‘Flexible’ Filipinos:myths and realities about Filipino seafarers…

Or: Understanding the role of seafarers’partners in retaining quality crew

Olivia Swift, Anthropology, Goldsmiths University of London

oliviaswift@gmail.com

Contents

• Filipino traits?• What have these to do with the professionalism we

seek among our seafarers? • What do we mean by professionalism? What is the

link between professionalism and retention?• Achieving retention through understanding

seafarers’ social and economic networks: how do these affect attitudes towards seafaring and time spent at sea? In particular, why focussing on seafarers’ female kin aids retention.

The Philippines

• Archipelago: more than 7,000 islands. Sea territory = 8x land territory.

• Spanish colony 1521-1898; under US control 1899-1946.

Positive stereotypes of Filipinos

• Among reasons commonly cited for employing Filipino crew are: competence, cost-efficiency, English speaking, etc.

• In addition, more subjective depictions of Filipinos abound, e.g…

Positive stereotypes of Filipinos

1) Hardworking (commonly attributed to a ‘colonial/submissive’ and moneymotivated mentality > protestant notions of work ethic).

2) Flexible/adaptable (often attributed to ‘colonial/submissive’ mentality).“Shipowners find Filipino seafarers very flexible and adaptable in any kind of environment. Filipinos are generally happy people which shipowners like because they create a positive ambiance onboard ship.”Josephine Francisco, President, Filipino Association for Mariners’Employment

3) Disciplined/obedient/respectful (similarly, often linked to a ‘colonial/submissive’ mentality).“The Philippines, given a good leader, will become a great nation, because Filipinos, as people, are essentially good followers.” NinoyAquino

4) Sociable/happy/caring Damayan (compassion, mutual help), pakikipagkapua (concern for the other) and bayanihan (civic co-operation) – “traits which Filipinos see as defining local culture”. Raul Pertierra, sociologist, Ateneo de Manila University

Positive stereotypes of Filipinos

5) Resilient/ ‘moral, family-focussed’ (variably attributed to Christian faith and ‘flexible’kinship systems, characteristic of Southeast Asia).

“Brits and others seem mentally tortured after just a few months on board. But Filipinosand their wives, they’re better at separation.” Crewing manager, Manila

“Nowadays, rare is the Filipino family that has no member living or working abroad. Wehave become – in the last 25 years – one of the world’s most highly dispersed nations.Our people have worked in, married into, and settled in the most diverse culturesimaginable. Yet, for all that we think we have become – wanderers without permanenthomes, families scattered by economic necessity – the Filipino family has survivedmightily.” Randy David, sociologist, University of the Philippines

6) Western/Outward-looking (‘natural cosmopolitans’ - variably associated with thePhilippines’ history of (labour) migration, colonising/conquest, and archipelagic nature).

“Because we were never quite citizens of a nation we could call our own, perhaps we canalways say we’ve been, in that sense, cosmopolitan.”

“This nation of islanders has increasingly become enamoured of connections to theoutside world. It is possibly a by-product of the OCW phenomenon, or one of its principalmotivating impulses.” Randy David, sociologist, University of the Philippines

Positive stereotypes of Filipinos

7) ‘Natural’ seafarers (because an archipelago)???

“There’s not one Filipino who has not had a remarkable inclination for the sea.” Fiscal Viana, council member during Spanish control of the Philippines

“Filipino seamen have great potential. They speak English, have deep-rooted maritime culture that dates back to the Spanish galleon era, and having come from an archipelagic country, they have a strong affinity with the sea.” Randy V. Urlanda, Norwegian Training Center Manila

“Because of the Filipinos’ natural affinity with the ocean, boys as young as three, go out to the sea with their fishermen-fathers for their sustenance. As they grow old, most of them would rather work on board ocean-going vessels so as not to disrupt their pelagic lifestyle, which they have nurtured since childhood.” Ang Marino Bow, tribute concert programme, September 2005

Negative stereotypes of Filipinos

1) Lack of LEADERSHIP (seen as the flip side of adaptability).

