It’s not a secret that the Philippines is under a quicksand of poverty. With this quicksand and the mounting surplus of the unmet needs of Filipinos, one shouldn’t be so surprised of the materialization of the Filipino diaspora. Filipinos pack up their bags and jump in the pits of uncertainty for a chance of a better life. While the opportunities abroad can be luring, surviving outside home to seek for greener pastures is not an easy task. Herein lies the question on how Filipinos (or individuals) fit in the globalized world.
Going global, furthermore, requires us to understand that the sustainability of today’s world requires households to do what they have to participate in the social, economic, and political production, which sometimes urge them to leave home (Tétreault & Lipschutz, 2009). At the other end of the spectrum, desire alone wouldn’t suffice to live in another country as countries today protect their citizens through deterrence efforts and migration laws (Elden, 2009). However, some succumbed in the throes of illegal migration because of, for the lack of a better word, “desperation” to get out of the quicksand; the Filipinos did not escape the said human propensity.
Illegal migration, therefore, requires an individual to deny or lie about his identity to avoid being caught and suffer deportation and other legal sanctions. This inevitably makes illegal immigrants a multitude of subalterns living in devoid of rights and privileges of those within the inner circles of power. If a legal migrant suffers from different problems, from deculturalization to racism, an illegal migrant suffers from the same problems with the constant fear of deportation.
In the end, we do what we have to, right?
Doty, R. (2009). Why is people's movement restricted? In J. &. Edkins, Global politics: A new introduction (pp. 170-191). London: Routledge.
Tétreault, M., & Lipschutz, R. (2009). Global Politics as if People Mattered. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
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