OFW Boycotts in the Works
By Miko L. Morelos
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 13:40:00 03/13/2008
Different OFW groups, including the militant Migrante, recently called for a “Zero Remittance day” to dramatize their protest against President Macapagal-Arroyo in connection with the scandal-ridden $329-million National Broadband Network deal with China’s ZTE Corp.
Maita Santiago, Migrante International secretary general, said in a statement that the boycott would go on monthly as the group urges more OFWs around the world not to send money to the Philippines on certain days.
“That amounts to more than $30 million daily. Secretary Romulo Neri acknowledged that through our remittances, we are treated by Arroyo as an ‘exhaust valve’ for her bankrupt economy. We will no longer stand idly by while she relies on us to prop up her ailing economy,” Santiago said.
Another boycott, against Western Union
Meanwhile a US-based network of migrant workers groups has instigated a US-wide boycott against the remittance pioneer Western Union for allegedly neglecting to invest in immigrant communities’ welfare.
Western Union has disputed the claim, saying the engagements and partnerships they formed have helped “foster economic opportunity in our communities around the world.”
Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action (Tigra) has been pressing Western Union to espouse “a written policy for community reinvestment that would prioritize building social capital in immigrant communities,” says its executive director Francis Calpotura, a Filipino-American. He was in the country in late January to coordinate with local migrants’ group a Philippine-wide boycott of Western Union.
This has yet to materialize, however. One of the migrant workers’ groups, the Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA), has yet to complete its field work on the issue, said Ellene Sana of CMA.
Genuine Community Reinvestment
With a network of 200-strong migrant organizations, Tigra is asking Western Union to take up a covenant with migrant organizations, with the company promising “genuine” community reinvestment aside from lower money transfer fees and reasonable exchange rates. Tigra, whose advocacy is to promote economic justice for migrants, calls the proposed accord a “Transnational Community Benefits Agreement.”
Western Union pointed out, however, that its charitable foundation formed seven years ago has been giving back different forms of aid and “empowerment through education and global economic opportunity programs,” especially to migrant communities.
In a statement sent to the Inquirer, Angela Heng, company vice president based in Hong Kong, said, “Western Union believes that helping migrants can take many forms, from supporting them in the countries where they work, to supporting the families they leave behind. When Western Union supports community programs in the home countries of migrant workers, we are joining with our migrant worker customers in their efforts to build better lives for their families.”
Being the largest remittance company in the world, Western Union is an “indicator” of the industry, Calpotura said. He believed that if they could get Western Union to take the lead in adopting a TCBA, smaller remittance companies would definitely follow suit.
For more reinvestment
Aside from its telegraph operations, Western Union first offered money transfer service in 1871, making it the pioneer in remittance industry. It left the telecommunications business in 1879, but it now has more than 200,000 agents spread over 150 countries, according to the company website.
With the surge of the deployment of migrant workers to developed countries in the last 15 years, couriers and money transfer businesses have enjoyed a boom in channeling remittances from migrants to their home countries.
In a study published last year, the World Bank’s migration and remittance team noted that more migrants were sending their remittances through formal channels like banks, money transfer companies and the like.
“Large money transfer operators have therefore benefited from the shifting flows,” said the report released in November 2007.
Responsibility to consumers
It is only fair that companies who profit from migrant workers’ hard earned cash help in building communities of migrant families, Calpotura noted.
Aside from “cleaning up” the remittance business, Tigra advocates for more “community reinvestment” by the money transfer industry. Tigra is holding negotiations with four other industry players willing to adopt a TCBA.
Since its inception in December 2000, Western Union Foundation has given more than $40 million in humanitarian aid “to more than 1,500 non-governmental organizations in more than 70 countries,” according to the foundation’s website.
In 2006, the foundation granted more than $9 million to communities worldwide, an annual report of the WUF posted at the company’s website said.
Besides scholarships and funding for programs, Western Union Foundation says it also supported disaster relief operations in calamities in different parts of the globe, helping victims of the 2004 killer tsunami in Thailand and the 2006 Guinsaugon landslide.
In September 2007, WUF also launched “Our World, Our Family”—a $50 million, five-year initiative which aimed “to help migrant families stay connected, overcome barriers, and realize their dreams.
Heng said a need-assessment program has just been completed and the first phase of the project is expected to be rolled out in the Philippines and Guatemala within this year.
Calpotura however said that it’s more about marketing its product than uplifting standards of living of migrant workers. “The bigger concern here is their responsibility to their consumers,” he added.
“They need to reorient their giving (for it) to be a real partnership. The foundation is more focused on marketing rather than investing in social capital,” he said. “Will Western Union be part of that? Or will they still refuse when it’s already happening?”
|