“Filipinos ask for less than sophisticated Indians, say. Indians havelearned from the Brits. Filipinos are simple, less demanding, they can lack initiative. They come to the office with their palms sweating.”Crewing manager, Manila

“By nature we are very obedient. The Filipinos have a mixed culture, with Asian, Spanish and American [influence]. And we have undergone 400 years of Spanish colony. On the one hand you Europeans are very frank. But we claim or approach our problem in other ways. Everybody knows that too much politeness will harm us, but we have a complex, believing that Europeans are superior to us.”Filipino rating

“They are so submissive, it’s terrible…They have such respect for authority, so they just blindly obey what comes down to them from above.” Danish seafarer

Negative stereotypes of Filipinos

2) Different/lower perception of RISK Not necessarily negative: For example, Lamvik and Bye argue that thestrength of kin ties among Filipinos makes them more risk averse than other nationalities at sea.More commonly however, (European) employers describe feeling that someFilipinos in some instances have a different sense of safety/risk than thatof most Europeans, which they attribute to the unpredictable nature of lifein a politically and economically unstable, Developing country. (SIRC study shows perceptions of risk to be determined more by structural than cultural factors.)

3) Different/more localised sense of RESPONSIBILITYSimilarly, the same employers say their own sense of responsibility and theparameters of their civic consciousness differed to that of Filipinos,suggesting that they thought some Filipinos - in spite of acting in the world- tended to feel duty towards immediate family, associates and to aChristian God in isolation of a wider sense of civic consciousness thatprioritises environmental protection.

Filipino crew priorities: question

• To which of the following do you identify? Please number in order of importance (i.e. 1 = most important to me):

• Being Christian / Being Filipino / Being from my particular province / Being a seaman / Being a seaman of my particular rank / Being a member of my family / Being an employee of this company / Being a member of AMOSUP / Other(s).

Filipino crew priorities: answers

• Christian.• Christian. • Christian, family.• Christian, family, Filipino, seaman, rank, company, AMOSUP.• Christian, family, seaman, Filipino, province, company, AMOSUP, rank.• Christian, family, rank, province, company, seaman, AMOSUP.• Christian, family, company, rank, AMOSUP, Filipino, province.• Christian, Filipino and seaman, family, company.• Christian, Filipino, family, seaman, rank, province, company, AMOSUP.• Family.• Family, Christian, Filipino, seaman, AMOSUP.• Family, Christian, Filipino, seaman, company, province, rank, AMOSUP.• Filipino, Christian, family, province, seaman, company, rank, AMOSUP.• Filipino, Christian, rank.• Filipino.• Rank.• Seaman.

Filipino crew responsibilities: question

• What do you feel are your responsibilities in life and to what/whom?

Filipino crew responsibilities: answers

• For myself and my family.• I feel my responsibilities in life to my family.• To my children the greatest gifts I can give are the roots of responsibility and wines of

independence.• Yes because I have a family.• To my family. To give them financial and moral support.• Responsible for my own safety and others onboard. Responsible as a man/husband to my wife

and as a father/parent to my daughter. • Responsibilities to your family, wife and kids, to build up a good future.• To my family it’s my responsibility to give them a better life.• My responsibility is to work in common good for the interest of everybody. By doing so, we rest

assure of our long term employment that our family needs to achieved.• To improve my kids education and lifestyle to my family and secondly to help my sisters and

brother to a better life.• My responsibility in my life is my son and wife. I consider them as a core to my existence in

which my struggles in life are for the betterment of my sole family.• To be myself and give to all what I have to. To be a responsible person. For now I’m just only

supporting my nephew and family cause I’m still single.• To my family, to the company, to my fellow crew, to my batch, to my high school, to anybody.

I don’t know. The truth is, I can’t understand what my life is…• To God – always please him, my family – to be faithful, caring and loving father and husband,

my country – to be a law-abiding citizen and patriotic, becomes an ambassador of goodwillabroad, my company – to live my company values (committed, competent, cooperative, honest and straightforward), my colleagues – to be respectful and cooperative.

Moving beyond national character types

• Inherently, stereotypes involve a degree of truth.

• But they are also inherently disguising, prejudiced, often unhelpful, and in shipping, a stumbling block that detracts from meeting crewing needs.

• Instead, need to ask what traits really matter among seafarers. What makes a seafarer ‘professional’?

Professionalism: some definitions

• Professionalism is both an individual characteristic and an ideological position.

• The primary definition is that of individual professionalism: the idea that membership of a profession carries with it a set of internalised values that will be reflected in the way in which work is carried out and the ethical standards that are adhered to. Although the term 'professionalism' is associated with a fairly specific range of high-status occupations, much the same claim about other occupations is embodied in terms like 'craftsmanship' and 'public service ethos.

• As an ideological position, professionalism is the assertion that workers with a professional/craft/public service ethos should begiven substantial autonomy to undertake their work in the way they judge to be appropriate.

