MIGRANT WATCH

Excerpts 
War, Immigrants, and the Economy: Filipinos In A Post-9/11 World

The safety and well-being of our community is at stake. The Filipino community in the U.S. has become a target of the Bush administration’s post-9/11 "war on terrorism" laws and policies under the pretext of "defending America's security.”

BY JAY MENDOZA* / FOCUS 
Re-posted Bulatlat.com

(The following are excerpts from a 29-page report of the same title released by the Filipino Community Support (Focus), a Filipino support group in the United States. It provides an extensive discussion and analysis of the state of Filipino migrants in the U.S. Published in the wake of President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address, the report "debunks any sweet-talk by the President to create illusions for the general public.)

Filipino community under attack

The safety and well-being of our community is at stake. The Filipino community in the U.S. has become a target of the Bush administration’s post-911 “war on terrorism” laws and policies under the pretext of “defending America's security.”

The Bush administration’s domestic policies, such as the Homeland Security Act (enacted November 25, 2002), the USA Patriot Act (enacted October 26, 2001, Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism), the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (enacted Nov. 19, 2002) and other unjust immigration policies have caused widespread trauma and distress to members of our community. Innocent people, mostly immigrants, have been arrested, disappeared, jailed, fired from their jobs, deported and harassed by U.S. government authorities, its agencies and the local police and military.

Our children, families and entire community are suffering from injustice, either directly or indirectly. It is to the point that U.S. military agents have invaded our homes or have picked us up off the streets. They continue to secretly put us under surveillance, launch surprise-raids, detain us unrighteously, interrogate us as suspected terrorists, and immorally and inhumanely treat us. We are constantly threatened by the serious negative impacts of the new laws and the arbitrary actions of the government. This is true even for those who are U.S. citizens.

Hardest hit by the current situation are Filipino immigrant workers and their families, especially women and children. These includes legal permanent residents, those with temporary visas, the undocumented, as well as those immigrants who are naturalized U.S. citizens and Filipino Americans born in the U.S., who are of immigrant heritage.

The Bush administration has used the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001 to arrogantly push through anti-immigrant, anti-worker, racist and authoritarian measures. This is being done through legislative actions, by direct executive order, or through Cabinet member-appointed agencies and bodies.

The U.S. economic crisis underlies the intensified attacks

The current U.S. economic crisis is the context in which the “war against terrorism” has developed. It is the underlying context in which to understand the intensifying problems that the Filipino community is facing in the U.S. The U.S. is currently undergoing its worst economic recession in recent history.

The economic crisis is provoking more anti-immigrant sentiment, hate crimes and racial profiling against Filipinos and immigrant communities. The economic crisis has also made Filipino families hard-pressed to find stable and secure jobs, make their monthly payments without increasing their debt, as well as maintain or be able to afford adequate healthcare, childcare, rest, recreation, other impending needs, and have ample opportunities and access to basic social services.

In California, where over 50% of all Filipinos in the U.S. reside, the state is experiencing its gravest multi-billion dollar budget deficit in recent history ($34.8 billion as of January 2003) [1]. One result of the crisis is that immigrant workers are being blamed for taking “American jobs.” This parallels the increasing rates of unemployment across the nation (6% in November 2002, which is some 3.2 million persons) [2] and record-breaking levels of unemployment in California (6.4% in November 2002) [3]. Beyond these official numbers, the actual number of unemployed, underemployed and job-starved people reaches much higher. There are less and less public tax monies available for decent education, healthcare, childcare, unemployment compensation, basic social services and other needs of families and the community.

Meanwhile, more and more public tax dollars are being used to build-up the U.S. military-industrial complex for the “war on terrorism.” The US military budget for fiscal 2003 will be $355 billion, an increase of $24 billion over fiscal year 2002 [4]. This represents just the Defense Department; when homeland security and other measures are included, President Bush expects to spend up to $2.1 trillion [5]. The U.S. war machine and defense industry are one of the greatest benefactors of the Bush administration’s aggression. However, children, working class families, women and other sectors and peoples are the ones who suffer the most. The current economic crisis of the U.S. and California came about after a relatively short period of “prosperity.” This “prosperity” was mainly limited to rich investors and high-tech professionals during the 1980’s and early 90’s.

