Kapat ir an par a s a Kar apat an at Kaunlar an

ng M ang g agaw ang Pilipino s a Ibayong da gat

Issue No.: 5 Geneva, Switzerland August 2002

KAKKAMPI fishing
trip sa Vallorbe
Nagsagawa ng isang fishing trip noong Agosto 18
sa Vallorbe ang humigit kumulang na 40 miyembro
ng KAKKAMPI. Mahigit 20 kilong “truite” ang nahuli,
inihaw at inihain sa buong araw na salo-salo at
talakayan.
Sa bandang hapon, namasyal din ang grupo at
bumisita sa mga kweba ng Vallorbe na kung saan
nakita nila ang iba’t-ibang uri ng mga “stalagtites”
at “stalagmites”,
Nang pagbalik sa Geneva sa gabi ay pagod, busog
at tulog sa komportableng aircon na tourist bus ang
mga kontentong “mangingisda”.

KAKKAMPI is inviting new members. Who are

qualified to join? Any person of legal age, regardless
of his/her status, and who adheres to the objectives
of the Association can be admitted as a member.
For more information, call: 076 5227161

A Glimpse of Philippine Culture in Songs and Dances

The Steering Committee of the Filipino community in Geneva in cooperation with the Philippine Mission
presents: " A Glimpse of Philippine Culture in Songs and Dances " featuring the University of the
Philippines Singing Ambassadors (U P S A).
Saturday, September 14, 2002, 7.00 PM
Salle Centrale Madeleine10, rue de la Madeleine
Bus 8, 9, stop : Place du Port * Tram 12, 16, stop
: Rive or Molard
Points of sale :
Geneva-Manila Express Mabuhay Shop
Tel # 022 7317916 Tel # 022 7402510
Hollywood Video Shop KAKKAMPI
Tel # 022 7313865 Tel # 076 5227161
Philippine Mission
Tel # 022 7161930
Building a community in
Anti-immigrant France
By Mila de Guzman

KARAPATAN
This article is part of “Trans Euro
Express: Filipinas in Europe”, a
book compiled and edited by Mary
Lou U. Hardillo-Werning.
Mila de Guzman is a free-lance writer based in San
Francisco, California. She attended the San Francisco
Media Alliance class on French media in July 1994 in
Paris. She works as an administrative coordinator at the
American Civil Liberties Union of Northern
California, a civil liberties and civil rights organization.
Kap at ir an par a s a Kar apat an at Kaunlar an
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS PAVED THE WAY
FOR FRANCE to become another destination for
Filipinos in their desperate quest for jobs. In the
late 1970s and early 1980s military conflicts in
the Middle East forced the temporary transfer
from that region to France of many rich families
who brought with them their Filipino domestic
workers. To escape oppressive working
conditions, many of these workers have since
fled from their employers and have started
building Filipino communities in Paris and in the
south of France. Thus, Filipinos in France are
slowly sinking their roots in their adopted country.
Ironically, the French government is in the midst
of redefining its immigration policy towards a
more restrictive one.
Rosita M. had experienced beatings from her
employers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She met on
the street of Paris another Filipino domestic
worker who sympathized with her and offered
help. It was in September with the cold weather
just setting in when she decided to escape. Early
one morning, Rosita put on several layers of
clothing and quickly left the apartment pretending
she was going to buy milk for her employer’s
children. I was so terrified because I did not
know French but I was so determined that I was
able to follow the instructions of the Filipina who
befriended me and got to her apartment safely.
Was I glad to reach her place - I could hardly
breathe because of the heavy clot lies I was
wearing, Rosita laughed as she looked back at
her experience. Although she lost one month’s
salary and her other belongings in the process,
she was relieved to have found another chance
working abroad to continue supporting husband
and two children in the Philippines.
Rosita’s story is one of many that helped swell
the number of Filipinos in France. Marina
Quirolgico Pottier, a professor at the National
Institute on Oriental Languages and Civilizations,

