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Migrant workers

“The sons of Jacob came (to Egypt) with others to buy grain,
because there was famine in the land of Canaan.” — Genesis 42:5

Filipino Migrant Workers

The gruesome death recently of Jane Parangan La Puebla, a Filipino migrant worker in Singapore, allegedly by a fellow Filipino migrant worker and a close friend named Guen Aguilar would once again focus our attention to the situation of Filipino migrant workers abroad. A similar case happened in the same country some few years back. And again, like the first case of Flor Contemplacion, many believed that Guen Aguilar might have been framed up.

The numbers of Filipino migrant workers have grown enormously in the past fifteen years. They are now considered our country’s number one dollar earner. They have been remitting billions of dollars annually to our country’s coffers, preventing our fragile economy to collapse ultimately. Hence, the government hails them as the real heroes of our present time.

However, if we would weigh the billions of dollars our country is receiving from the migrant workers against the number of families that have been broken due to the physical separation of a husband and a wife, the number of children neglected due to the absence of a mother or a father, the number of migrant workers exploited, abused or even killed by their own employers; not to mention the culture shock and the migrant workers’ feeling of loneliness for being away from home and a sense of shame for being treated as second class citizen in their host country, perhaps we are tempted to ask ourselves: do these things really worth it? Surely, there is more in life than dollars can satisfy.

Joseph and His Brothers

There is an interesting story in the Bible that would help us reflect on the situation of today’s Filipino migrant workers. This is about Joseph and his brothers (Genesis 37-45). Joseph was one of the twelve sons of Jacob. His brothers who were jealous of him sold him as a slave and then they reported to their father that their brother Joseph died. However, to cut the long story short, Joseph by the Lord’s guidance became one of Egypt’s responsible leaders, in charged of the nation’s food.

According to the story, there was a great famine. And so, people came to Egypt from all over the world to buy grains from Joseph, because the famine was severe everywhere. Jacob also sent his sons, all of them except the youngest named Benjamin, to go to Egypt to buy grain.

The story of Joseph and his brothers mirrors exactly the situation of today’s Filipino migrant workers. Like the sons of Jacob, they also leave their homes primarily because of economic deprivations, because of “famine”, so to speak. They have to go to today’s “Egypt” looking for food for their starving families. Today’s “Egypt” may be Singapore or Hong Kong, Japan or Middle East.

Midianite Traders

Joseph, according to the story, recognized his brothers, but he acted as if he did not know them. He treated them harshly. He accused them of being spies. But his brothers answered him, saying: “We have come as your slaves, to buy food. We are all brothers. We are not spies, Sir! We are honest men!”

This seems to be the story repeated by today’s migrant workers. Rich countries know that we all belong to a one single human family; we are all brothers and sisters in need! But most often than not they also pretend that they don’t know us. They also treat our migrant workers harshly. Sometimes it is even worse than simply being accused as “spy”.

Then, Joseph ordered to put his brothers behind bars for three days as punishment. Later on, his brothers discovered that he was their own brother whom they solved to slavery. They realized their wrongdoings. And so, they said to one another, “Now, we are suffering the consequences of what we did to our brother. We saw the great trouble he was in when he begged for help, but we did not listen. That’s why we are in this trouble now”. Joseph’s brothers realized that their suffering was a consequence of what they did to their own brother, selling him to be a slave to some Midianite traders.

I would like to believe that the phenomenon of today’s migrant workers is a consequence of what we did to our own brothers and sisters. With our huge foreign debt which is now estimated to be $30 billion, we can say that our country’s future, our peoples’ destiny have already been sold to the International Monetary Fund-World Bank and other big international financing institutions. And unless, we stop selling our country and people to the present-day “Midianite traders” the disturbing phenomenon of migrant workers being abused and oppressed in distant lands would continue to haunt us in the years to come. #

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