The economy slumped down rapidly and currently in 2002 has resumed to a recessive decline, due to the over-production of goods with not enough consumers of buy them, resulting in a decrease in the margins of profit for multi-national corporations and financial investors and mass lay-offs for both workers and professionals.

To combat the crisis, the government, through the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, dictated a record-breaking 10 federal interest rate cuts in order to pump-prime the economy. The cuts to overnight bank lending rates to 2% represent a 40-year low [6]. They hoped these measures would promote more wealthy individuals to borrow, spend and circulate money and create more jobs. But this has not worked and the economy is still troubled.

The federal, state and local government budget deficits are out of control. The government at all levels has been forced to cut and gut public programs across the board. They have laid-off of thousands of government employees due to huge budget deficits, paralleling the private sector’s mass lay-offs in most production areas. The U.S. Congress nearly cut-off extended unemployment benefits for 800,000 persons in

December of 2002, swelling the ranks of those with nowhere to go and no work to find [7].

The dividing gap between the rich and the poor is increasing in the U.S. Earnings for the rich rose 15%, while earnings for the poor rose only 1% (2000) [8]. Jobs, housing, healthcare, education, adequate rest and recreation, and social services are the basic necessities of the people. But, the people’s total needs are not being met–not by the government and not by the private sector. This situation breeds protest, public outcry, resistance and even revolutionary fervor.

This is the situation that Filipino workers and immigrants in the U.S. find themselves.

Bush and company versus Filipinos for social justice

The negative impact of the Bush administration’s laws is becoming so widespread in the Filipino community, that it is evident his administration will not be supported by the Filipino community. Nor will Filipinos support other politicians that follow the same or similar agenda, no matter what political party a candidate belongs.

The Bush administration has passed sweeping authoritarian measures to intensify the “war against terrorism” and its propaganda. Many of the new laws and policies are in contempt and violation of people’s basic civil liberties and democratic freedoms. The Bush administration does this in an attempt to silence the people. But it will never work.

Community activists and social justice activists, who are critical of the U.S. government, have become special targets of the Bush administration’s slander and black propaganda campaign. Activists and everyday people, are threatened by being branded as “terrorists” or “suspected terrorists,” merely for raising their voices and protesting against U.S. aggression, military intervention, and for peace, human rights, genuine democracy and in international solidarity with peoples and Third World nations who are being unilaterally attacked by the U.S. military or with U.S. government support.

Through the USA Patriot Act, the U.S. government redefined “terrorism” to include those “suspected” of terrorist activity and those who “support” terrorist activity by material or other means. The expanded definition gives the Bush administration license to go after anyone they want, and all they have to say is “a person is a suspected terrorist”–no real evidence is required [9].

The Bush government has gone so far as to recruit neighborhood civilian resident agents and public utility workers for setting-up neighborhood-based spying operations for “suspected terrorist activity.” This was done through the Terrorist Information Prevention System (TIPS) program proposed in July of 2002, which sought 1 million “Citizen’s Watch” volunteers. [10]

Bush authorized the use of secret military tribunals for civilians through an Executive Order enacted November 13, 2002, known as “Military Order - Detention, Treatment and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism.” The order allowed for no evidence to be required to any public court regarding anyone arrested due to the nature of “national security.” Imprisonment is indefinite and there would be no right to an attorney. [11] Parts of this order was later revoked by the Supreme Court.

The Bush administration authorized other measures threatening and attacking the civil liberties of all US citizens through the USA PATRIOT ACT of 2001. For example are broadened secret surveillance of innocent individuals and groups through increased phone-tapping, computer-tapping, e-mail- tapping, and the search and seizure of homes and private property without a legal search warrant or without knowledge of the individual. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have expanded the use of CARNIVORE, an internet surveillance system on personal and business computers. [12]

The Bush administration has created a special “no-fly” list of over 1,000 people, maintained by the Transportation Security Administration under the newly formed Department of Homeland Security. The no-fly list maintains secrecy of the names, violates civil freedoms, restricts the right to travel and invades individual privacy. [13]

The Bush administration has launched a flood of unjust immigration programs set to identify, raid, arrest, detain and deport individuals and entire families. For example are Operation Tarmac (launched November 2001), which targets “undocumented.” Airport workers [14]; the Absconder Apprehension Initiative (launched by the Department of Justice on January 13), which targets 314,000 i1undocumentedl. persons including approximately 12,000 Filipinos [15]; the Aviation Transportation Security Act, which requires U.S. citizenship for airport baggage screening workers [16]; the new special registration policy known as the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, or NSEERS (beginning in December 2002), which targets immigrants from a list of 13 countries to immediately report to the INS in person or face being blacklisted and deported [17].

