Happy Mother's Day!

Mother’s Day is always a bittersweet occasion for our Filipino migrant worker mothers. While we may be surrounded by festivities that celebrate motherhood and family in this foreign soil, we spend this day toiling. Our hearts relentlessly ache for our children’s arms. Forced to leave them in poverty in the Philippines, we harden our hearts and brave the perils of working abroad. U.S. imperialism and capitalism, wherein the United States exploit yet rely on workers from developing countries, and the Philippine government’s Labor Export Program, normalizes family separation—normalizes children not growing with their mothers beside them. Instead of fixing the Philippine economy, the Philippine  government encourages mothers to leave the homeland, to be a “hero,” while sending remittances home and keeping the Philippine economy afloat. However, from scrupulous recruitment agencies taking advantage of desperate, poverty-stricken Filipinos to abusive employment on foreign soil that often lead to labor trafficking, migrant mothers endure all manners of hardship and heartache while overseas, all while separated from their children. 

Beyond oppressive employment, these women also face systemic racial discrimination, like anti-Asian hate and violence, as they continue to walk the streets everyday to go to work as domestic workers, caregivers, nannies, and babysitters. These mothers are driven by their desire to provide for their families back home, even as they yearn to be reunited with their children. 

We, in Damayan, honor the mothers in our community by continuing to equip them. Through our Know Your Rights trainings and community-building initiatives, we aim to empower these women to know that they have the right to fight for dignity in their work and for safety within their community. This Mother’s Day, we call on the mothers in our community to join Damayan trainings and community-building events. This Mother’s day, we call on our community to help keep watch over our mothers and women. Out on the streets and our workplaces, if you see an employer, a stranger abusing someone, say something. We may be apart from our children, but we can still celebrate Mother’s Day by taking care of each other. We can better care for our families, when we take care of ourselves and of our community together. Maligayang araw ng mga ina! #MothersDay #DamayanMigrantWorkers #DamayanMigrants #Damayan