By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Bulatlat.com

The largest Filipino migrant alliance in Hong Kong has challenged the Benigno Aquino III administration to rethink its labor-export program and economic policies. The group said Aquino should do this as a move against “rising xenophobia and social exclusion” in the former British protectorate and other migrant-destination countries.

United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-HK) chairwoman Dolores Balladares expressed alarm over what they said was the “worsening racist and socially discriminatory sentiments” in the various host-countries. This situation, Balladares said, is being deliberately ignored by the Aquino administration.

According to Balladares, overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are facing a “potentially explosive social situation” in Hong Kong.

Balladares said hate messages against migrant workers are proliferating in Hong Kong, and are being posted on the internet. The various hate-messages include calls for foreign domestic workers to go home and calling them as “cockroaches” in HK society.

“Foreign domestic workers are being depicted as parasites or the cause of social chaos in HK. There have been news also that the Hong Kong government is studying putting a cap on the number of contracts of foreign domestic workers,” Balladares said. “The Aquino administration should speak out against this and obtain concrete assurances from the Hong Kong government that the basic rights of migrant workers will be protected as the Right of Abode debate unfolds,” she said.

Right of Abode (ROA) refers to the HK law on the right to land in HK; to be free from any condition of stay (including a limit of stay) there; to not be deported and not to be removed.
The statute bars the Chinese territory’s 200,000-odd foreign domestic workers from being covered by the law. Migrant groups in HK have been long asserting that the statute’s coverage is only one of HK’s many discriminatory acts against migrant workers. Others have been the New Conditions of Stay, the ban on Nepali migrants and the exclusion of foreign domestic workers from the Statutory Minimum Wage.

According to Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APPM), such cases of institutionalized social exclusion cast doubt on HK’s Legislative Council’s ability to uphold international standards on human rights and labor migration, and also give it the dubious distinction of being one of the most anti-migrant parliaments in East Asia. This continues, the APMM said, despite governing a constituency that has been heavily dependent on the underpaid ministrations of foreign domestic workers for the last three decades.

“Fanning chauvinism has always been an obnoxious and despicable way to get publicity, especially for such narrow political ends and given the thin line dividing xenophobia and virulent racism. We need only mention the recent right-wing terrorism in Norway to illustrate the destructive potential of these Hong Kong politicians’ insidious hate-mongering,” it said.

Asian Migrants’ Coordinating Body (AMCB) for its part said the denial of the right of abode to foreign domestic workers also transgresses international conventions that seek equality of treatment regardless of race, gender or social standing.

Among the AMCB’s members are the Association of Sri Lankans in Hong Kong , Asosiasi Tenaga Kerja Indonesia di Hong Kong, (Association of Indonesian Migrant Workers in Hong Kong), Far-East Overseas Nepalese Association – Hong Kong (FEONA-HK), the Filipino Migrant Workers’ Union, Friends of Thai – Hong Kong, the Overseas Nepali Workers’ Union, the Thai Regional Alliance, and Unifil.

“Agreements such as the Universal Declaration for Human Rights, International Convention for the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers and Their Families, Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Conventional for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women are just some of the human rights standards that are being violated with the continued denial of the right of abode to foreign domestic workers,” the AMCB said.

Inclusion in coverage of Right to Abode, not a priority among OFWs
The APMM also pointed out that some HK politicians have been riding on the issue and pandering on the deep-seated xenophobia of many locals as a means to bolster their chances in the upcoming elections.

The group clarified, however, that anyone who has organized migrant workers in Hong Kong knows that inclusion in the Right of Abode ranks low in the list of demands of foreign domestic workers.

“High on that list are higher wages, better working condition and the right to join organizations. It is primarily because they wanted to help their families and improve their quality of life that pushed them to seek greener pastures abroad. Their families are also their reason why they return to their home-countries, with the exception of a few who already live with their families in Hong Kong due to very uncommon reasons,” it said.

Given this, the APMM said, it’s the height of arrogance and condescension for the Hong Kong government to presume that majority of the city’s migrant workers are eager to forsake country and family for a lonely, hardscrabble and second-class existence in its territories.

“Such a presumption is one-sided and utterly disregards the migrant workers’ hefty contributions to Hong Kong’s economy and society in general,” it said.

The APMM cited a local study conducted by the Mission for Migrant Workers (MFMW) in 2009, wherein it was discovered that foreign domestic workers spend some 50 person of their meager wages in Hong Kong, a considerable infusion when taken as a sectoral aggregate.

“The productivity and quality of life of hundreds of thousands of employees and corporate expats in the city would also quickly deteriorate were these foreign domestic workers to leave en masse,” it said.

The group asserted that migrant workers in the territories do not consider the selective application of the Right of Abode law to be a major cause for outrage.
“What we take issue with is the callously utilitarian attitude that underlies labor migration policies not only in Hong Kong but in all host-countries, one that finds nothing immoral about living off the backs of foreign labor and then treating them like dirt – as both social and racial inferiors. This is not only slavery; this is slavery-based racism,” it said.

Globalization and migrant labor

Unifil’s Balladares said the anti-migrant hysteria being whipped up by certain sectors in Hong Kong is just an indication of what can go wrong when labor-export as a core economic policy is implemented.
“The Aquino government has been turning a blind eye to negative effects such as this because it continues to reap short-term benefits from the policy in terms of remittances. Filipino migrants, on the other hand, are left to deal with the racial and social tensions,” she said.

Balladres also cited the Norway massacre, the Saudization Policy in Saudi Arabia, and the massive riots in the United Kingdom as warning signs that tolerance for labor migration has reached saturation point around the globe.

“You can’t push about large numbers of people from different cultures and nationalities without expecting adverse reactions from entrenched locals,” she said.

Finally, Balladares explained that while she believes in the ideal of multiculturalism and that it is “desirable and attainable at a certain level,” it “simply does not happen overnight” and not without a coherent and firm policy that includes educating locals extensively on racial tolerance.

“But we also have to admit that certain systemic conditions exist in societies like HK that prohibit racial and social harmony,” she said.

She said global labor outsourcing and neoliberal globalization, to which both Hong Kong and Philippine governments subscribe, are incapable of providing suitable conditions for the growth and development of multiculturalism.

“These policies are grounded on the greatest possible exploitation of workers and the destruction of trade unionism in both origin and destination countries. Globalization thrives by pitting all workers and cultures against each other, within and across national borders,” she said.
The migrant leader said it is long overdue for governments like those of the Philippines to overhaul their basic development strategy into one that eliminates “push factors” in forced labor migration.
“Ending joblessness at home should be the prime social goal of the Philippine government. It should make long-term plans along this line, and it can start with the eradication of landlessness and the construction of a comprehensive and locally-controlled industrial base in the country. These twin policies will utilize surplus labor at home and eliminate the need to seek gainful employment and livelihood abroad,” she said.

Balladares also appealed to anti-migrant drum beaters in Hong Kong to refrain from picking on migrant workers, and, instead, to support their strategic calls to end social injustices and neoliberal policies at home which will enable labor migrants to return eventually and voluntarily to their respective countries.