As well, they have launched the social security “no match” letters campaign in January of 2002, in which employers are sent letters by the INS prompting them to immediately without recourse mass fire all employees without proper social security numbers and identification [18]; and, the government has also required all college and university campuses to closely monitor hundreds of thousands of international students from foreign countries and to report it to the Department of Homeland Security, through the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, initially due for compliance in January 2003 [19]. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, specifically from October 2001 to April 2002 or within 7 months, a total of 76, 861 immigrants had been deported from the US. [20]

The Bush administration has implemented new detention procedures for the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Services) to allow “indefinite” detention of immigrants, without the right to a lawyer, without the right of notifying their families, without the right to a public court arraignment, without the writ of habeas corpus and without the right to have knowledge of what they are being accused of or the evidence being used against them. These are violations of fundamental human and civil rights of innocent people. [21]

These policies are based on racial profiling and discrimination. They target hundreds and thousands of innocent persons, disrupting their families, communities, cultures and ways of life. They are a result of historical and systematized racism and discrimination, which treats “whites” differently than people-of-color. For example, after the Oklahoma bombing by a white person, no whites were required to have special registration and report-in to the government. The new policies do more to encourage public fear then they do to stop real terrorism. This is exactly what the Bush administration wants in order to further its political and economic agenda.

Furthermore, the new policies are enforced by state police and military that are themselves perpetrators of state-sponsored terrorist activities and violators of human rights through killings of non-combatant civilians.

Thousands of innocent people from September 11, 2002 to December 31, 2002 have been victims of these recent laws. And, the number is increasing daily. Many of them are still languishing in jail and detention centers. The Homeland Security Act (2002) will abolish the existing INS (Immigration and Naturalization Services) and transfer INS functions to the newly created Department of Homeland Security. Immigration service functions will be placed under a Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. This places immigrant services under a more militarized bureaucracy. Border Security, formerly under the INS functions, is now also a separate Bureau under the Department of Homeland Security. [22] Beyond the “war,” the Bush administration is using the current atmosphere of fear and war for political capital in order to push through other laws and policies that have “nothing to do with the war on terrorism.” They seek to eliminate and neutralize all protest and criticism in all areas of legislation, policies and actions, which are against the people’s basic interests, but for the Bush Administration’s special interests.

For example, attached to the Homeland Security Bill was an “exemption” clause that exempted Ely Lilly, a pharmaceutical/bio-tech corporation, from being sued for having toxic levels of thimerasol (mercury-base) which may cause autism in children. This has “nothing to do with homeland security” and everything to do with Bush protecting his campaign fund donors. [23] The military industrial complex, the prison industry complex, the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, the agro-chemical industry, the petroleum industry and the high-tech information technology industry, are among the most lucrative industries that thrive on the Bush doctrine of U.S. globalization and war.

Those who have benefited the most from the Bush “war on terrorism” are the financiers and multi-national corporate interests that supported the Bush-led politicians and their bid for power in the last “elections.” Those who supported the Bush administration are lining-up legislation, policies and backroom deals to be awarded sweetheart contracts, public works projects, government positions and other political favors.

Meanwhile, people-of-color, women, children, immigrants, indigenous nations,

multi-racial working class families and even the middle class suffer the most in the U.S. The people are working for less and living on less. Relative wages and income have decreased tantamount to the increasing profits of big capitalists…

Filipino migration and the “War Against Terrorism”

Our family members and kababayan in the Philippines are experiencing intensified economic hardship, pain, and suffering due to Bush’s “international war against terrorism” and the doctrine of war, globalization and   domination. For this reason, more and more Filipinos migrate abroad in search of jobs and livelihood for themselves and their families.

