Filipino workers exploited in global clamor for profits
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0505satlet4-051.html?&wired

Regarding "Resorts tap Filipino laborers" (Republic, Sunday):

Some countries export goods like rice, sugar, and oil.
The Philippines exports people. Ten percent of the
Philippines' population lives overseas; annually, 800,000
Filipinos toil in 200 nations.

Since 1974, the Philippine government
(partnered with private recruitment firms) has officially
brokered its people as an "ideal" commodity for
global consumption. These labor-exporting practices
help the Philippines manage its debts to the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank,
while strategically feeding the voracious labor appetite
of economically privileged nations like the United States,
Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.

The Philippines hails these migrants as "heroes" for the
remittances they send home. In 2006, Filipinos sent home
some $15 billion, more than 10 percent of the country's
gross national product. But such "heroism" comes with a price.

The Philippines faces escalating public discontent about
the costs its migrants pay - social costs such as children
who rarely see their parents or a steady stream of coffins
containing the remains of overseas Filipino workers.
A brain drain now sieves critically needed Filipino service
providers to overseas jobs: doctors, nurses and teachers.

Globalization is supposed to create opportunities.
But for whom? Under what conditions? As practiced today,
corporate-led globalization fuels socioeconomic inequalities
in pursuit of profit. For example, offshoring production to
Mexico's maquiladoras (foreign-owned factories) is not about
benevolent corporations providing jobs to Mexicans.
Their motive is profit - from the 48-hour workweek,
significant tax breaks, and a less-than-living wage.

It is naïve to assume (as the article suggests) that
Filipino labor recruitment by Arizona resorts is
simply about a labor shortage. Contracted to a
single employer, Filipino workers relieve the resort
industry of providing full employment benefits,
not to mention job security for Filipinos
and U.S. workers.

The Philippines and its labor practices are but one cog
in the globalized economy. This fuller global picture
gets buried from public view, especially amid Arizona's
rancorous anti-immigrant fervor.

Rather than blame unauthorized migrants, we must fix
an unjust labor system that catches us all in a web of
exploitation and inequality.

Put simply, the plight of Filipino resort workers who come
to the U.S. on a legal work visa is not so different than
that of the typical unauthorized migrant. Filipinos may be
here legally, but both are part of a powerful and
exploitative system.