Class Discussion on Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Lesson objectives:

• Identify the main points and critiques of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill
• Analyze the logics and critiques of the bill
• Explore the sociological links between immigration and race in the current contemporary political debate

Resources:

Students will have watched the film, “Lost in Detention” and read the below articles outlining the CIR bill and some critiques:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/senators-immigration-legislation-provisions/

http://colorlines.com/archives/2013/04/gang_of_eight_immigration_reform_details.html

http://colorlines.com/archives/2013/04/summary_senate_immigration_reform_bill.html

On the projector, project this visual for reference: http://qz.com/76047/all-the-paths-to-us-citizenship-in-the-senates-immigration-bill-visualized/

Activity:

In the beginning of the course, have students get into small groups to discuss the basic proposals of the CIR. On a sheet of butcher paper or regular paper, have them chart out the main interventions of the CIR bill. They can reference the article above.

Then, have them discuss the below questions:

• Who’s included in the path to citizenship, who’s excluded, what are the barriers to getting onto the path, and how treacherous is the journey?
• What’s the bill do about immigration enforcement?
• What’s the bill do to legal pathways for immigration? Who can now immigrate legally? Who does the bill cut out?
• How is immigration reform racialized? Which racial/ethnic groups are excluded?

Have them draft a reform that makes sense to them.

Have them report back to the larger class.

Why May 1 Matters

What is May 1? Four days before Cinco de Mayo. The day after April 30. AND, International Workers Day all over the globe.

Whatever you need to do to remember it, do it.

In the US, May 1 has also doubled for Immigrants/Workers Day. A kasama once said, “It’s like Christmas for workers.” Its the day folks come out to celebrate the fact that without low-wage im/migrant workers, our lives would come to a halt. In the past, huge mobilizations of communities that work on different social justice issues come out to mark the day as significant and, more importantly, a day to signal the need for real change around the issues of immigration and today’s working people.

This year though, its EVEN more important to come out to a May Day mobilization near you. Why? Because in the current political debate on Comprehensive Immigration Reform by the bipartisan Gang of Eight, the voices of immigrants, immigrant communities and families are on the line. Literally, many of our mothers, fathers, sisters, sons, grandparents, cousins, friends, loved ones are on the chopping block. Many will be deported. Many will be detained. Families will be separated. Jobs will be lost. Livelihood for families left behind will be severed. This reform will change the landscape of the US. For those of us who live here, those of us who have families that depend on people living and working in the US, this will change our lives.

So, we (by ‘we’, I mean everybody), must help shape this debate. We have to engage in public demonstration, public discourse and organizing around this issue to protect and defend our communities.

May Day is your chance. Get out there. Hold a sign. Sign up for an organization that is engaged with the immigrant rights struggle. Be a part of the change.

Visual graphic of pathways to citizenship:

http://qz.com/76047/all-the-paths-to-us-citizenship-in-the-senates-immigration-bill-visualized/

Colorlines discussion on the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill:

http://colorlines.com/archives/2013/04/gang_of_eight_immigration_reform_details.html

May 1

Stand with immigrants, workers, communities of color, LGBTQ folks on Wednesday, May 1, 2013!

We rose, but it won’t stop there

On Thursday, February 14, 2013, I rose and danced. Alongside sisters and brothers, elders and children, across cultural and generational communities, the People’s Power Rising contingent brought together communities of color under the banner of “end violence against women.” More importantly, our banner of violence against women worked to broaden the definition of “violence” to include structural and institutional violence stemming from the economic crisis, a broken US immigration system and neoliberal retreats in social services, housing and healthcare.

I can remember joining a street protest as a young person and feeling the electricity of collective action. But Thursday was a bit different. Dancing and marching, and then dancing again, in the streets holding our important calls against militarization, police brutality and deportations (to name a few) brought joy to my heart. It was, at once, militant and fun. My Gabriela USA sisters to my left, MUA (Mujeres Unidas y Activas) to my right, CPA (Chinese Progressive Association) comrades behind  me; it was electrifying.

