UCLA

As Filipino workers became desirable to other countries, the Philippines became a “labor brokerage state” which relied on Filipino workers’ remittances. Undocumented immigrants face threats of deportation in the workplace and decreases in protections of workers’ rights. The Pilipino Workers Center (PWC), a Los Angeles-based organization serves Filipino workers. PWC organizes workers around workers’ and immigrant rights with campaigns for the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights and for Temporary Protected Status. During the course of the campaigns, PWC addressed invisibility of Filipino caregivers and undocumented Filipinos, individualist mentalities of Filipino caregivers, and the transnational family’s role in the relief and recovery for the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan. An analysis of the A.B. 241 and TPS campaigns demonstrates how PWC serves as a unique blend of social service, legal advocate, and lobbyist organizations in the context of the decline of unions and uneven global flows of migration, power, and capital.