, given the policy of deportation by many EU countries.
The EU has announced that more than 800.000 undocumented workers enter Europe each year. There is a report about 2.000 persons who drowned trying to reach southern Europe from the African continent.
Deportations have become commonplace in France, Belgium, Germany, UK, and the Nordic countries. Even those who have been given refugee status can still be deported on trumped up charges of terrorism or other crimes.
In the Netherlands, 26.000 undocumented and rejected asylum seekers are expected to be deported in the next three years. This has caused fear and apprehension among the more than 3.000 undocumented Filipinos in the Netherlands.
Funds for advocacy of migrant and refugee rights are being slashed. In many countries, it is becoming unlawful to provide assistance to the undocumented
While many EU member countries widely use migrant labor due to their ageing population, the EU policy seems to be "shut out as many entrants, integrate a few and deport as many". Capitalist can often hire cheap and docile migrant labor because of the migrants’ feeling of insecurity.
More and more, migrants are seen as a police problem rather than a social and human rights issue More funds are allocated for control, detention and deportation, rather than meeting the social and economic needs of migrants.
With the anti-terrorism hysteria that right-wing European governments have fanned, a certain kind of xenophobia has been created and social tensions have arisen between the host peoples and migrants.
In the Netherlands, migrants/foreigners are required by law to show a valid passport. Failure to do so could mean deportation. The undocumented migrants organized themselves to launch a campaign to make the Philippine Embassy and Consulate take action.
The US-instigated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) listing of Prof Jose Maria Sison and the CPP-NPA was adopted by the Netherlands, UK and Germany. The EU has also placed Prof. Sison and the NPA in its "terrorist" list. It is reported that 30 other Filipinos are listed.
In Ireland, a Filipino migrant worker from Mindanao was arrested and imprisoned since 2003 for allegedly being a finance officer of a terrorist organization in Mindanao.
After the bombings in the UK, many migrants have become victims of arrests and detentions. We know of a Filipina who was arrested and detained in connection with the crackdown.
The policy of deportation and the anti-terrorism laws are exerting much pressure on migrants, the undocumented ones in particular.
For those who are in regular employment, they are faced with the problem of low salaries and unfavorable working conditions. A study in the UK was made for 4 service sectors (caregivers, hospitality, contract cleaning and food processing). Ninety percent of those employed are migrants of which 90% earn less than the minimum wage and suffer from unfavorable employment conditions.

Organizing work

Migrants are organizing themselves for their rights and welfare and to meet their social needs.
Migrante International has set up 13 member organizations in Europe. They are organized as women, youth and migrants. We have 4 Migrante Sectoral Party chapters (Belgium, UK, Italy and Netherlands).
There is an increasing number of migrant organizations along sports, religious, cultural and ethno-linguistic lines.
The ratio between the unorganized and the organized is high. There are still a lot of organizing to do among Filipino migrants.
There is a problem and lack of fulltime organizers and conservatism relative to the opportunities to expand and recruit more members and organize more mobilizations/campaigns.
Campaigns were undertaken in support of the movement in the Philippines to force the corrupt, repressive and reactionary Arroyo government, against high fees being charged by the Philippine missions in various European countries and regarding the political killings of progressive activists in the Philippines.
Filipino migrant organizations have also joined anti-war and anti-imperialist globalization marches and rallies in many European countries.

Alliance Work

There is an urgent need for migrant organizations of different nationalities to work together to defend themselves from the increasingly inhospitable policies of European governments.
A seemingly successful example of this kind of cooperation is the Caravan in Germany which has launched campaigns to protect the rights and advance the welfare of asylum seekers, and undocumented migrants from Asia, Africa, etc.
Progressive parties and social movements of the host peoples have an important role to play in defending the rights of migrants and promoting their welfare as part of their commitment to the building of international solidarity among peoples.

Down with the narrow ultra-nationalism being promoted by European right wing governments!
Long live international solidarity!