Professionalism

• 1) Structural.

• 2 & 3) Subjective. Ambition: rarely ‘calling’ because not natural seafarers, young industry in the Philippines. In globalised labour markets, money is inevitably a key motivator among workers from the Third World.

• None of which is to say that OECD seafarers have not also lacked the same ‘calling’ and shared the same money motivation and desire to retire early; nor that seafarers from the Philippines (and other Developing nations) do not vary enormously in their ambitions and attitudes to seafaring.

2) Ambition:‘calling’, long-termseafaring

(subjective)

2) …&Attitude:

‘career’ > ‘money’focussed(subective)

1) Skill, Qualifications,

EarningsEtc.

(Structural)

PROFESSIONALISM

‘Professionalism’ is not the same as QUALITY.

Focus instead on achieving QUALITY. Achieved through:1) Structural components (training etc.)2) And… by understanding structural flexibility of Filipino seafarers (rather than subjective notions of the ‘flexible, adaptable, submissive’ Filipino). This means the EMBEDDING of seafarers within social and economic networks. This latter introduces a focus on seafarers’ PARTNERS (& mothers, etc.) in maritime affairs and ultimately, offers a means of better addressing a shortage of quality officers.

Seafarers’ wives (girlfriends, mothers, etc.)

• Knowledge• Interactions• Kinship• Money

Domestic economies

• 40% households entirely dependent on sea wage.

• Of the other 60 percent, household income other than that from seafaring comes predominantly from the unwaged work of women.

Sources of household income (other than seafaring)

• Sources of such income include: the sale of baked goods, ice candy, meat and vegetables, crocheted goods, home-made jewellery, newspapers, purified water, perfumes brought home from a husband’s voyages, cell phone load and CD burning; cattle fattening, fish farming and dog breeding businesses; property renting; gift store, restaurants, burger van, nacho and ice cream stall, beauty salon and party supply businesses; jeepney and school service van ownership; recruitment, sewing and medical services; interest from loans, winnings from gambling, teaching aerobics; the sale of insurance and memorial plans.

Domestic economies

• The income from these and waged work other than seafaring appears to range between P1,500 to P90,000 (~£15-90) per month per household (mean = p22,000 or ~£220, median = P10,000 or ~£100).

• For those villagers surveyed, the ‘additional’income from economic activities other than seafaring may at best equate to 20 percent of a seafarer’s basic wage. Nevertheless, this income is significant because often, it helps subsidise interruptions in seafarers’ earnings while they are ashore between contracts.

Domestic economies

• Few state that this ‘extra income’ is used during seafarers vacation specifically.

• My research into the budgeting methods of seafarers’ wives suggests however that women budget ahead so that the household’s net income is able to accommodate between two and four months without income from seafaring.

• That the income from economic activities other than seafaring isusually pooled within this overall budget means that despite women typically describing their work as “hobby lang” (just a hobby) or as a way of “helping” one’s husband, and despite them not directly attributing their earnings to subsidising shortfalls in the earnings of men, their earnings do just that, albeit to varying degrees.

• In particular cases when seafarers in the Seamen’s Village are injured and unable to work, it is the work of women (waged and unwaged) that has, at least temporarily, helped keep the household budget afloat.

Conclusion

• Clearly a relationship exists between seafaring and domestic economies.

• Overall, I have urged that we move away from unhelpful stereotypes and engage more critically in what matters from crew. A quality seafarer is well trained. A quality seafarer has a healthy mindset, which a strong family and social network help achieve.

• But what’s going on at home has both positive and negative implications for retaining quality crew…

Conclusion

• A household with a good-enough, alternative source of income to seafaring and happy home life might cause a seafarer to cut his career short.

• Equally though, diminishing dependency on the informal sector increases dependency on seafaring and thus helps retention.

• So… vacation pay - even if a nominal fraction of standard basic pay - is the most talked about incentive to choose one company over another, among this seafaring community. It is the best way of gaining loyalty among your crew.

• In addition, or alternatively, any initiative that involves women in the industry – seminars certainly but better still, employment (egcollating clippings for onboard news bulletins) – not only extends the reach of economic dependency but also helps foster a household’s involvement and pride in seafaring which go some way towards the ‘career-mindedness’ we berate Filipinos for lacking. A number of companies are beginning to think more in these terms, and for good reason.

Thanks to the ESRC and to Goldsmiths for the funding of the research on which this

presentation is based.