LESS PINAY WORKERS

An article from GMA News, a Philippine newspaper, stated that this year there is an increase in male OFW's than female OFW's. There was about a 26% increase in OFW's this year, but the number of females decreased by 47%. Even Filipina entertainment workers in Japan went from 80,000 in 2005 down to 7,000 in 2007. Carmelita Rizon, from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), said that the reason in the numbers could be because of the policy reforms taken effect in 2007 and the salary adjustments in the household service workers.
Rizon was asked if there would be a resurgence in the Filipinas taking on manual labors, such as welding. She said that countries in the Middle East, like Saudia Arabia are less likely to hire female construction workers, but the United States might.
With the increase in male workers and decrease in female workers, the POEA is looking optimitically that the number of OFW's will be 1.1 million workers by the end of the year (as of August, there have been almost 900,000 workers sent overseas.)
Even though there is less of a demand in Filipina workers, this does not mean that there no reason to celebrate the "de-feminizaiton" of labor, according to the Development Action for Women Network (DAWN), a non-government organization assisting Filipino migrants. Many of the Filipinas who work overseas are subject to work that is described as "dirty, demeaning, and dangerous" jobs. DAWN says that the people that are most offected by OFW's are families and men are part of the family, they are fathers. Also, this is not a "de-feminization" of labor because there are still thousands of pinays who are looking for jobs overseas.

I think that it is interesting that there was a decrease in the Filipina workers because I thought that people want as labor workers as possible. In reference to female workers not being hired in the construction area, I think that gender role and stereotype plays a role on why female workers are not wanted. Also in the article, it said that families are less affected if the father goes overseas because it is the male who is seen as being the provider and with women working overseas, families had to redefine traditional roles.

If you want to read the news article, click here.

OVERSEAS FILIPINA WORKERS

The topic of my blog is OVERSEAS FILIPINA WORKERS. I have been familiar with OFW's for about 3 years through my involvement with AnakBayan Seattle, a young adult progressive group back in my hometown. During the Northwest Filipino American Student Alliance Conference at Western Washington University, I attended a workshop on overseas Filipina workers by a female group called Pinay sa Seattle. During that workshop I was taught why so many Filipinos leave the Philippines to work in other countries and along with it how Filipinas were treated. We had an activitity where we were the Filipinas traveling abroad to work and a lot of their stories ended in tragedy, usually in death. It was sad to hear that many of them are abused (physically, mentally, emotionally and sexually) by thier employers.
This is a significant issue because there are so many intersections of race, class, gender and sexuality. In general, there are third world citizens working for the first world people (class and race). The jobs offered are gendered jobs and a lot of women are abused by their employers (gender & sexuality). Those are just some of the intersections.
I am interested in this issue because I want to learn more about what is going in my parent's homeland and I want to know what is going on around the world. A lot of women are being mistreated and I think it is time to change that.