In language that belies her cherubic appearance, Julia Mariano calls for “revolutionary rage.”
She is speaking at Taipei’s Vinyl Decision bar, alongside a portrait of Bob Dylan. This is the language of protest, for sure, but rather than channeling voices from a bygone era, Mariano is demanding that people take action right now.
The occasion is the launch of Taipei-based Canadian writer Joe Henley’s latest novel, Migrante (reviewed on page 14 in the Taipei Times on July 30), which details the tribulations of a Filipino migrant worker in Taiwan, and the largely Western composition of the audience is not lost on the speaker.
Photo: James Baron, Taipei Times
“I’m so grateful that Joe wrote this book and that all of you are here,” says Mariano, a sophomore at National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences. “It’s nobody’s fault if you’re born into privilege, but I hope that we aim to maximize our platform and our privileges to fight for a world that is more equal.”
Rather than simply sympathy, Mariano calls for anger, “because anger is the emotion of injustice.”
Given her background, Mariano’s fiery rhetoric is understandable. The daughter of a doctor who was himself compelled to seek work in Taiwan to fund his college tuition, she remembers “breaking down at school because I couldn’t go home to my dad.”
Photo: James Baron, Taipei Times
In addition to being spokesperson for Migrante International — Taiwan Chapter, a rights group for migrant workers, Mariano is a member of Anakbayan, a militant Filipino student movement with branches worldwide. The organization is fiercely critical of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and has proved a nagging thorn in his side.
Disapproval of Duterte, even from this side of the Luzon Strait, is risky. In April, a Filipina caregiver who criticized the president on Facebook was threatened by labor authorities in Manila who called for her deportation
Gilda Banugan, chairwoman of Migrante International — Taiwan Chapter, who spoke briefly at the event, highlights the deep roots of the problem.
Photo: James Baron, Taipei Times
“The Philippines has long been a semi-colony of the US, being tied to it by unfair treaties,” she says later through Facebook, citing the labor export policy introduced under the dictatorship of former President Ferdinand Marcos as kickstarting a healthcare brain drain.
“It definitely is not a problem that started in the Duterte administration, but it has worsened since the outbreak of COVID-19, where healthcare workers are overworked and underpaid.”
Many who have become sick or died fighting the virus haven’t even received hazard pay, exacerbating the desperation to find an alternative.
Photo: James Baron, Taipei Times
Lennon Wong (汪英達), director of Serve the People Association, an NGO that runs migrant worker shelters, also took the stage on Saturday. Wong, whose work helped inspire Henley’s novel, delivered an indictment of a rotten system.
He notes that most workers pay exorbitant placement fees at home, before having monthly service fees deducted by Taiwanese brokers. Although direct hiring exists in the Philippines and in limited cases for Indonesian factory workers, the governments of those countries don’t support it.
“They have a strange mindset, saying ‘We need a broker because, if we don’t have it, there’s no one to take care of them and there might be human trafficking,’” he says. “I want to slap them and say ‘It’s totally the opposite — brokers are the source of human trafficking!’”
While Wong doesn’t oppose the stance of groups such as Taiwan International Workers Association, which calls for the abolition of the brokerage system, he advocates a nuanced approach.
“In reality, a bunch of people have worked in this industry for 20 years. How can you just kill their industry?” he asks, rhetorically.
Instead, following the principles of fair recruitment espoused by the International Labor Organization and International Organization of Migration, it should be the employers rather than the workers that pay placement fees.
Several companies are already on board.
“We have a joint project with a French NGO — they work for some French brands who have suppliers in Taiwan. We want to expand this,” he says. “Under the Responsible Business Alliance … [with] some big companies, it’s already like that,” he says, noting that most Apple suppliers foot employee placement fees. “I believe that under this trend, it’s a win-win situation.”
This includes the brokers.
“It’s such a corrupted system that everyone is exploited — even the brokers,” says Wong. “[They] don’t charge a single dollar to the employer — can you believe that? On the contrary, brokers pay the factory employers in kickbacks to safeguard their quota, to keep their business.”
The brokers are also expected to provide dormitory and translation services, says Wong. “So where does the money come from? Obviously from the workers. So, if we can force the employers to pay it, the brokers won’t really lose money. This is what we’re trying to achieve.”
Like Mariano, Wong expresses outrage at the abuses he has encountered. Yet, he advocates a measured response. Concluding the evening’s speeches, Henley re-emphasizes this point. “We should be angry but our anger should have focus,” he says. “Anger without focus is useless.”
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