ng M an gg aga w an g Pil ip ino s a Ib ay on g da g at


recalled that when she came as a scholar in
1961, there were less than 20 Filipinos in Paris,
including the Philippine Embassy staff. The
profile of the community changed radically when
a big wave of Filipinos, mostly domestic helpers
from the Middle East, arrived after trouble started
in Lebanon in the late 70s. Soon after their
relatives and friends started coming to France to
find jobs.
Filipino migrant groups in Europe have estimated
that about 90% of the 20,000 Filipinos in France
are women, majority of whom are domestic
workers. Many remain undocumented despite
several years of residence in the country. The
main concentrations of Filipinos are in Paris and
in the south of France. There are two umbrella
organizations in the Paris area - one is the
Filipino Chaplaincy in France which consists of
organizations ranging from the Christian Family
Movement to Samaphil (Samahan ng Migranteng
Manggagawang Pilipino sa Pransiya) to the
Kaakbay Youth Organization; the other is the
recently-established United Filipino Association
comprising of about 15 business groups.
Two Filipino restaurants, Nora Daza’s Aux Iles on
the Left Bank and the Del Fierro sisters’
Mindanao on the Right Bank, cater to expatriates
homesick for native cuisine. Filipinos have also
organized themselves in mutual assistance
groups, Kasandiwa, established in 1980 in
response to problems encountered by the early
batch of Filipino domestic workers from the
Middle East, still help workers with legal and
cultural adjustments problems.
Residents of the Cote d’Azur cities are similarly
uniting to build their com munities. However, the
difficulty in legalizing their immigration status ap
pears to be the main stumbling block to the full
integration of Filipinos into French society.
KAUNLARAN
In the last few years, Interior Minister Charles
Pasqua has proposed tighter immigration laws
that have slowly eroded the traditional image of
France as a supporter of human rights. Some of
the proposed laws would prevent children of
immigrants from acquiring citizenship at birth and
deprive undocumented immigrants access to
health care.
Samuel Akle, a theologian and the national
coordinator of the Comite Inter Mouvements
Aupres de Evacues (CIMADE), a national
ecumenical group founded in 1939 to help
immigrants and refugees, expressed his
disappointment at the government’s anti-
immigrant stance. Our organization had a big
campaign in 1992 to welcome foreigners in
France. We wanted everyone to know that we all
came from somewhere and that people only
leave their countries because of poverty or to
escape social, political and religious persecution.
Their plight deserves a humane solution and not
further oppression, Akle asserts.
I was stopped by the police at a metro station
late one evening and arrested because I could
not produce an identity card. I was brought to the
police station where I spent a frightening night,
Maria C. recounts. By some strokes of luck, I
was released the following morning. Maria, who
is in her 30’s, single and undocumented, has
worked in Paris for the past seven years but
plans to return to the Philippines soon to open a
small business in her hometown. She says that
while she has adjusted to life in Paris, she is
tired of living in fear.
Kap at ir an par a s a Kar apat an at Kaunlar an
ng M an gg aga w an g Pil ip ino s a Ib ay on g da g at
Building a community ...
KARAPATAN
Some Filipinos in Paris have expressed concern
about the growing violation of the civil liberties of
immigrants. Sally Viegelmann Rousset, a former
member of Filipino migrant groups in Holland,
reports that Filipino parents have become afraid
to send their children to school because some
schools are now checking the immigration
papers of parents as a result of the new laws.
Sister Victoria Joson, a pastoral worker at the
Philippine Chaplaincy in Paris states that some
Filipino women who had applied for marriage
licenses with their French fiancés had ended up
being handcuffed and brought to detention
centers because of their undocumented status.
She adds, however, that their release was
expedited through the mediation of their fiancés.
In view of these disturbing developments, Filipino
community leaders hope that the French
government would develop a more just policy
towards the undocumented to recognize their
contributions to the economy.
Their Contributions
Many French women are able to pursue their
careers because of Filipino domestic workers,
says Sr. Victoria who is also a member of
Babaylan, a European-wide network of Filipino
women whose goal is to stop violence and
discrimination against migrant women. Ruben
Tobias, vice president of the Philippine National
Bank who just completed his Paris assignment,
concurs and says, several French acquaintances
have told me that the economy does benefit
when women are freed up from household work
and child care to practice their professions. He
adds that the Philippine economy also benefits
inasmuch as domestic workers in France send
millions of dollars in remittances every year to
their relatives in the Philippines. Tobias, who is
one of the founders of the United Filipino
Associations, hopes that a bilateral agreement
Kap at ir an par a s a Kar apat an at Kaunlar an
ng M an gg aga w an g Pil ip ino s a Ib ay on g da g at
could be worked out between the two countries
to enable these workers to work legally in France
and be protected by its labor laws. David
Quimpo, a Paris-based co-ordinator of Filipino
migrant organizations in Europe, sees the
interdependence between the status of the
Philippine economy and the needs of women in
France. He says, Filipinos will keep coming to
France despite the high financial cost of leaving
the country and the uncertainties of the l of being
undocumented be cause of the demand for
household workers in France. Quimpo also says
that Filipino families would pay a minimum of US
$6,000 to send a daughter to France so she in
turn could start sending money to support the
family after paying the loan for her travel to
France. She would earn about 5-8,000 French
francs per month (about US$1,000-1,500) for
working about 50 hours a week. The minimum
wage in the Philippines of US six dollars a day
becomes a pittance compared to this salary.
However, working abroad has its price and
Filipino workers in France are not exempted from
the emotional and social hardships associated
with migrant work.
Worker’s Experiences
People back home think we are in paradise
because of our earnings, but household work is
not easy, Delilah D. laments. Weekly, she works
about 54 hours which are distributed in about 10
different households. Delilah’s work day starts at
8:00 a.m. She commutes by metro between two
to three households each day. Some of her tasks
are vacuuming the whole apartment which range
from one to four bedroom units, scrubbing the
bathroom and kitchen, and washing glass
windows. Delilah also does the laundry, including
ironing and some times cares for the young
children of her employers. Some of her
employers can be difficult, constantly attempting
to add to the list more tasks or accusing her
unjustly of pilfering. She gets home around

