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Domestic workers in the Philippines typically work seven days per week, with a few hours of free time on Saturday or Sunday afternoon, depending on the employer. During this window, women that look older than their years gather by the hundreds in public squares like Rizal Park in Metro Manila. They cluster around the edges, quietly talking and seeking some of the social camaraderie they forfeited when they left their home provinces in search of a better life in the city. This community of domestic workers is at risk — risk that they will lose their jobs, be abused behind closed doors in their employers’ homes, fall victim to the bait-and-switch tactics of human traffickers, or simply lag further behind in a globalizing economy where uneducated migrant women face long odds.
Circling amidst these clusters are other women, talking a little louder, and handing out simple, colorful flyers describing free computer training on Saturday and Sunday afternoons at the Visayan Forum Foundation (VFF). VFF is a well-known and trusted advocate for workers, especially women and girls. VFF’s free computer classes attract participants, expanding the community and reaching more women with useful services and information. Although the classes are free, committing even a few hours per week to learn an alien technology is a struggle. Still, the draw of knowledge and access to ICTs is powerful. For some it may mean a more prominent role in their employer’s household. Others see it as an opportunity to improve their skills and find a better job. For nearly everyone, gaining experience with computers, a powerful symbol of inclusion in modern society, itself is perceived as a step up the ladder of social mobility.
Today is the first day of computer training for Marielle, age twenty-four. She heard about the class through her friend Nina, a kasam buhay, or domestic worker, who attends SUMAPI trainings every Saturday and Sunday from 2–5pm. SUMAPI is VFF’s outreach program for domestic workers. Conditioned by her workplace to be invisible, Marielle barely speaks louder than a whisper.
Migration, exploitation, and worker protection in the Philippines
At the age of 16 Marielle left the security of her family in search of the promise of the big city. This is standard practice in the Philippines today, where scarce rural jobs and plentiful examples of people who have left home and successfully found employment combine to drive people to the cities. Remittances are proof that migration is a viable strategy to make ends meet.
Migrant workers within the agricultural, domestic, and service sectors enter into situations ripe for exploitation from coercive employers and human traffickers. In the hazy moral landscape, where a large surplus of low skill workers face desperate circumstances and are unaware of their rights or unable to assert them, employers hold all the cards. Wages are low and notions of what constitutes fair treatment are murky. According to Marielle’s friend Nina