|
By Jeramaiah Opiniano, Special To The Manila
Times
PARIS: Teresa led the way to the Eiffel Tower then to the Trocadero
train station.
“This is where life in Paris for most migrant
workers begins,” she said as a group of Filipinos passing by waved
at her.
“See? During peak tourist seasons, Filipinos
like them walk up to you and talk you into staying,” she said.
That was how it went with her.
Brought to the City of Lights by her
globetrotting Saudi Arabian employer, Teresa struck a conversation
with a fellow Filipino.
“She convinced me to run away, which I did,
because she promised to help me find a job here. It was that
easy.”
While seating at the steps of
Parc-du-Saint-Cloud, where a mob could have dragged down Marie
Antoinette from her residence before she was guillotined during the
French Revolution, Teresa told her story how there has never been a
time than now when it’s easier for workers to move around in spite
of greater state control over migration.
Countries have simply failed to impose control
over people like Teresa who was on her sixth year in France.
What many migration-control schemes may have
missed, or continue to miss, is that the human instinct for survival
grows in proportion to the level of hope that migration offers.
Disappearing acts
They are called undocumented, irregular or
illegal migrants, and they form nearly one out of 10 of about 7
million permanent Filipino residents and temporary workers outside
the Philippines.
Irregular migrants leave their countries without
proper documentations, like valid residence or work permits. Even
those with documentation eventually lose the papers, their
legitimate status or have overstayed in foreign countries.
Most irregulars know how to disappear using the
train system and the social network.
For example, one can apply for a Schengen visa
(for most of the Western European continental countries) to go to
the Netherlands and take the train to Paris from Schipol airport in
Amsterdam. The trains are a delight to foreigners as it is easy to
get lost in five countries adjacent to France: Belgium, Germany,
Luxembourg, Spain and Switzerland; except for the last, all are
members of the European Union where the Schengen visa is valid.
France follows the United States and Malaysia as
the top destinations of irregular Filipino migrants.
Social capital, along with mobility, plays a
major role in the ability of irregulars to shake off state control
on migration.
There’s a strong support network among migrant
Filipinos that facilitate the survival of any migrant, whether
irregular or not.
Teresa said that without the trust built among
fellow migrant workers, as Filipinos and as women, she might have
had second thoughts.
I went to the 16th Area in Paris, where the
wealthy French and foreigners live. Here capital is conspicuous. So
are Filipino cleaners and babysitters.
The work and the perks are abundant here, said
Cris who gets 10 euros an hour for cleaning a four-story house of a
woman with a business in Florida. The rate for a dinner party with
150 guests is different.
“She bought me two signature suits,” he
said. She later gave Cris, who had worked in France for four years,
a used Pentium Centrino laptop.
“There’s always hope,” Teresa said, wiping
her eyes with the back of her palm.
Her French fiancé, a security officer, suddenly
appeared beside her, and they spoke in French. Teresa patted her
lover’s hand to say everything’s all right—marrying him would
ensure she gets a carte de sejour, or French residency and work
permit.
“I will try to go back home in Misamis
Oriental, maybe in February. I miss my parents, and my sisters and
brothers,” she said. “And then I’m going back here, not as an
illegal anymore, not afraid anymore of what tomorrow will bring.”
She didn’t cry when she said that. “I am
months away from making it; I am almost there,” she said with a
sigh.
Editor’s note: Jeramaiah Opiniano is
assistant professor of the University of Santo Tomas Journalism
Program and a member of the Overseas Filipino Workers Journalism
Consortium.
|