8:00p.m. exhausted with barely enough time to
prepare dinner, rest and catch some sleep.
Because her work is considered part-time and
she is undocumented, Delilah gets neither
vacation nor sick wages. When she was
hospitalized and needed surgery she had to pay
for all hospital expenses, in addition to losing a
month’s salary due to her illness.
Marisol B. has worked as a domestic in Paris for
six years. A college graduate, she is bored with
household work, but she has no choice as she is
the only one abroad in her family of eight. To
support her parents and send her nephew to
school, Marisol works 50 hours a week but she
takes a one month vacation annually to rest and
preserve her health. Many domestic workers get
sick because they work seven days a week,
sometimes 12 hours a day, so they can earn up
to 10,000 French francs (US$2,000) a month,
Marisol relates. Like other single domestic
workers, she shares a tiny studio apartment with
others to be able to afford Paris’ expensive
rental.
Rosita M. wishes she had a good paying job in
the Philippines because she does not want to
clean bathrooms forever. Although she was glad
to have escaped from her former employers, she
now has to take tranquillisers for her nerves
because of her constant fear of police officers at
metro stations. She misses terribly her children
whom she has not seen for five years and hopes
that the French government would grant amnesty
to workers like her so she could visit her family.
Melinda B.’s employer was able to legalize her
employment via a work permit. While Melinda
works exclusively for one employer, her days are
full with cleaning a huge apartment, caring for
three small children including an infant, cooking,
doing the laundry and ironing. These chores
leave her little time to be with her own child.
Melinda is an accounting graduate in the
KAUNLARAN
Philippines and hopes to work either as a
bookkeeper or an accountant. However, she
recognizes that she would have to go back to
school to gain accreditation to enable her to
change jobs. With an unemployed husband and
a child to support, Melinda is not too optimistic
about fulfilling her ambition in the near future.
Further limiting many domestic worker’s ability to
learn new skills is their lack of fluency in French.
They are too tired to go to classes after working
50- 54 hours a week. Because they are left
alone, they are unable to practice French with
their employers. Also, some of these employers
prefer that their domes tics speak in English so
that their children can become bilingual. In
addition, the undocumented workers, for fear of
possible arrest at any time, hesitate to spend
their hard earned money on tuition fees. It is
therefore not surprising that a number of workers
who have been in France for seven to ten years
are still not proficient in French.
Sr. Victoria, whose work at the Philippine
Chaplaincy includes counselling workers,
explains that although many women are able to
save money through domestic work, very few say
that they are completely happy because of the
separation from their families and the
uncertainties of being undocumented. Also, they
experience tremendous de-skilling because they
get no mental stimulation from manual work,
Sister Victoria continues. She wonders whether
the sacrifices of these workers simply perpetrate
an artificial lifestyle of comfort for their relatives.
Migrant workers will have to spend the rest of
their lives abroad to maintain that standard of
living, unless their relatives can find jobs to be
able to sustain themselves, says Sister Victoria.
Kap at ir an par a s a Kar apat an at Kaunlar an
ng M an gg aga w an g Pil ip ino s a Ib ay on g da g at
Magimpok at Mamuhunan, Itatag ang Kabuhayan
Part 4 a KAKKAMPI-Unlad Kabayan MS-AI initiative in Switzerland