In 2002, approximately 2,383 Filipinos left the Philippines everyday as overseas workers. [42] There are currently over 8 million Filipinos living and working abroad in over 182 countries. This is equivalent to approximately 12% of the entire Philippine population. The Philippines is notorious as the number one country that exports human labor in the world. [43]

The “international war against terrorism” puts Filipino migrants who are working and living in Middle Eastern countries at risk of death from U.S. bombardment and attack.

There are approximately 1.4 million Filipinos who work in 11 Middle East countries. The biggest number is in Saudi Arabia which hosts 750,000, or 74.6 percent of the total. The United Arab Emirates has 103,782 Filipino workers or 10.9 percent; Kuwait, 35,000 or 3.4 percent; Qatar, 32,000 or 3.1 percent; the Sultanate of Oman, 24,834 or 2.4 percent; Bahrain, 21,000 or 2 percent; Lebanon, 16,495 or 1.6 percent; Libya, 12,000 or 1.1 percent; Israel, 9,439; Iran, 500 and Iraq, 77. (Sept. 2001) They work as domestic workers, construction workers, engineers, international seamen and other jobs. [44]

Intensified Filipino migration goes hand in hand with the design of globalization. Under globalization, migrant workers become “internationally shared human resources,” or better known as cheap, movable, and dispensable human labor. Migrant workers are more vulnerable to discrimination, racism and exploitation in foreign host countries by foreign employers and foreign governments.

By migrating abroad and sending remittances back home, migrant Filipinos keep the Philippine economy afloat and just from falling into complete collapse. That is why overseas Filipino workers are known as the “modern day heroes” of the Philippines. Without them, the Philippines would fall into ruin.

Migrant Filipinos remit $7-8 billion dollars annually back to the Philippines every year. [45] This represents approximately 50% of the entire Philippine national budget, which stands at P804 billion (US$15 billion) for 2003. [46] Approximately 56% or more of these remittances come from Filipinos in the U.S. [47] These remittances only represent money going through official bank channels. There is much more money going back through informal family networks and “out-of-bank channels.

The Philippine government further exploits migrant overseas workers through the “commodification” of migration. The government makes millions of pesos annually by charging migrants exorbitant fees for visas, papers, documents, overseas welfare funds and other processing fees. Most of this money is pocketed through graft and corruption; and, the overseas workers never see the benefit of these programs. [48]

Filipino migrants are victims of torture, rape, murder and other atrocities, aside from the exploitation of their labor. The rape of Sarah Balabagan, the death of Flor Contemplacion and other women victims in recent history are testimonies to the ongoing problem. Six dead in a box come home to the Philippines everyday. [49] Filipino migrants face other ills of the society in their host countries such as racism, discrimination, loneliness, separation from their families, unfamiliarity with laws and customs, and violations of their international human rights.  

Such is the situation in the U.S., where the Bush administration’s current targeting of immigrants for arrest, interrogation, jailing and inhumane deportation is out of control. The Philippine government has mostly been inutile and indecisive in protecting the rights and welfare of Filipino migrants abroad. For example, they laid silent at the outset of the mass lay-offs of Filipino airport screeners. They do not speak a word about protections for the hundreds of thousands of “undocumented” Filipinos in the U.S., nor about the denial of their human right to work in order to live. The root cause of Filipino migration to the U.S. and abroad is the internal socio-economic crisis of the Philippines. Filipino migration in general can be characterized as a chronic phenomenon that has intensified over the last 100 years. Filipino migration to the U.S. has practically doubled every decade. Although Filipino immigration to the U.S perceptually comes in “waves” due to changes in U.S. immigration law, Filipino migration from the Philippines abroad is steadily increasing. Two million Filipinos arrived in the U.S. in the decade from 1990 to 2000 alone. [50]

Filipino community profile in the United States

The combination of workers and immigrants represents the widest and broadest aspects of our Filipino community in the U.S. They are the most vulnerable and exploited. At the same time, they are the most powerful when organized.

The Filipino community in the U.S. is primarily an immigrant population. Immigrants make up approximately 70-75% of the Filipino community. [51] Immigrants may be defined   to include green card holders, visa holders, legal permanent residents (LPRs), “non-immigrants” (those with temporary visas), the undocumented and even naturalized U.S. citizens who were originally born in the Philippines.

