Migrant's Focus Magazine: Issue #1     Profile #2: Fatima Baylosis, A Muslim Migrant After ten years in HK, Fatima prepares to go back to a place she calls home. She has to prepare herself to the many changes she'll face. But it is not just Alegria, Cebu that has changed. Fatima has too. When she left her hometown in 1990, she was a very energetic, extremely healthy woman. But not anymore. Two dislocated spinal discs will definitely change Fatima's life. She will never forget the day she learned that due to a very bad fall in her employer's bathroom, she had to undergo a major operation to correct her slipped spinal discs. Fatima had to go for repeated bone scans to determine the extent of the damage. And after the operation, she had to see the orthopedic specialist and attended daily physiotherapy. While in the process of recovery from her operation, she also had to endure facing the same people who denied responsibility to what happened to her in countless court hearings, both at the Labor Tribunal and at the Employees' Compensation Board. After two years, the court finally decided to grant compensation for Fatima, for losing up to 15% of her working capacity, and would therefore receive a decent amount. But for Fatima, this is never going to be enough. Because if she was better, she could still work, she would be able to earn a hundred more times than that amount. Physically, Fatima is recovering slowly, but emotionally, she will never feel okay anymore. Her family and their breadwinner have always considered her the "pillar of strength" too. Fatima finished Bachelor of Science in Commerce, majoring in Banking and Finance, has worked for different companies and also as a secretary for a provincial congressman at the Batasang Pambansa in Manila. But after a year of working for him, he decided not to run for office again, which meant that Fatima had to go back to Cebu. Back in Cebu, Fatima's mother had a sari-sari store and a tailoring shop. Her father was then a volunteer teacher. Fatima has three sisters and two brothers. One of her brothers works as a seafarer for 17 years. Although Fatima wanted to review for the Board Examination for CPAs, she had to delay her plans because her mother was very ill at that time. She had to take care of her until she died in 1984. After the death of her mother, her father decided to marry again. She was a woman a lot younger than he was which Fatima's siblings did not approve of due to the reason that they can still have children. When Fatima made an inventory of what was left behind by her mother, she found out that she had a few properties. That she owned a piece of land where she raised more than 20 heads of cattle, five water buffaloes and three horses. But when she asked her father about all of these, her father said that they were all dead, and that the ones that were left were sold to cover for her mother's hospital costs. Fatima did not believe this because she knew that her other sister took care of the bills because her mother was a beneficiary of her sister's Medicare and even the burial expenses were taken care of by her sister. But Fatima knew that the reason why her father is not giving her any financial assistance was because of his belief that women do not really have to get a degree because they will be taken care of by their future husbands. But Fatima's mother argued agaist this custom and supported her daughters without the knowledge of her husband. The property disputes then got to the chief of police and they were told that Fatima and her brothers and sisters did not have any right to their parents' conjugal property because their father was still alive. Losing hope in the struggle, Fatima left for Manila and decided to apply for a job abroad. The biggest reason she had for wanting to earn some money was because she wanted to send her nephew to school and finish a degree in Medicine, because this was her mother's dying wish. After a few months, Fatima got a job offer to work for an Arab family in Abu Dhabi. Her employer worked for the sheik. Fatima worked with another six domestic helpers of different nationalities, each with a defined task in the home. Fatima had very good employers. She was able to finish her 2-year contract there and then she went back to the Philippines. But after a few days, she received a request by her former employer to come back to Abu Dhabi because their son (daughter) was not eating at all and she was losing so much weight. Fatima went back but was not able to finish her second contract because her employer's brother wanted to marry her. He himself expressed his desire to marry Fatima and had not stopped showering her with presents including jewelry. Fatima got so scared because she was betrothed since birth to someone in the Philippines and when she told her family about it, they were firm in their decision that Fatima should not marry this Arab guy because she was already engaged to someonen else and that it will be a big disgrace to their family. Despite Fatima's disagreement, her employers were already arranging for their marriage. Fatima escaped and left her employers' home and went to the Philippine Embassy. She was repatriated back to the Philippines. When she went back to the Philippines, it was basically the same set up. The environment she was in was still the same suffocating situation. Fatima had to make that painful decision to go abroad again. At that time, the person betrothed to her was already in Canada. She applied for a job in Hong Kong because she saw it as a good stepping-stone to get to Canada. After a short while of waiting for a placement in Hong Kong, she was told she had employers. She left for HK in 1990. When she arrived in Hong Kong, she was torn between using her earnings to send her nephew to college or to pursue her own dreams. And she thought that she will fulfill her promise to her mother and deferred her plans for Canada until it was already forgotten. With all her experiences abroad, Fatima believes that the reason why the number of Muslim women migrants is increasing is the same exact reason why any Filipino gets into the phenomenon called forced-migration. It is due to poverty and unemployment. And that if there is a job available, the standards and requirements are just too rigid. Fatima also found out that when she was still in Manila, she tried to apply for various offices including banks, and although she was very much qualified, she was not chosen because she was a Muslim. Fatima, like most women, has spent their productive years abroad, taking care of other people's children and houses. And like most Filipino migrant workers, there is no way that she can catch up on the many things she had missed while she slaved herself in a place like Hong Kong. And how can Fatima forget her very bitter experience? Her only consolation is that every time she reflects on the things she has accomplished, and sees Donald who has finished a course on Medical Technology, she knows that her mother will be pleased for what she'd done. And when Fatima realizes how much she had contributed to the Philippine economy, she may not be an accountant now, but she knows she has done more. Life may not have been so beautiful for a migrant worker like Fatima, but it was not bad either. It's just sad that many more Fatimas have to leave the country and might go through the same fate as she did.     Search our site: advance search             Back to top           1995 - 2001 (c) copyright The Mission for Filipino Migrant Workers (HK) Society e-mail: mission@migrants.net website: http://www.migrants.net