HOTSPOT

Many are familiar with the rights and freedoms to a nationality, to travel and to unimpeded navigation, and to due process in immigration and other immigration rights. A lot are embedded in our national and international laws, and in treaties.
These matters are especially timely, given the recent news about the troublesome interrogations by certain immigration officers and the huge number of people offloaded from their outgoing international flights.
But this column is not about traveler complaints. Neither is it about the horrors of trafficking or the challenges faced by migrant workers.
This week, the Vatican announced “freedom to choose whether to migrate or to stay” as the theme of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, whose 109th edition is set to be marked later this year.
According to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Pope Francis chose the theme “intention of fostering renewed reflection on a right that has not yet been codified at the international level: the right not to have to migrate or, in other words, the right to be able to remain in one’s own land.”
“The fact that many persons are forced to migrate demands a careful consideration of the causes of contemporary migration. The right to remain is older, more deeply rooted and broader than the right to migrate. It includes the possibility of sharing in the common good, the right to live in dignity and to have access to sustainable development. All of these rights should be effectively guaranteed in the nations of origin through a real exercise of shared responsibility on the part of the international community,” the dicastery explained in a communique.
This is a refreshing and thought-provoking theme and rationale for us Filipinos. As a nation with millions of people forced to work abroad due to the lack or shortage of jobs and opportunities, the government has made it a mission to vindicate working abroad by focusing on the rights and welfare of Filipinos who opt to work overseas. What the government doesn’t say or face is why they choose to do so.
Statistics of the global Filipino diaspora boggle the minds of many non-Filipinos. They represent a big percentage of our population, and their contributions to our foreign exchange and the overall economy continues to increase despite the challenging labor markets worldwide.
The establishment of a Department of Migrant Workers could also be seen as a sign that the government may not be ready to end a labor export policy as a component of our economic policy in our lifetime. There’s actually no phaseout plan for the continuing deployment of our professionals and blue-collar workers. It seems it is far easier for government to assist our nationals facing all sorts of racism, trafficking, abuse, slavery, wage reductions and wage freezes, benefit cuts, and unfair labor practices abroad, than to seriously confront the root causes of migration.
Those of us who “choose to stay” face a daunting task on doing everything in our power as a community and a nation to fix the country, make it better and fairer, and do better politics. I say daunting because we are up against institutional and structural problems that aren’t easy to solve. Rural poverty, dynastic rule, a pre-industrial economy incapable of providing secure jobs and refusing to give living wages, endo, regressive taxation, a shortage in capital for entrepreneurs and of opportunities for our professionals. Why do we have to flee the country to experience free health care, decent housing and a humane retirement?
These surely cannot be solved by loud threats of a few of our friends that they will “just migrate” because their candidate was defeated in the elections. (I always wonder if they have passports, immigrant visas or whether other countries would accept them if they find out they think that way.)
As thought-leader, Pope Francis pushes us to think and rethink migration and immigration that for a long time have been romanticized and turned into legends. We’ve always been told to focus on the voyage and the destination. The Pope reminds us to go to the source, to the starting point, to why people leave – or what’s there for those who stay.
Let’s say “amen” to his call to consider “sharing in the common good, the right to live in dignity and to have access to sustainable development” for us who stay.