It took Celeste* nearly 12 years to come home. In the late 1990s and going into the new century, it was not easy for Filipinos to get working permits in France. Like many other undocumented workers there, Celeste spent at least a decade as a housekeeper for various employers, learning French by necessity, and looking for as many traces of the Philippines in the French capital as possible. She had to live there for a decade in order to get a permit. Going home was not an option.
“Mahirap ang maging TNT [tago nang tago]…Kapag may emergency sa Pilipinas, wala kaming magawa kundi tumawag na lang at ipagdasal sila… Hindi namin sila madamayan, mahagkan, at makasama (It’s difficult to be an illegal migrant…when there’s an emergency at home, we can’t do anything but call them and pray…We can’t comfort them nor be with them),” Celeste shares.
Celeste considers herself lucky that her first employer was willing to help her arrange documents. This way, she did not have to hide. Others are often not as fortunate.
There are more Filipinos currently living there at present. Around 191,400 overseas Filipino workers have chosen Europe as their place of work since 2012. Since then, an estimated 50,000 migrants reside in France, half of whom are said to be undocumented.
“These days, Pinoys are a bit luckier,” Celeste says. Now, it usually takes only five years of staying in Paris to secure a working permit. “You’re entitled to work basta makumpleto mo ang 35 hours per week at basta lagi kang mag-declare ng oras (You’re entitled to work as long as you complete 35 hours per week and you declare those hours),” Celeste says.
A working permit in Paris, France — a Titre de Salarié — is a ticket to a much better life for Filipino workers there. Job security assures them of more consistent remittances, more stable employment, and the luxury to make short visits to the Philippines from time to time.
Before going to Paris in 1997, Celeste worked in real estate for about a year. Upon the suggestion of a family friend, she took up nursing, as demand for nurses here and abroad spiked at the turn of the century. However, she did not get to take the board exam and could not practice nursing here.
“Noong makarating ako rito [sa Paris], kahit napag-isipan kong [ituloy] ang Nursing, [hindi ko na nagawa] dahil halos hindi na ako nakapagpapahinga (When I got to Paris, even though I thought of going back home and pushing through with nursing, I just decided not to as I was so busy with work here),” shares Celeste.
Besides, she had already been earning EUR 2,200 monthly then. Her immediate goal then was to have their house back in Naic, Cavite renovated. She says she got used to earning money in Paris, scrubbing floors and toilet bowls, bathing her employers’ pets, and running other errands almost daily, despite her computer secretarial and nursing degrees.
There are many who were professionals in the Philippines now working as domestic helpers in Paris, Celeste says. They were bank managers, doctors, nurses, engineers – now they babysit, run errands for their employers. They earn enough to send money to their families in the Philippines and to provide for their quotidian needs in Paris, too.
“Lahat ito, para sa pamilya (All of this is for family),” says Celeste.
Sources: psa.gov.ph, rappler.com
*Editor’s Note: Name changed at request of interviewee.