Approximately 25-30% of the Filipino community in the U.S. are “Fil-Ams,” or born in the U.S. [52] The migrant population has always outnumbered the U.S.-born birth rate of Filipinos and continues to do so due to globalization. For this reason, it is imperative to defend and advance the rights of immigrants in the U.S. They are the most vulnerable and numerous part of our community.

Undocumented Filipinos in the U.S. today number in the hundreds of thousands. However, no one has a totally accurate count. The population of undocumented Filipinos in the U.S. is very elusive due to the inability for the government and institutions to accurately track Filipinos and their moving statuses. Furthermore is the question of what is included in the undocumented category. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) pegs the number at approximately 106,000 in 1996 [53], while other research institutions peg the undocumented number at 400,000 and even up to 700,000 persons. The numbers range from 5% to 30% of the Filipino community which can be labeled undocumented.

Since September 11, 2001, 334 Filipinos were deported between October 2001 to April 2002, a 7-month time period. [54] The largest single groups of Filipinos ever to be deported in history at one time were in August 2002, when 63 Filipinos were chained, deported and treated inhumanely, and in December 2002, when a second batch of 84 Filipinos were deported. Both batches were under the Absconder Apprehension Initiative Program of the US Department of Justice and Immigration and Naturalization Services. 

Filipino workers and their families live in extended family households and multi- generational households. Many households include multiple families. They do this in order to cope with the worsening conditions in the U.S. They cannot afford to live the lifestyle of the “American dream.” Many families are cramped into single apartment complexes. Households have mixed immigration statuses including citizens, visa holders and undocumented. Because Filipinos have many persons under one roof, it is reported that Filipino household incomes in the U.S. are on the average “upper middle class”; but, this is an illusion, because the Filipino households are overcrowded compared to the American standard, and as much as 30- 50% of their income is sent home to the Philippines, which leaves them with less money to spend inside the U.S.

Family reunification is a significant need for the community; however, to this day, there is already a backlog of family-reunification visas, some as far back as 1989. This means there is a minimum 13-year waiting list for a family member to get a visa to go to the U.S., for some immigration preference categories. [55]

Filipinos comprise approximately .05% of the U.S. population. There are Filipinos who are elected officials in national, state and local positions. However, the conditions of Filipinos in the U.S. are a largely unrecognized nationally to U.S.-based policy-makers. But, in many local regions, areas and cities, Filipinos shape public opinion as well as politics. Filipinos must organize primarily for a stronger voice centered around a peoples agenda through movement building and only secondarily around empowerment through electing Filipinos into office. 

Many U.S. immigration laws already in place are unfair to Filipinos, even before the “war on terrorism.” For example, the worst set of laws to impact the Filipino community in recent history were the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, the Personal Responsibility Act of 1997, and the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1996. These acts criminalized Filipinos for being undocumented and created 10-year bars to reunite with their family members in the U.S. Presently, hundreds of thousands of Filipino migrants in the U.S. do not possess the right to work from the U.S. government. This is a violation of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights since 1949, which the U.S. government never signed. For this reason, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos across the U.S. work in exploitative working conditions as undocumented workers “under-the-table.” 

Filipinos, as an ethnic group, function in the socio-economic system as a source of cheap immigrant labor for U.S. corporations. This can most easily be seen in the healthcare and nursing industry. Filipino workers are also very numerous in the hotel and tourism industry, domestic service industry, retail and distribution jobs, as well as factory, warehouse and assembly-manufacturing jobs. In addition, thousands of Filipino maritime seamen dock at U.S. ports every year. Many of them on B-1 visas jump ship and become undocumented. 

Thus, the combination of workers and immigrants represents the widest and broadest aspects of our Filipino community that are the most vulnerable and exploited. The sectors/groups including women, children and gay/lesbian/bi/transgender/queer/questioning have intensified aspects of exploitation and oppression in U.S. society. Together, these are the most powerful sectors of our community when organized. Re-posted by Bulatlat.com  

*Author is the executive director of the California-based Filipino Community Support (FOCUS).

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