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This
peculiar arrangement, widely known among Filipinos in
America, is deemed the last resort of those wanting to
legalize their status. The going rate is $10,000 to
$30,000, enough to buy a brand-new car.
“Danny,” who tends a small store his mother owns in San
Francisco, has been approached many times by a man who
offered him money in exchange for marrying an
undocumented Filipina.
“I
get a lot of those proposals, but I’m not interested. If
I marry, that will be for real and not arranged,” he
asserts. He adds that “payments” may go higher depending
on how many dependents the immigrant has in the
Philippines, because it is presumed that they, too,
will be petitioned to the United States.
In
Javier’s case, her friend agreed to the arrangement
“after three years of convincing.” Her husband, who was
left to care for their children in the Philippines,
agreed to sign their divorce papers so she could remarry
in the US. His approval came with a stern condition:
that his wife’s second marriage would be on paper only.
The US
government knows of this practice and has put strict
measures to detect bogus marriages. One of the
procedures includes a series of interviews by an
immigration psychologist, who probes the couple to see
if their answers match on personal matters such as the
color of each other’s underwear.
“We’re prepared for that, that’s why I bought him only
one color. I got him gray briefs,” Javier says,
chuckling.
Marianito Roque, OWWA administrator, notes that OFWs
have developed different ways of seeking jobs abroad
even if these pose risks to their own safety.
Unscrupulous manpower agencies and individual recruiters
use their situation to make more money.
Because of the nature of their deployment, many
undocumented OFWs do not undergo a predeparture
orientation seminar, which provides information such as
the culture and laws in host countries. The major source
of information for unauthorized immigrants are the
agents and the recruitment firms responsible for their
deployment, said the Scalabrini study. |