KARAPATAN
Migrant Savings
Values, principles and discipline of saving The habit and discipline of savings
We Filipinos have a poor savings performance A person’s ability to systematically save a definite
because we normally follow this equation in proportion of his/her earnings regardless of the
budgeting our income: amount of the income determines whether this
INCOME — EXPENSES = SAVINGS person will enjoy financial freedom and
independence out of his/her toil.
(surplus—when the expense is less than the
income) Thrift not only builds up fortune but also develops
character. A person who does not learn how to
or worse...
save when he/she earns little will unlikely develop
INCOME — EXPENSES = UTANG the habit of savings when he/she earns more. The
(deficit—when the expense is greater than the habit of saving is not a function of how much one
income) earns but borne out of character and habit.
This equation represents the traditional notion that The habit of savings requires:
savings is surplus — the residual of income and • the postponement of immediate gratification of
expenses. No budgeting guides spending and wants
saving. Upon receipt of income, expenditures are
• generosity in providing for one’s needs (saving
met first and whatever is left is put away as
for the future)
savings. Because the value for savings is
determined by the amount used for expenditures, • keeping one’s thoughts to advancement and
and because income and expenses are rarely of freedom from debt
equal value at a given period, this manner of How to save
spending leads to deficit, not savings. It is easier to commit to saving when it is guided
Savings as “working balance” by a set of goals. Saving also includes budgeting
The concept of savings as working balance the amount that would be saved and determining
implies the following principles: how and where the savings would be stored. This
section deals with these three steps in the savings
• In every household there exists unused money.
process.
Any amount not yet spent is savings.
• Savings is a coping mechanism. It is practiced to
survive periodic income fluctuations.
• Savings precede spending. It is used to ensure
that enough of income earned remain until the
next payday. Thus, the correct equation for
savings:
INCOME - SAVINGS = EXPENSES
In this equation, expected income is budgeted.
Upon receipt of income, savings is put away first,
then whatever is left is used for expenses.

Kap at ir an par a s a Kar apat an at Kaunlar an

ng M an gg aga w an g Pil ip ino s a Ib ay on g da g at


Evaluating goals for re-entry
1. Write down your goals or the things you want
you achieve upon your return.
2. Collapse related or similar goals and narrow
down your list to two or three goals that are most
important for you.
3. Draw two columns under each goal. In the first
column, enumerate the general steps or
requirements needed to realize this particular
goal.
4. In the second column, across each step/
requirement list the resources you already have or
your progress in carrying out this requirement.
This should give you an idea or how far or near
you are to this goal.
5. Review what you have written down and check
if the goals you have set are realistic. Take time in
evaluating your goats and be honest about what
you can and cannot do. Make the necessary
adjustments and redo steps 3 and 4.
KAKKAMPI Newsletter
Editorial Board
Clarissa Balan-Sycip, Marylou Panpilo-Leyvraz,
Gemma Layco, Belen Conti, Dennis de Guzman
Layout & Design: Dennis de Guzman
Articles, opinions, letters to the editor should be
sent to kakkampi@hotmail.com
KAUNLARAN
Budgeting savings
1. Review the purposes for which you need to
save.
2. Keeping in mind the elements of savings (time,
amount and place) determine:
• the amount you need to generate to realize your
plans
• the time frame within which you must generate
this amount (e.g., a migrant worker can use the
entire duration of his/her contract as time frame)
• where you will place your savings (e.g., bank
deposit)
3. Determine the amount that you must set aside
according to your income cycle (e.g., monthly,
seasonal) to reach the target amount of savings
within your time frame.
4. Based on the above equation, see if the
amount left is enough for your regular monthly
expenses. Make adjustments on both sides (i.e.,
expenses and savings) until yo arrive at figures
that would more or less satisfy both your needs
(expenses) and your plans (savings).
5. If your expenses remain too high or your
income too low, identify other means of
augmenting your income (e.g., other jobs, income
from family members). Then balance your
equation again.
Kap at ir an par a s a Kar apat an at Kaunlar an
ng M an gg aga w an g Pil ip ino s a Ib ay on g da g at
Magimpok at Mamuhunan ...
Mobilizing savings with a group
Savings in groups, compared to individual savings, can yield the most income with the least cost and
risk. From the table below Group savings is clearly more beneficial and cost-effective than individual
savings. It requires a small outlay on the part of member savers but yields a greater income because
pooled resources not only command higher interest earnings but also generate this high income over a
longer period of time. Moreover, risks and costs are less for member savers because they are shared
with the entire group.

GROUP vs. INDIVIDUAL SAVINGS

FACTORS GROUP INDIVIDUAL

CONTROL
ACCOUNTABILITY controlled by the group controlled by the individual
SAVINGS TARGETS saving enforced due savings withdrawable due to
peer pressure self-control
RELIABILITY consistent and dependable erratic and undependable
ECONOMIES OF SCALE
RISK low high
COST low high
INCOME high low
SOCIAL BENEFIT
self-help and interdependence independence and self-interest

Group Savings Advertisement

Chez Boubou
BIGGER AMOUNT = BIGGER INCOME
SHARED COST = LOWER COST
POOLED AMOUNT = DISTRIBUTED RISK

- Unlad Kabayan
Migrant Services Foundation Inc.

Part 5 of Mag-impok at mamuhunan will feature the

different forms of financial placements migrant workers
Boulangerie
can use to safeguard the value of their savings.

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