International Migrants' Day

Our partner, Ms. Ellene Sana of the Center for Migrant Advocacy Philippines (CMA), sent an email as reminder that December 18 is the international migrants' day.

Her message read: "It was on that day in 1990 when the UN General Assembly adopted the UN Convention on the Protection of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (UN MWC). The Philippines is one of the first countries to have ratified the UN MWC. After 13 years, the MWC entered into force in July 2003."

There are an estimated more than 200 million migrants all over the world. More than the total population of Indonesia, some observed. The migrants then constitute more than a state, yet unlike sovereign states, the United Nations has yet to create an independent office to look after the protection and empowerment of migrants.

The world has long since recognized the contribution of migrants for themselves, their immediate families, for their expanded and extended households, for their communities of origin and for their communities in their countries of destination. Their contributions to societies, in terms of their remittances, have earned for them the title of heroes and heroines.

It is then only fitting to have a day to celebrate them or even continuing days to remember their sacrifice for families and nations. It is also timely to remember them in December as it is this month when their absence is most remembered, and their sacrifice and gifts for their families, most treasured.

Despite their contributions and sacrifices, however, their protection especially remains largely ignored. Migrants are viewed merely as workers or laborers - their rights as full human beings not factored in by most of the host countries where they go or even by their own sending countries, where they come from.

As workers, migrants tend to be subject to fees, exorbitant even on the part of unscrupulous and perhaps protection as laborers only. Their right to reunification , for example, or gender rights may be ignored even as their labor rights may be honored. More often than not, however, labor violations still abound.

The violations are also legend. These range from contract violations or abuses in terms of salary and working terms and conditions. Those that involve female migrants extend to issues of gender and sexuality. Those of children migrants are often not documented as there is little information about these almost "invisible" children migrants in statistics as well as in researches.

There is also a need even to revise the name or label that governments and even civil societies use to call migrants. The more general term migrants cover all those who have moved from their original place for another, regardless of reasons for the movement. Not all types of human movement are labor-related migration. For example, there are those who migrant to reunite with families, or to study abroad or to marry.

The term Overseas Filipinos is a broader term than Overseas Filipino workers. A review of the terms used even just by Philippine government agencies show contradictory and diverse terms for our migrants. As already mentioned, they are called variedly as overseas Filipinos, overseas Filipino workers, contractual workers, emigrants and so on.

Part of the protection of migrants will require the coherence of policy and advocacy. Terms, approaches, legislation, programs of action involving migrants will have to be synchronized and integrated. Various agencies will have to thresh out their policies and check whether their policies are matched and synchronized, not contradictory and confusing and coercive for migrants.

As the world celebrates yet another day for the great migrants, the world is also reminded that there are still so much more to be done to empower them and to protect them as they continue to sacrifice to protect their families and their nations.

We have had the occasion of being with our migrants for several Christmases and new years and are blessed to be with them once again this year. We have seen how many of them feel so alone and so sad to be away from home on these special days.

May our migrants feel the joy and meaning of the birth of Christ and the dawn of a new year surrounded by the love and gratitude of their families, their countries and the whole world. Remember our migrants not only on the 18th of this month but all the days from hereon. Remember to let them know you care always.

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