From January 19, 2019, to January 18, 2020, the United States government will no longer issue category H-2A and H-2B working visas to Filipino workers. H-2A visas are issued to qualified temporary nonagricultural workers, while H-2B visas are meant for temporary agricultural workers. Both visa categories involve seasonal work in the US.
Are our US-bound nurses and physical therapists affected by this one-year ban? According to friends in the recruitment industry, our nurses and other medical workers in the US hold EB2 and EB3 visas, which are not covered by the ban. In fact, there remains a keen interest among medical institutions, including nursing homes in the United States, to hire more nurses and therapists from the Philippines.
How will this ban affect students applying for visas under the work and travel scheme? So far, J-1 visas were not mentioned as being a part of the ban. Nevertheless, there is wisdom for the Philippine government to cast a sharper eye toward excessive charges leveled against these students by unscrupulous local partners of US-based companies. Unfortunately, there is no single government agency accountable for developing and monitoring the standards, protocols and marketing practices in recruiting Filipino students to work and study in the United States. I heard that some companies that market US internship for students have links with lending companies that offer exorbitant interest rates to enable parents to comply with “guarantee bonds” to ensure that the students will return home after the internship ends.
I asked Thomas Taylor of Janus International, a company based in Florida and Virginia, about internship opportunities for Filipino students under the J-1 visa. The American businessman noted that a lot of US-based companies, especially in the hospitality industry, are happy to hire young Filipino interns because they possess the right values, are eager to learn and speak excellent English. To protect the work and travel industry that involve mainly Filipino students bound for the US, he suggested that our government could develop ethical standards for local companies that recruit Filipino students to join US-based internship and work/study programs.
Last year, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) processed less than a thousand work contracts for the United States. Given the small numbers involved, should we be concerned about the US temporary work visa ban? Yes, because the reason given does not put our country in a good light. According to the US government, the US embassy in Manila has been identified as the source of approximately 40 percent of the total T-visas issued worldwide from 2014 to 2016. A T-visa allows victims of human trafficking from overseas to stay in the United States for a period of four years while fighting for his or her legal rights. About 60 percent of Filipinos issued T-visas applied as human trafficking victims deployed under the H-2B visa category.
Based on this development, it seems that our government needs to review the present system of screening and deploying workers and student interns to the United States to ensure that any and all forms of human trafficking would be avoided. The visa ban should be our own wake-up call. Part of this review should also focus on the issue of overstaying workers—the other reason cited by the US government for the visa ban.
Mr. Lito Hernandez, head of the Industrial Personnel and Management Services Inc. or IPAMS, said that the POEA should also look into the rising incidence of absconding workers or workers who intentionally break their contracts to move to another employer or to seek help in coming home due to personal reasons, thus putting the foreign employer and recruitment agency in a legal bind. As a veteran recruitment agency owner, he has had his share of horror stories involving overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) that make false accusations to justify their transfer to a different employer despite an existing contract.
In my interview with POEA Administrator Bernard Olalia, he said that an advisory would soon be issued to remind OFWs to follow the US Homeland regulations. “The POEA will defer to the wisdom of the Department of Foreign Affairs [DFA] regarding the US temporary work visa ban. We will be asking the licensed agencies with workers in the United States to strictly monitor the conditions of these workers. For those affected by the visa ban, the POEA will hold a dialogue with the industry for possible alternative labor markets.”
If the decision to stop the temporary work visas at least for the H-2A and H-2B categories is but part and parcel of President Trump’s “America First” campaign promise, then this is a political decision that falls squarely with the US authorities. Nevertheless, for our own peace of mind, we do need to ascertain whether or not the human trafficking angle raised concerning our temporary workers holds true. According to a source within the DFA, the secretary of foreign affairs fully intends to discuss the temporary ban with his counterpart. Until then, we have no choice but to wait for further developments.
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Susan Ople heads the Blas F. Ople Policy Center and Training Institute, a nonprofit organization that deals with labor and migration issues. She also represents the OFW sector in the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking.