Peripatetic Filipina settles in Melbourne as university lecturer

EVLIN Fuentes-Jankoff with husband Cyril and daughter Erika and son Carl

Evlin Fuentes-Jankoff practically lived out of a suitcase for several years. From an independent, single, career-focused woman living alone in her own Manila flat (with a maid and driver), she became a mum in a new country, with a non-Filipino husband, without her own income, relatives, and no external support network.

She is now a professional lecturer at prestigious Victoria University in Melbourne.

Being the eldest of eight siblings, she learned to be independent very early.

Jankoff initially got into accountancy course at the University of the Philippines Diliman though her first love was economics. She decided to shift to hotel and restaurant administration (HRA). “Why HRA? My friends in engineering asked. I said “it’s the only degree in campus where you are legally allowed to organize parties and drink alcohol, and get marks for it.”

Jankoff’s first taste of travel and independence was her internship at the then Hyatt Terraces Baguio.

Jankoff was among those in the pioneer team when the West Villa chain of restaurants opened. She then worked at Cebu Plaza Hotel where she says: “There was never really a dull moment in the hospitality industry. There was always something happening. I met a lot of fantastic people but did not like the work hours.” She moved out of the industry and worked at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) after.

She got along well with her boss while working at AIM but the latter would soon receive an offer to work in Jakarta. “I was sad that she left. What to do? I enrolled in the MBA program at Ateneo. As I was about to start the course, my former boss convinced me to come over for a holiday and stay with her.” Jankoff withdrew from the MBA program, got her money and packed her bags.

“My first year living as an expat came with dose of culture shock. I was lucky to quickly learn to speak Bahasa Indonesia within three months. Good enough to convince a taxi driver to take me to Tanah Abang (like our Divisoria) from my landlady’s place in Menteng (like our Forbes) and get to practice my haggling skills in time.

Before Jankoff left Jakarta for good, she went on a holiday to Sydney and Melbourne with two Indonesian female friends. “We all stayed with a classmate of mine from UP who was based in Sydney. I did not realize that my friend had plans of breast enlargement surgery while I was there, so I ended up looking after her, which I did not mind. I did not expect the shock in her mother’s and brother’s eyes when they got home from a holiday: I looked like the accomplice in crime!”

Other than her brief “nursing” stint, Jankoff found Australia a place that she could live. “I love the culture and art scene of Melbourne than Sydney that I actually declared to my friend “I would like to live in Melbourne” while we were staying at her brother’s place in Yarraville.”

Jankoff then tried to check all immigration possibilities to move to Melbourne but couldn’t get to pass the required “points test” to migrate. Back in Manila, she started to focus back on balancing career and single life. “I was happy to be back home. My stint as an expat opened doors for me to get roles that required frequent international travel.”

In one of her work assignments, she was sent to her company’s regional office in New York for a few meetings. On her first stop was a meeting in Albany before she headed off to her World Trade Center office on Sept. 21, 2001.

“That was a close call. It was scary being in New York watching the Sept. 11 disaster unfold and our office building collapsing. I felt so alone, shaken and did not know where to go. That was my first US trip and had not been there since,” she remembers.

Through work, Jankoff met her future husband Cyril. They were both working with the same British multinational company. He was based in Melbourne but was sent to Jankoff’s office in Manila for training and orientation. “It was a long distance office romance. We finally spent more time together after he left the company. On my first visit to see him in Melbourne, I felt it was surreal that Cyril actually lived in Yarraville, a few blocks away from where I declared I wanted to live in Melbourne a couple of years back!”

“Cyril loved Manila and he did not mind settling down in the Philippines. After a long and thorough decision process, we decided to move to Melbourne where his elderly mum is based. We got married in Melbourne and we now have two children, Carl and Erika,” Jankoff says.

Jankoff says she did not expect being a new mum in Australia could be tough and challenging. She arrived in Melbourne with her five-month old Erika. “One day I had a full-time nanny looking after her and the support of my family, the next day I was on my own looking after a baby in a new country. I felt alone. I thought being an English speaker, having worked internationally and been an expat would have given me an advantage in having an easier transition to my new life in Australia. Wrong. Being a migrant mother in Australia requires a different skill set—driver, nanny, cleaner, housekeeper, gardener, etc.”

Jankoff’s impressive credentials did not fail her. She was very lucky to land a job within five months of migrating to Melbourne. “I got a sessional lecturing job at a local university teaching international students.

With all demands on working moms and minimal support compared with what they get in the Philippines, many women experience post-natal depression, according to Jankoff.

Australians are very individualistic in contrast to Filipinos and other Asians whose culture is very enmeshed, according to Jankoff.

“People are polite and are happy to extend a hand. But life is just so busy that you have to make it a point to reach out and connect, otherwise it can feel so isolating especially if you do not have your relatives around,” she says.

Multitasking in Australia is common and the people take on other roles all the time, at work and at home, she observes. “You can be left out if you do not reach out.”

Jankoff says raising children in a different country with a non-Filipino partner has its own challenges. “Erika and Carl have a good understanding of the difference between their Filipino and Australian heritage. Cyril and I agreed that we should raise the children by taking the best out of the Filipino and Australian cultures, keeping in mind the children will grow up in a very multicultural world.”

In recent years, there are more skilled Filipino migrants arriving in Australia, mostly in the health-care and aged-care industries. “I think generally, Filipinos are very adaptable which makes it easy for us to blend in with other cultures. Having the Spanish, American and Asian mix in us makes us very western at the same time eastern in our mind-sets.”

When she first arrived in Melbourne, Jankoff wished that she could work at Victoria University, which was walking distance from her home. She went over to one of their offices and asked if she could apply to be a sessional lecturer.

“I got the job and I now work as a full-time lecturer in supply chain and logistics at the university. I am lucky to be working in a very multicultural environment that embraces diversity. Like in any country in the world, discrimination can happen in Australian workplaces. It is up to us how we handle it. The best lesson that we Filipinos may have to learn is to be assertive, learn how to say no and stand our ground in a nice way,” she says.

Planning to migrate or work overseas? Jankoff gives some valuable advice: “Be adaptable. Be open to learn about the local culture and connect with the locals. There is nothing like establishing friendships with the locals who can be able to guide you around local practices, and where and how to get support. Understand the thinking behind why they do certain things. Lastly, being adaptable does not mean that you have to compromise your own belief system. It is about establishing mutual respect.”