PSU Magazine Spring 2006

Indonesian domestic helpers rally outside their consulate in Hong Kong ask– ing for safe working conditions. international issues and the degree requires a foreign language, either Chinese or Japanese. Augustine is Lak– ing Chinese. Students can complete the work in one year as a full-time stu– dent or in Lwo years in the part-time program. About 70 students are in the program. M lM students complete an exit project in their final year-often work– ing in groups of three to five with a local company to help solve a real– world problem. Last year, Augustine, who is in the two-year program, solicited students in their final year Lo conduct research into the plight of domestic workers working outside their home countries. Four students said yes. Their first task was to understand the scope of the problem. They researched the numbers of people affected, foreign labor laws, and most importantly, the informal positions governments held regarding guest workers. Augustine paid for himself and two members of the MIM team Lo travel to the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan and meet with government officials. These meetings helped them understand the nuances behind official positions on foreign workers-and the best way to go about establishing a helping agency in each country. The MIM students found a prof– itable, poorly regulated industry with financial motivations for governments to ignore the situation. Some 12 to 16 percent of the gross domestic product of the Philippines and Indonesia comes from overseas salaries sent home. According to a United Nations eco– nomic report, maids and other nation– als working overseas sent more than $8.5 million home to the Philippines in 2003. 1':e money trail begins with recruit– ment agencies that often operate out of the public eye. Agents collect fees of $100 to $400 from women in small vil– lages whom they encourage to sign up for overseas jobs. Some agencies offer women the option to pay the fee from their first several months' salary With hundreds of unregulated agencies, the potential for abuse is staggering. PHOTO BY PETER PARKS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES "A lot of bad things can happen to them," says Augustine, "before they ever leave their country." Women may be told they will receive a month or two of training in laundry, cooking and caring for infants and elderly patients. Instead, says Augustine, they may be locked up for six months to a year in facilities with barred windows and razor-wire topped walls-buildings that resemble prisons more than schools. Guards monitor their activities, and they are often bused out to worksites where they pro– vide free labor until they're sufficiently "trained." Once they're sent to their overseas employer, things can become really ugly. Work visas restrict the women to a single employer and worksite. But unscrupulous employers may farm them out to relatives' homes , small businesses, even massage parlors. These are all outside the scope of the work visa, and if the women are dis– covered, authorities send them home. Foreign labor laws generally do not protect the domestic worker, says Augustine. Employers face few if any consequences for withholding all or SPRING 2006 PSU MAGAZINE 23