People’s Power Rising Contingent – One Billion Rising SF Union Square

As we merged with the One Billion Rising organized by city committees and officials, I felt proud of our contingent pouring into the main event. Our march from Union Square (where we did our first dance flash mob) into the UN Plaza/Civic Center in San Francisco was thrilling as we chanted, “When women’s rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” But the flash mob and march was just a moment in the process building up to Feb. 14′s One Billion Rising. Our months of preparation looked like: ground working and unifying on the multiple definitions of “violence against women”, workshops discussing a wider definition for violence against women (topics like VAWA’s reauthorization and lack of domestic workers’s rights), rehearsals bringing women, men and queer people together to move our bodies (and burn calories!), and a roundtable discussion on how to keep the momentum moving forward to build a progressive women’s coalition in San Francisco.

The dancing was electrifying, but the inspiration and motivation came from the grassroots movement building we undertook in preparing for One Billion Rising.

Of course there were low points. The One Billion Rising movement, a largely white, middle-class, feminist centered, movement focusing on liberating women from violence through dance is sort of idealist and over-optimistic in relying on one day of dance to “end” violence against women. (See why some feminists are NOT supporting One Billion Rising) And even in real-time, the racial and class lines were drawn as our People’s Power Rising contingent were pushed to the back behind media cameras as all of the focus went to a stage where only city officials and mostly mainstream groups were given mic time. When it was our contingent’s turn to dance, our young people, elders and community members were physically marginalized as people crowded the center of the One Billion Rising space, mistaking us as invaders and telling us to move. The geography of American feminism materialized in the space provided for people of color, working immigrant communities and youth. We had to re-assert a second segment so that all of our contingent members could go into the space and really dance. As we went in a second time, our contingent had to literally create space (shove and push politely) for folks to give us some room.

There’s still little room to acknowledge communities of color in mainstream feminist spaces like One Billion Rising. There’s still a lot of room left to break open the definition of violence against women to include US imperialism and globalization, in its global and local manifestations.

But the most important lesson, for me, is not that one action on one Valentine’s Day is gonna fix such an entrenched problem like violence against women. Although, I agree with the critiques that One Billion Rising displaces the focus away from root causes. I also understand that the process of ending violence against women will be long-term and it has to include ORGANIZING and EDUCATING across genders, cultures, communities and generations. That’s what is key. One Billion Rising is one moment in ending violence against women. One moment towards a militant International Working Women’s Day, March 8th in San Francisco. One moment in building a strong coalition of organizations whose members and leaders are women who feel the brunt of the economic crisis.

Yes, One Billion Rising was fun. And Eve Ensler may have gotten more pats on the back than actual grassroots organizers got. But who cares? Eve Ensler isn’t gonna create change in our communities. We are. So we’re gonna pat our own backs.

We’re gonna continue to rise. March 8th is only less than a month away, and I know that we will continue to rise to the problems of today.

Why I’m Rising

I am rising because of the thousands of Filipina domestic workers all over the world

They who face uncertainty daily

Walking into the darkness of foreign lands, foreign languages 

Pushed out of their countries, away from their families

I am rising because I carry the legacy of Filipinas who have stood up and fought against impossibly degrading situations

Gabriela Silang, Maria Lorena Barros, Liza Maza, Emmi De Jesus, Joan Salvador, Lorena Sanchez, Irma Bajar, Elaine Villasper, Tina Shauf

I am rising because it runs in my blood

The strength of my mother, my sister, my grandmothers, my cousins

Who wake up daily, rain or shine, tired or sick

Muscles achy, sleep deprived

Shake it off

Relentless

Courageous

Bamboo women, bending against strong winds

Never broken

I am rising because I am a survivor.

Nights of black eyes and quiet cries

Gone

Long gone

Only days of bright eyes and bravery

Legal Trafficking is The Philippines’ Labor Export Policy

Forced migration puts hundreds of migrant workers to Louisiana to work long hours without fair wages and indentured servitude. Their living conditions are cramped in substandard facilities. They are kept from the passports and freedom of mobility, therefore kept from their family.

This has got to be a scene out of Django.

Nope. Its about Filipino migrant workers working at an oil barge in New Orleans in 2013.

Here are the 5 things I think you should know about the Grand Isle Shipyard (GIS) workers:

• Filipino workers employed by the Grand Isle Shipyard were systematically recruited and sent to Louisiana through the Philippine Labor Export Policy–a legal and institutionalized human trafficking program.When people are like, oh those workers wanted to leave the Philippines, they should be thankful that they have jobs. Well, except for the fact that the Philippine government is in bed with multi-national corporations with companies like GIS and they actually trade the Filipino people like tickets at Chuck E. Cheese–where tickets are the people and money are the prizes. (I know I’m reaching with the analogy here!)

