Rights for Migrant Workers and Their Families

I'm in a funk and super tired these days for some reason, but I want to call attention to the murder of a woman in Calgary and some of the issues that are NOT being discussed by the media.

The following is a report by CBC on the murder of Arcelie Laoagan, titled 'Police Warn Women To Be Cautious As They Hunt For Killer':

Calgary police renewed their warnings to women to take precautions while walking at night after an autopsy confirmed Tuesday that a woman found dead last week near the Franklin LRT station was a victim of foul play.

The medical examiner's office is withholding the cause of death of the victim, named by family as Arcelie Laoagan, for investigative reasons.

Investigators said the homicide may have been a random attack and are looking at other reports of sexual assault in the city in recent weeks for similarities.

Police are telling women to stay in well-lit areas at night and with groups of people if they are waiting for transit. They also said women should scream and draw attention to themselves if they feel they are in danger.

Investigators said surveillance video shows Laoagan leaving the Franklin LRT station at about 10:30 p.m. Thursday night. Her body was found near the station on Friday morning.

Laoagan, 40, worked the evening shift at West Canadian Graphics, a document-scanning company, trying to make enough money to bring her husband and five boys to Canada from the Philippines.

"The first time we heard the news, we can't believe," Oswald Sombrito, Laoagan's younger brother, said Monday. "It's like a dream. It's really a nightmare."

He and two other sisters flew in from Toronto to arrange for Laoagan's body to be sent back to the Philippines for burial.

Immigration officials said Monday they will make an exception and leave Laoagan's application open for her family to come to Canada.

Jane Mugford, vice-president of West Canadian Graphics, said the company has set up a $10,000 trust to help the family, even though Laoagan had only been with the company for five weeks.

I am glad that Canadian immigration is leaving Laoagan's application open. Still, it surprises me that her separation from her family is accepted uncritically by the media. Moreover, the police warning to women to not walk alone at night, and again the media's uncritical reports of such warnings, reveal a complete inability to appreciate the realities of so many women like Laoagan who cannot simply choose to travel with others at night. For many working class women, having to travel alone at night is a fact of life. For women who have entered Canada as nannies, as Laoagan did, they are separated from their families for long periods of time...Perhaps, Canada should consider their safety needs and ratify the UN Convention on the Protection of all Migrant Workers and Member of their Families.

And, why is it that a woman trained as an accountant, who has sacrificed and worked for her family, leaves nothing more than a $10, 000 'donated' trust fund in the wake of her murder? I suppose we just take for granted that the relative ease in securing a standard of living is different for those who become accountants in Canada as compared to those with comparable training from other parts of the world?

For the full story of how a trained accountant ended up working as a nanny and on the night-shift for a printing company, forcibly separated from her husband and five children, we might have to talk about the US-Philippine war, American colonialism, IMF and structural adjustment policies, and Canadian immigration regimes that capitalize on the induced-poverty of the Global South to secure cheap workers for citizens and corporations.

But, hey, it's just the news: we know not to expect the full story.

Links:

'Police Warn Women To Be Cautious As They Hunt For Killer', via CBC

Image of Arcelie Laoagan's siblings, via the Calgary Herald

Comments

[Raphael Alexander]

We can't just jump into a new country and begin working in our field of expertise immediately. The ladder is usually in place for all of us. I imagine that had Ms.Laoagan managed to stick it out, she would have found eventual prosperity here. It certainly shouldn't be the responsibility of this government to subsidize the relocation of her whole family here just because she found a job as a nanny.

And I don't understand your comment that she was forcibly separated from her family. I didn't realize Canadian immigration kidnapped migrants now and forced them to work here as nannies.

[Polly Jones]

I am suggesting that circumstance leads to forced separations. The unemployment rate in the Philippines is extreme with many trained professionals unable to find jobs. The Canadian goverment happily exploits the desperation of people. And, let's get real: it is the migrant workers who are subsidizing the government and the costs of child care for Canadians.

I would also rethink how much mobility is really possible for people to move from the lowest to the middle rungs of the proverbial ladder, and from the middle to top rungs...

[Raphael Alexander]

The unemployment rate in the Philippines is extreme with many trained professionals unable to find jobs.

But that has nothing to do with Canada, or the Canadian government. People willingly come here in the full understand this is a capitalist country with a difficult form of competition. It's hard for everyone, not just migrant workers. Your most salient point is that it is unethical that the government knowingly allows the nanny indentured servitude.

I would also rethink how much mobility is really possible for people to move from the lowest to the middle rungs of the proverbial ladder, and from the middle to top rungs...

That's really not my concern, nor that of our government. We provide equal opportunities in Canada. All you need to do is get your credentials certified, or else go to school and make it happen. Canada does try to ensure that foreign educations are honoured, but certainly more can be done.

[Polly Jones]

It may not be your concern, but the income gap ceratinly is for most Canadians.

Are you on this list?

http://canada.com.dose.ca/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=b83b236c-d549-4306-b6bc-cd99c2fc20c2&k=516

If not, I suggest you get interested. Personally, I would rather not cling to my middle-class rung while kicking at those clamouring beneath me who have worked every bit as hard or harder than me.

Equal opportunity? What is this? Grade 12 social studies? Take a reality check...

[Polly Jones]

In any case, I discuss these issues regularly on this blog and debate is welcome on past and future threads.

For now, I'm closing comments, because the point is that it is an unfair world and the pain and tragedy of having a loved one murdered should not be compounded by not having seen your loved one for years.

And, all the equal opportunity rhetoric in the world does not change the fact that some women are out at night alone because they must work night shifts and are, therefore, less safe.

It was perhaps unwise of me to raise these issues in concert with this woman's murder. My error. I just don't feel a debate is appropriate at this time.

[Polly Jones]

Please note that I've re-opened comments for anyone who cares to share thoughts, experiences, etc. This is, however, a pro-(im)migrants rights, pro-human rights blog, however, and all anti-immigration types of comments will be deleted from this point forward as this particular thread is not a space for debate.

[Joanne]

Thank you for your very insight ful comments about Arcelie's case. Our organization is part of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada, and it has greatly saddened us to hear about Arcelie's death.

[Polly Jones]

Thanks, Joanne. I'll definitely look up the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada to find out more about it, as well as related organizations.

[yuris juris]

its seems like the "commentors" were discussing about the job oppurtunities of canada and philippines...hey people,,our concern here is arcelie loaagan's death..