As debt crisis morphs into jobs crunch, Europe cracks down on foreign workers

IF anyone needed any more indication that things have not quite gone back to normal in Europe—where some experts warn that any success in blocking new stimulus programs and tougher banking regulations could lead to a double-dip recession, or even a full-blown depression—the best place to look for confirmation is the migrant- worker sector.

Last week France and members of the European Union began taking concrete steps to rid their territories of undocumented foreign workers, including Filipinos, amid the worsening impact of the European debt crisis.

The French Embassy in Manila said undocumented Filipino workers in France have been increasing in the last two years, prompting its Ministry of Social Affairs to institute measures to restrict their entry into France.

Didier Ortolland, deputy chief of mission of the French Embassy in Manila, said the Filipino community has rapidly grown in France but most of the Filipinos have entered illegally.

He said the number of Filipino workers in France has jumped from 9,000 to 39,000 in the last two years and the government is working to regularize their stay there. Of this number, he said only 20,000 of them are documented workers. But the Philippine government statistics even showed higher figures of Filipino workers in France. The Commission on Filipino Overseas (CFO) estimated there are 47,000 Filipino workers in France as of 2008.

According to Ortolland, the regularization of migrant workers in France is meant to improve their working conditions, since most of the undocumented Filipino workers in France do not usually get a fair salary and good working conditions. “Most of these Filipinos work as maids and each of them usually work for five to 10 families,” he said at a press briefing at Sofitel Hotel on Wednesday, as France commemorated the July 14 taking of the Bastille that sparked the French revolution in 1789.

In that briefing, the French embassy raised optimism that bilateral relations between France and the Philippines will further improve under the leadership of President Aquino.

Ortolland said despite restrictions in taking of migrant workers, France remains open to talented individuals like artists, scientists and painters seeking to pursue further opportunities in their respective fields.

He said restrictions in the entry of migrant workers, however, will be concretized under the recently initialled Partnership Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between the Philippines and the EU. This could be a ticklish matter, given that civil-society groups clamoring for full disclosure of the terms of the pact have not gotten any satisfactory answer to date, and are becoming jittery.

The bilateral agreement with the EU seeks to improve trade and investments, migration, development cooperation and fight against terrorism, officials said.

Ortolland said the PCA also seeks to harmonize the immigration policy of individual EU members to address the increasing number of undocumented migrant workers in their borders.

1-M undocumented Pinoys in Europe

He said Filipino workers in Europe are currently concentrated in Italy, Spain, Italy, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. But, Ortolland said, close to—hold your breath—1 million Filipino workers in Europe are undocumented.

Stock estimates of the Filipino migrant workers in Europe according to the CFO showed there are close to 700,000 documented Filipinos in Europe in 2008. Of this number, 203,400 are in the United Kingdom; 117,000 in Italy; 50,000 in Spain; 47,000 in France; 38,600 in Greece; and 54,700 in Germany. The rest are scattered in smaller numbers across the
continent.

“We are currently working [within EU] to have a common bureaucratic approach to address the problem of illegal migration,” said Ortolland at the Bastille Day celebration briefing.

Ortolland said the PCA will also help the EU member-countries “find a common line on immigration policy.”

Before the European debt crisis broke, the EU had, in fact, already laid down the blueprint of immigration reforms meant to discourage undocumented workers through a slew of sanctions and incentives. The crisis has apparently quickened the pace of the implementation of those reforms. Europe has been experiencing the continuing deep impact of the debt crisis that led to job losses for hundreds of thousands of its nationals, prompting EU member-countries to initiate restrictive measures on illegal migrants to protect jobs for their citizens.

With these, labor-exporting countries like the Philippines would do well, say experts, to seriously rethink their overreliance on remittances, as the impact of the crisis on the host countries’ economies could take much longer than expected. –Estrella Torres, Businessmirror