by Mayan Villalba, Executive Director, Unlad-Kabayan Migrant Services Foundation; Advisor, Global Fund for Women

The Asian financial crisis of 1997 and more recently the September 11th tragedy have devastated the economy of Asia. Jobs have been lost through the relocation of factories to countries where labor is even cheaper and to trade liberalization policies that have forced plant closures in the name of "free trade." Laid-off workers and their children have been forced to look for jobs in other parts of their home country or overseas.

For example, in 1992, a cement factory in Davao City, the Philippines closed down and forced Jocelyn and her husband, Felix, out of their jobs. After two years of looking for employment, the couple decided that one of them should try to work abroad. They took the little money they had and paid the necessary fees to apply for jobs. Whoever got employment first would go and the other would stay home to take care of their two children. After six months, Jocelyn got a job as an entertainer in Japan. Felix stayed home to be with the children.

Women supported by Unlad-Kabayan Migrant Services Foundation prepare fish for sale to gain family income. Photo courtesy Unlad-Kabayan

Labor migration is not a new phenomenon. In the mid-70s, Middle East countries found themselves awash in petrodollars. They embarked on massive development projects that required a lot of additional labor, and tens of thousands of foreign workers, mostly men, responded. In the '80s, technological advances and successive doubledigit growth rates in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong resulted in economic restructuring and labor shortages in specific industrial sectors. As local workers became more educated and skilled, they moved up the employment ladder, creating a need to import foreign workers for domestic work. Another migration wave followed.

This dynamic brought millions of men and women from poor Asian countries into the labor migration cycle and eventually feminized the migrant labor population. Under the system of "salary deduction" or "work now, pay later," poor and unemployed women no longer borrow money to pay their travel costs to work overseas. Instead, they labor as indentured servants, working for one year in a factory to pay off the placement fee. In a situation like Jocelyn's, an entertainer's placement fees are paid by her talent manager, who profits from a large commission on her work. At the end of a six-month contract, the entertainer receives only a small sum. Such situations push many women to go out on dates with clients or dohan and to be more "accommodating" to customers for the tips they get, which can be substantial. The "choice" to find work overseas, leave one's family, and face conditions dubbed by the Japanese as 3K – kikken, kitanai, kitsui or 3D – dirty, dangerous and difficult, seems unimaginable. But when subject to the whims of the global market there is little "choice" involved, just survival economics.

In response to the economic slowdown, a number of groups are integrating economic empowerment strategies in their programs including micro-lending, small business development and skills training. The Unlad-Kabayan Migrant Services Foundation is a pioneer in helping migrant workers establish savings in order to transform the savings into investments in building businesses that generate income and jobs in the home country. Since the work of foreign migrant workers is temporary and precarious, Unlad-Kabayan helps them prepare for their eventual return. The Passinhon Savings Association (PSA), a group of 42 domestic workers in Hong Kong, saved over P500,000 (US $10,000) and built a general store in their home town in Iloilo, the Philippines. Knowing that the store would provide employment, many domestic workers returned to their families in the Philippines. The general store now sells goods to 12 cooperatives and has opened a second branch in a neighboring region. In Bukidnon, the Filipino Association for Mutual Development purchased land for agriculture, allowing a Filipina domestic worker in Hong Kong to return home and work as the farm manager. The farm has created jobs for unemployed farm workers to harvest cut flowers, corn, peanuts and vegetables for the market.

With organizational support, migrants are able to bring in much-needed investments to their local communities and stimulate economic activity. By starting businesses or reinvigorating farmland, they are able to create jobs for themselves and for others in the community. Migrant workers can now leave the dirty, dangerous and difficult jobs and return home to be reunited with their families with dignity and determination.

Ms. Villalba is the former Executive Director of the Asian Migrant Centre in Kowloon, Hong Kong (a GFW grantee). She has been involved in the field of ethnic minority issues for over 20 years as an activist and editor. She is Vice-Chair of Migrants Rights International.