• The Grand Isle Shipyard’s part in trafficking workers from the Philippines is completely deplorable, but more  offensive is their treatment of the workers: no days off, threats of deportation, 12-14 hour work days, refusal for workers to see their families. Trafficking is usually associated with sex workers and industry. But trafficking happens more and more frequently in low-wage migrant labor. Andhonestly, the trafficking part of migrant workers lives isn’t the worst part. The part where they get to the US and they don’t get paid or get underpaid or when they are stuffed in small living spaces or they get no days off or they don’t get to see their families. That’s absolutely the worst part of it, and really the worst thing that workers face in the history of forever.

• RACISM IS ALIVE AND WELL. Xenophobia is the word used to describe extreme hate for immigrants but what the word elides is that xenophobia is the second cheek on the face of bigotry and discrimination (American as apple pie). Jim Crow didn’t die just yet. Immigrant, undocumented or migrant worker are part of the “collective Black” at the center of racism.
  

The lawsuit also alleges that American employees weren’t billed for housing and were given preference for sleeping accommodations. “If a Philippine national were assigned to the lower bunk, he would be required to relinquish to an American worker, if he requested it,” the suit said. Read more: Grand Isle Shipyard Lawsuit – The Sociopathic Way We Do Business – Esquire http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/grand-isle-shipyard-lawsuit-112112#ixzz2IHzamt8f

• Migrant workers x Oil x Philippine government x multimillion dollar Grand Isle Shipyard Co. The connections between migration, precarious labor, global demand for oil, consumerism, corporate greed, neoliberal states (the Philippines as labor brokering and the US as imperialist), and New Orleans as a historic Filipino migration port leaks with the blood and tears sacrificed by workers for the profit of US imperialism and global capitalism. Migrant workers strung along, exploited and discriminated against, carry the ever-increasing weight of the rest of the world’s (corporations, imperialist governments, and us included y’all) need for fast cars, fast food, fast money.

LASTLY.

• 80 Filipino overseas workers are filing a lawsuit agains the Grand Isle Shipyard (GIS)–an oil company linked specifically to Black Elk Energy in the Gulf of Mexico.

Separate from the explosion, Grand Isle Shipyard is facing a lawsuit by a group of former workers from the Philippines who claim they were confined to cramped living quarters and forced to work long hours for substandard pay. The lawsuit was filed in late 2011 in a Louisiana federal court and is pending. Lawyers for the company have said the workers’ claims are false and should be dismissed. Read more: http://www.katc.com/full-coverage/oil-platform-explosion-november-2012/

Despite the difficult situation they’re in Filipino workers are fighting back. You should think of how you can support them.

In November an explosion claimed the lives of 3 Filipino workers, Avelino Tajonera, Ellroy Corporal and Jerome Malagapo. Let’s honor them by joining the struggle for Grand Isle Shipyard Workers.

Resources:

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/11/grand_isle_shipyard_charged_wi.html

http://www.wwltv.com/news/eyewitness/brendanmccarthy/Practice-of-enlisting-Filipino-guest-workers-under-question-182119891.html

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/grand-isle-shipyard-lawsuit-112112

http://www.philippineforum.org/2013/01/18/for-immediate-release-family-members-of-filipino-workers-killed-in-louisiana-oil-rig-explosion-demand-justice/

January 11, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Reference: Connie Bragas-Regalado, Chairperson, 0933-6503487

 

Support statement for OFWs’ lawsuit vs. Grand Isle Shipyard

Justice for victims of Black Elk explosion, stop human trafficking!

Migrante Partylist today expressed support for and strong solidarity with at least 80 Filipino migrant workers who filed a class suit against companies Grand Isle Shipyard, Black Elk Energy and DNR Offshore Crewing Services.

The Grand Isle Shipyard is a company based in Louisiana, USA that hired and deployed Filipino migrant workers to oil companies in the Gulf of Mexico, specifically Black Elk Energy. Filipino workers were recruited in the Philippines through local agency DNR Offshore Crewing Services.

