Undocumented Filipina migrant domestic workers in the Netherlands

The labour export policy of the Philippines is a means to overcome the country's chronic financial crisis. The remittances of overseas Filipino workers constitute a significant part of the foreign exchange earnings of the government. The link between labour export programs and increasing dependency on migrant remittance fostered by faileddevelopment policy and prolonged crisis in the country, has turned development policy into a form of 'feminisation of survival'. In the Netherlands as a recipient country, The Dutch government, has no explicit policy on the import of domestic workers nor a clear bilateral agreement with the Philippine government. The state is not acknowledging the need for domestic workers and not legally recognizing domestic work as work and the state does not take its account-abilities to protect undocumented migrant domestic workers, it doesn't even recognize their existence. Therefore, undocumented migrant domestic workers are left without any basis for claiming their rights as workers. The aims of this study is to gather empirical data regarding the experiences and situations of undocumented Filipina migrant domestic workers in the Netherlands. Results of the research will be used as basis for evaluating, revising or developing intervention programs for the undocumented Filipina migrants. The data may be used for advocacy, education, and consciousness-raising both in the Netherlands and in the Philippines bynon-government organisations (NOO's), peoples' organisations (PO's), and other agencies concerned with migration issues. The international migration of women as domestic workers may be analyzed within the frameworks of the gendered international division of labour in the global capitalist system where developing countries like the Philippines supply cheap labor to developed countries so that human reproduction will not suffer while the latter engages in "productive" work and the pursuit of more profits. The problems and difficulties confronted by undocumented migrant domestic workers have a structural roots. Domestic work is not recognized as work and those who perform it are not considered as objects of legislation as workers. They face triple discrimination for performing a type of work that is not recognized by the state, for being undocumented migrant workers whose contributions and presence does not acknowledge by the Dutch government and for being citizens of a country that cannot protect their rights and well-being despite their being the family breadwinners and the modem-day heroes. The invisibility of domestic work, the absence of the social obligations of the host country, the lack of protection from the home country and the strict and harsh migration policies of the Netherlands compound the vulnerability and insecurity of undocumented Filipina migrant domestic workers.