HK-based Pinoys seek protection

MANILA, Philippines — Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Hong Kong Friday expressed alarm over the alleged “rising xenophobia and social exclusion” in Hong Kong and other destination countries for migrant workers.

The United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-HK) said there is a “heightening racist and socially discriminatory sentiments in host-countries” including the comments that called foreign domestic workers (FDWs) as “cockroaches” or calling for Filipinos to go home.

The group’s chairperson Dolores Balladares said that FDWs are being depicted as parasites or causing social chaos in Hong Kong.

“Right now, we are in the middle of a potentially explosive social situation in Hong Kong,” Balladares said in a statement.

She asked the Aquino administration to obtain assurances from the Hong Kong government that the basic rights of migrant workers will be protected as the Right of Abode debate unfolds.

A debate on the Right of Abode which is the right to legally reside in Hong Kong and was governed by rules both under British and Chinese administration has been triggered recently by a petition of three Filipino families to press their claim on the right before the High Court.

She said “the ongoing 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 such pitfalls because it is reaping short-term benefits from the policy in terms of remittances, while leaving Filipino migrants to deal with the racial and social tensions that inevitably arise from it,” she added.

Aside from the “overblown” Right of Abode issue in Hong Kong, Balladares also cited the Norway Massacre, “Saudization” in KSA, and the recent London riots “as warning signs that tolerance for labor-exporting has reached saturation point around the globe.”

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

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

She expressed confidence that certain systemic conditions exist in societies like Hong Kong that prohibits racial and social harmony.

“Global labor outsourcing and neoliberal globalization, to which both Hong Kong and Philippine governments subscribe, definitely cannot provide suitable conditions for multiculturalism’s growth, because these are based on greater exploitation of workers and the destruction of trade unionism in both origin and destination countries,” Balladares said.

“‘Globalization’ thrives by pitting all types of workers and cultures against each other, within and across national borders,” she stressed.

Balladares however appealed to anti-migrant drumbeaters in Hong Kong “to refrain from picking on migrant workers, and instead support their calls to end social injustices and neoliberal policies at home which will enable labor migrants to return eventually and voluntarily to their respective countries.” –JC BELLO RUIZ, Manila Bulletin