THE MESSAGE. BRINGING INTO FOCUS FILIPINO PRESENCE IN AUSTRALIA
www.kalatas.com.au | Volume 6 Number 4 | JANUARY 2016
DIBP: Be wary
of Email scam
The Department of
Immigration and Border
Protection has cautioned
people on scams including
an email scam contacting
unsuspecting victims with a
fake email address.
“We have become aware of a
scam that uses email addresses ending in '.pn' claiming to be from the department. The scammer contacts a victim through a fake email address and
claims to be from the department or
another Australian Government agency,” states the DIBP website.
The email address used by the
scammer is not a genuine departmental email address and ends in '.pn' . For
example, [email protected] or [email protected].
Victims can receive an email unsolicited, after they register their details on a job seeking website, or after
responding to a non-genuine employment ad. The person targeted will be
asked to provide personal documents
to the scammer.
The victim might be told they have
been selected in a 'resettlement programme' through an 'electronic ballot'. These scam emails have often been
signed by a 'Hon. Thomas Smith'.
The victim might be contacted by
the scammer pretending to be from
a company. The victim is then taken
through a fake recruitment process, and
told to contact the department through
a non-genuine email address ending in
'.pn'.
The DIBP states: Please be aware:
•We will never send genuine emails
from an email address that ends in '.pn'.
•We will not ask you to make a payment directly to the department..
•We do not offer a 'resettlement
programme' through unsolicited emails
or an 'electronic ballot'.
If you have received an email that
matches this scam we strongly recommend not responding. [www.border.
gov.au]
IMMIGRATION
07
The Migration
challenge
On cleaners and the distribution
of income and stories
When asked about migrating to Australia,
‘Inday’, a single mother from the Philippines,
exclaims “It is frustrating!”. This frustration, she
explains, is due to her current job as a cleaner
despite being a skilled migrant.
By Jake Atienza
Although a widespread story, it
is not a story that skilled Filipino migrants struggling to make ca-reer,
and money, in Australia like to make
known. This leads me to ponder;
What is the narrative that drives these
migrants?
The story of Inday’s migration
to Australia started taking shape five
years ago when she left the Philippines as an Overseas Foreign Worker. While working in research and development in the Philippines, she was
expected to take care of her son and
her family. The relatively low wages
in the Philippines led her to leave the
country in pursuit of financial prosperity.
She took up a position at a US Naval base where she worked at a laboratory in quality control and research
and development. When her 2-year
contract ended she decided to move
on as life at the naval base was isolating putting a strain on her son who
has accompanied her ever since she
left the Philippines. After the twoyear stint, she worked as a chemist in
Singapore for another three years.
This trajectory is not uncommon,
as a large percentage of the Philippine
population works abroad - Australia
being one of the top destinations. A
report published by the World Bank,
which ranks the Philippines as the
third largest recipient of remittances,
states that OFW’s contributed up to
$29.7 billion to the Philippine economy in 2015. This figure transpires in
the everyday stories of Filipino cleaners that I have been speaking to over
the course of this year.
After working in her line-of-work
for five years as an OFW, Inday felt
confident about moving to Sydney
and continuing her career. She migrated to Australia after obtaining a
Permanent Residen-cy as a Skilled
Migrant with her son as a dependent.
The frustration, she explains, is
derived mainly from the challenge of
landing the right job at the right company. While she has years of experience in her field, she has no local ex-
perience. After being shortlisted for
positions, Inday followed up and
found that she was over-qualified but
did not have local experience.
She took up cleaning in order to
support herself, her son and family
back in the Philippines.
A similar story runs parallel
among a number of Filipino cleaners
in Sydney. One such story is of a Filipino cleaner who worked in IT for 11
years whilst in the Philippines but has
been unable to work in IT in Sydney.
Another Filipino cleaner is a qualified
Nurse in the Philippines but does not
meet the criteria to work as a Nurse in
Australia.
These Filipino cleaners, while
struggling professionally, contribute to the economic backbone of the
Philippines by sending money home.
Meanwhile, they share with me the
frustrations of climbing the professio