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Advocacy for Empowerment
NGO advocacy for undocumented migrant workers
Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM)
Regional Conference on Undocumented Migrant Workers
19 – 23 October 2003
Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

There are various estimates on the number of undocumented migrant workers. The International Labour Organization said that of the 130 million migrant workers around the world, 10 to 15 million are undocumented. In a United Nations press release on Item 14a on migrant workers last April 2002, some of the migrant experts were quoted, as saying that up to 40% of migrant workers are undocumented worldwide.

Though the numbers vary, it cannot be denied that a significant section of migrant workers are undocumented workers.

Various reasons have forced millions of foreign workers to disregard immigration policies in order to continue working in their respective host countries. Abusive employers, lure of higher wages, sorry working conditions, and illegal recruitment – a host of reasons that boil down to the fact that any migrant worker is vulnerable to such a condition. Their economic situation brought by the situation of their home countries alone remains to be the fundamental reason why migrant workers take risks in order for them and their families to survive.

If migrant workers are oppressed and exploited, they are doubly exploited if they are undocumented migrants.

For employers, undocumented migrants mean cheaper wages and thus lower expenses and higher profits. From sweatshops to big time construction jobs, undocumented workers are hired to ensure a steady flow of income. And what infrastructures can migrants do! Just look at the Chek Lap Kok Airport of Hong Kong and Malaysia’s very own Petronas Towers.

Though some may argue that other undocumented migrants actually earn higher wages than regular migrants because they can easily take on other work, when it comes down to it, undocumented migrants are still at the losing end. They are not entitled to legal benefits, their job security is always threatened, and they don’t have venues for reprieve lest they fall victims to abuse.

As to the host country, we have been witnesses to the succeeding crackdown operations against undocumented migrants. For the past few years, countries like, Korea, Taiwan, Israel, Malaysia and Japan have been instituting more punitive mechanisms to curb the number of undocumented migrants.

These issues add to the personal anxiety that undocumented migrants feel. Who would really want to live in fear of prosecution? Who would willingly give in to such a condition that restricts ones mobility and takes away many of the legitimate rights that he/she must have as a worker?

With this situation, advocacy for undocumented migrants becomes imperative.

For non-government organizations, advocacy is giving voices to the voiceless. It means taking up the cudgels of the struggle for those who are prevented from doing so by the system in place.

There are NGOs who, advertently or inadvertently, view their advocacy work as a “messiahnic” task to those they are advocating for. They place themselves high and above the people they profess they are working for. At first glance, they may seem to act for the interest of the migrant workers. In practice, however, they subsume migrant organizations under their control and worse, sometimes even “use” them to gain advances for their offices.

There are some more NGOs who maintain the position that the issues of rights and wellbeing of migrant workers can be advanced primarily by instituting economic programs that can supposedly make them stand on their own feet. They whip up projects after projects that entail migrant workers spewing out the funds while the NGOs give their “professional expertise” for the programs.

Economic programs are indeed important for migrant workers. It provides relief to their tight financial condition and may serve to cushion the impacts of policies that host and sending countries institute with regards to their wages and livelihood.

However, to focus solely on these programs without addressing issues in the policy level can also give false hope to the migrant workers that they just have to learn to be entrepreneurs to make their condition better. It does not take into account the larger picture where these economic programs are situated. In the end, these programs can not be sustained.

Still, there are NGOs who choose to remain apolitical. Some say that being identified with a certain “political leaning” may impede the NGO’s opportunity to advance other aspects of their work. Others may view themselves as arbitrators between contending groups such as the government and people’s organizations or workers and employers.

But then again, how can one seriously claim to be apolitical if their work places them with the downtrodden? How can NGOs detach themselves from politics if political issues of the sector they are working with abound? To work with the migrant workers is to stand up with them and their interests.

These views on advocacy work all leads to the weakening of the migrant movement itself. They actually disenfranchise the people that our work aims to empower. They are geared towards the dissolution of the organizations of migrant workers. With these views, the mutually beneficial relationship between migrant organizations and NGOs is transformed into that of subservience. How can we then claim that we are indeed siding with the poor, oppressed and exploited?

Advocacy, in different levels and forms, is an integral part of NGO work.

For migrant-serving NGOs, one level of advocacy is to be the “conscience” of the society where we are in. We must actively question local policies that we believe derail the rights of the migrant workers. We are tasked to question to the local public, which we are also a part of, why we treat this underrepresented, undermined, and downtrodden section as such.

In this level of advocacy, we do not seek to be representatives of migrant workers. Rather, we are a separate entity from the migrant minority. We treat ourselves as a part of majority but we represent the progressive section of the majority.

Our tasks then are to conscienticize and sensitize the rest of the public on the issues and situation of migrant workers. We aim to create a wider and bigger base of advocates of migrants from the local community.

But not only are we local critics. As advocates we must utilize avenues where we can get involved in the policy-making processes on migrant concerns. This is an arena where we can also showcase to the community how the current societal structure treats the migrant workers and why then should the public strive to change it.

Migrant-serving NGO’s advocacy work always sides with the migrant workers. Even if it goes to the extent of working with government agencies, we do not lose sight of the migrant interests that we carry and thus we always take our advocacy actions from the point of view and stance of the migrant workers themselves.

NGO advocacy work for migrants is the giving of a voice to a sector that is, more usual than not, denied the opportunity and the venue to do so. This is especially true for undocumented migrant workers.

Their status is a great hindrance for undocumented migrants to organize themselves. Though there have already been experiences where undocumented workers can, to a large part, overcome the obstacle caused by their status to pursue organizing work, these are still limited.

For countries where the undocumented migrants are still relatively unorganized, NGO advocacy must be geared towards the building of the movement itself. This means that our advocacy work gives more emphasis on its education and organizing aspects. We take the migrant workers through the experience of the struggle with the goal that they will be able to stand up for themselves. We utilize all available venues for our advocacy and in the process teach the undocumented migrants the importance of struggling for their rights and thus the need for them to get organized.

Meanwhile, for countries where the level of organizing of migrant workers is relatively high, NGO advocacy takes a secondary, but complementary, role to the campaigns that migrant organizations conduct.

Secondary because we believe that in order for campaigns to be sustained and victories to be fully protected, more crucial are the actions of the organized migrant themselves. We recognize the leadership of the migrant groups themselves on issues that affect them and that they are campaigning.

Though secondary, it does not mean however that our advocacy always rides on to the activities of the organized migrant movement. We may take the same issue, we may take the same analyses and stands but we can also plan for different advocacy activities that take the same issue and the same position on it from a different angle. These activities must, however, complement those of the organized migrants. For while our advocacy work at first is towards building the organized migrant movement, our advocacy work on this context is geared towards strengthening and intensifying the struggles of this movement.

Genuine advocacy is when we fully empower the people we are advocating for.

Even in situations where undocumented migrants are organized, there are still a lot of avenues that are closed to them to advance their campaigns. The role of the NGOs to project the stand and demands of the undocumented migrants in these avenues is of crucial importance in this situation. Concretely, the present conference has found it hard to bring undocumented migrants together with us due mainly to their status. Thus, we have here are NGOs who are working with undocumented migrants and migrant organizations who take the issues of undocumented migrant workers or even have members who are undocumented.

Whatever the situation is, it is necessary for NGOs who advocate for the rights and wellbeing of migrant workers, documented or not, to have a wide and deep relationship with organizations of migrant workers. We must ensure that our lines of communication with them are always open. In as much as we speak of them, and sometimes for them, in our advocacy work, we must also listen to them. This way, we can be sure that we do represent their interests in our advocacy work.

The best defense that we can give for the rights of undocumented migrant workers is for them to take up the cudgels and the leadership of this struggle. Only then can we say that, indeed, we are advocates for their rights and wellbeing.