Last November 16, 2012, three Filipino welders were killed while three more were severely injured in the explosion that rocked Black Elk. The Filipino casualties were identified as Avelino Tajonera, Ellroy Corporal and Jerome Malagapo. Black Elk has since had a history of safety problems. Since 2010, Black Elk has been cited 315 times for safety violations. In 2012, Black Elk was cited for 45 incidents of non-compliance to company safety standards.

As a result of the tragedy, more than 80 OFWs filed a class action for violation of the FLSA, discrimination, labor trafficking, slavery and forced servitude, and fraud. The class suit is currently pending at the Louisiana Federal Court.

Since their employment by the said companies in 2005, the Filipino migrant workers have experienced abuses and violations of their rights. They were refused days off, made to work 12-14 hours a day without overtime pay, made to pay illegal fees, were refused visits from and to their families, discriminated against (not allowed to speak to their American co-workers), threatened of deportation and other labor violations.

One worker plaintiff, Saxon Gannod, became temporarily blind because of welding for long hours without rest. While getting medical treatment, he was continuously required to work. Another worker burned inside a tank. He only received three days of medical treatment. Instead, he was hidden in one of the recruiter’s homes without sufficient medical treatment.

At least 500 Filipino workers will potentially benefit should the complainants win the class suit. While American workers enjoy the civil liberties granted any other worker in the US – namely, days off and work holidays and other benefits – Filipino workers are treated like slaves and blatantly discriminated against.

They are being guarded 24 hours a day. Surveillance cameras are set up outside their bunkhouses to prevent them from leaving or escaping. They are asked to leave their rooms and vacate their beds should an American worker decide that he wants to occupy it. Filipino workers are also charged US$1000-US$3000 a month per person for rental of their bunk beds.

Migrante Partylist fully supports the fight of Filipino workers in the said companies and vow to actively campaign for the immediate resolution of their plight. The violations committed by the companies against them are unacceptable. The companies perpetuate modern-day slavery and allow for the discrimination and dehumanization of migrant workers.

Migrante Partylist calls for justice for the three Filipinos who died in the Black Elk explosion. It calls on both Philippine and US Congress to conduct an independent and thorough investigation of the tragedy.

It also calls on the Philippine and US governments to investigate, punish and hold accountable perpetrators of labor trafficking, contract substitution and contract violations of the Filipino migrant workers.

Migrante Partylist likewise denounces any form of neglect and possible white-wash by the Philippine Embassy in the US for denying knowledge about the lawsuit. According to the migrant workers, they have requested a dialogue with the Philippine Ambassador but he refused. In a media interview right after the explosion, he even had the gall to declare that “all is fine” and that “they (Philippine government) are looking forward to bringing in more workers to the companies.

As in other cases of trafficking, discrimination, abuse and exploitation of Filipino migrant workers in the US and elsewhere, it has been proven time and again that only through unity and collective action can Filipino migrant workers assert their rights and obtain justice. ###

–
Website: http://migranteinternational.org
Office Address: #45 Cambridge St, Cubao, Quezon City
Telefax: 9114910

“Separate from the explosion, Grand Isle Shipyard is facing a lawsuit by a group of former workers from the Philippines who claim they were confined to cramped living quarters and forced to work long hours for substandard pay. The lawsuit was filed in late 2011 in a Louisiana federal court and is pending. Lawyers for the company have said the workers’ claims are false and should be dismissed.”

Baby Boom in the Philippines

A visual representation for the increasing need for comprehensive Reproductive Health Bill in the Philippines.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/11/09/world/asia/20121109-IHT-manila.html

Filipino, Migrant, Worker

My new course this Spring 2013 at University of San Francisco!

Who Cares?

Who Cares?

This is a story covering the CARE Project published in the highly regarded and incredibly exciting Asian American magazine, Hyphen. PEEP!

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/33424/aquino-signs-ilo-convention-to-protect-domestic-workers-rights

“The committee is chaired by Sen. Loren Legarda. We must act fast if we want the Philippines to be the second state party of the ILO to ratify the convention, next to Uruguay, (although Uruguay has not deposited yet the ratification instrument with the ILO) … The convention requires at least two ratifications to enter into force,” Sana said.

…

The new ILO standards set out that domestic workers around the world, who take care of families and households, must enjoy the same basic labor rights as those available to other workers: reasonable hours of work; weekly rest of at least 24 consecutive hours; a limit on in-kind payment; clear information on terms and conditions of employment, as well as respect for fundamental principles and rights at work including freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining.