(last of two parts)
Most of these women, Parreñas said, "are not prostitutes" and don’t consider dohan a form of prostitution.
Hence, she said, not all trafficked persons (including Filipinos) need to be rescued, rehabilitated, and reintegrated into their home societies.
While working there, she said she and other women were paid a minimum monthly pay of 200,000 yen (roughly US$1,700 or P85,000 at current exchange rates).
But some, Parreñas said, earned less at 120,000 yen (US$1,019 or P50,950).
However, it is from this amount that the entertainer gets her allowance for day-to-day living in the most expensive country in the world.
Likewise, even before landing on the soil of the country’s former invaders, the Filipino is already indebted with P37,000 (US$720). That amount is the minimum payment for a six-month training course on dancing and singing.
"And many pubs (in Japan) do not require migrant workers to sing or dance," Parreñas cited the irony.
In her paper published in the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, Parreñas wrote that trafficked women face debts with their managers in the pubs and with their promotion agencies in the Philippines. They even have to meet a daily quota of customers’ tips.
In addition, the women work on extended hours without pay as well as face wage penalties.
Some clubs give lower wages because clubs provide the hostesses food and shelter—things that are supposedly given on top of salaries.
Done that
SINCE the late 1980s, Filipinas have flocked to Japan as "overseas performing artists" and the Philippine government requires them to undergo training, processes their work certificates, and screens their six-month contracts. A demeaning tag given to many Filipino workers there is Japayuki, a derogatory reference to prostitution.
These women are the top remitters among 285,390 Filipinos who have sent $3.66 billion during the last eight-and-a-half years.
The number of Filipina entertainers was even rising until the State Department’s 2004 TIP Report wrote that Asian and Latina women are trafficked to Japan for criminal, labor, and sexual purposes. A year later, the second TIP Report wrote the Philippines was "a major source of trafficking victims" to Japan.
A new Japanese immigration law has changed the landscape of this East Asian migration chain dramatically. Deployment of Filipino workers to Japan (not just as entertainers) dropped to 42,586 in 2005 from 74,480 in 2004, data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration showed.
Meanwhile, recruiters from Manila claim Filipinas in Japan are arranging marriages (costing 300,000 yen or US$2,525) just to remain there. Noticeably, Filipino permanent residents there, like those marrying Japanese nationals, rose in number from 83,303 in 2004 to 114,980 in 2005.
Owners of Manila recruitment agencies are losing clients because of the new law, even threatening to fold up soon.
On the other hand, nonprofit Development Action for Women Network has said that the law "is not meant to kill the industry but to improve it so (Filipinas) are provided with real jobs that empower them and preserve their rights and dignity."
Parreñas’ views the law does not "necessarily prevent trafficking, but (places) prospective migrants further in debt and even increases the conditions that make them trafficked."
Parreñas, an American citizen, recalled an entertainer named "Cindy" asked her: "Why is your (US) government making our lives difficult? Is it because they want us to be caregivers?"
"I think (the US is) doing that to protect you," Parreñas said was her reply.
She only gave Parreñas a puzzled look. /MPmailto:madyaas_pen@yahoo.com
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