Filipino Caregivers in Israeli Society

In Israel there is a large number of Filipino women migrating from their homeland in order to receive better wages by working as caregivers for the elders. Filipinos contribute to Israel their services as well mannered  and enthusiastic workers who develop close relationships with their employers/authority.The caregivers monitor their patients, assist with basic needs and give companionship.There are cases of Filipino women converting to Judaism in order to marry their Israeli Jewish husbands.Filipinos bring diversity and an unusual demographic to the Reform congregations. Private agencies profit from Filipino workers that fee them in order to link them to their employers in Israel. Due to the large numbers of Filipino caregivers (primarily women) migrating to Israel they have been able to develop a close relationship within the small community of workers that often share the same lifestyle.They contribute distinctive cultural network creating their own church congregations, shops and food within Israel. Even with their significant contribution into the Israeli society they are deprived of bringing or raising their families in Israel. Migrant Filipinos are given the option of keeping their legal status or keeping their own children. Human rights organizations refer to Israel’s inhumane laws toward migrant workers as the “Slavery Law” because it restricts them from changing their employers more than three times. Migrant children can face the consequences of being deported or imprisoned if their Israeli legal status is denied. Filipinos have a difficult time trying to get legalized in Israel because of Israel’s “demographic threat” that focuses on maintaining their Jewish state. 

Filipino caregivers usually live in with their employer to provide strength and support through out the work day and often take the responsibility of the household duties. These workers face many obstacles that arise when being a caregiver like the lack of privacy when living in their employers house, the caregivers needs are often unnoticed, and a constant challenge with working with a physically disabled elder. Employers are aware of the financial necessity of their caregiver at oftentimes bargaining prices, demanding more services, and exploiting their workers. Legal advocates in Israel demand for an improvement in migrant human right laws. Maris Delusong in “Family life forbidden for migrant workers in Israel” shares her account on being a caregiver in Israel while providing for her family in the Philippines which creates a stressful situation for her marriage and herself being separated from her family. Delusong receives a better salary in Israel than she will receive in the Philippines and is supporting her family but is not able to bring her family to Israel. Any employer that goes to Israel with a working visa is limited on the opportunity of having children in the country because they will not be able to stay due to their strict legalization laws. Due to the inadequate support for the rights of these migrant workers these laws continue splitting families. 

Filipino women are also contributing to the Reform movement by being equally as involved as their Jewish husbands. These women light the candles for Sabbath every Friday night, learn traditional dishes, and bring an unusual group to their congregation. Moshe and Rina

are regular couples that attend a Tel Aviv synagogue and share their story on how most of the time the men return to Judaism because of their wives interest in the religion. The Filipina wives    organize Shabbat dinner with other wives and decide who brings the entrees every week. Rabbi Gilad Kariv, executive director of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism claims that their congregation becomes more “interesting” with their Jewish’s men choice of wives. He also expresses about the importance of being accepting of anyone who wants to convert which is different from an Orthodox’s perspectives. The Chief Rabbinate does not consider these converts as real Jews so they must marry outside of the country to legitimize their marriage. They are also not entitled to the Law of Return since the Chief Rabbinate is suspicious that they are only interested in gaining citizenship or financial benefits. The Filipinas often practice the high holidays and live a religious life while reintroducing their husbands to their own religion. 

The Billion Dollar Sex Industry in Israel

 
The sex industry in Israel is a prosperous business, creating approximately 25,000 sex for trade transactions daily. The clientele can vary from elite lawyers, doctors, married or religious men that are confident they will never be exposed. Most of the women involved in the sex industry are exploited and enticed by the money they will be receiving in comparison to leisure jobs. Pimps will often hire immigrant women who do not speak the native language, are undocumented, and/or in desperate need of financial security. Israelis are aware of the sex service industry and at times create their own fortune by supplying material for both the hookers and clients. The Russian mafia controls their own prostitution business by recruiting foreign women and exploiting them by taking advantage of their affliction. Prostitutes generate a great deal of money that is often given to their pimps who will share a small percentage with the hooker. The pimp will purchase a women in accordance to her looks and can quadruple his earnings by selling her services. The billion dollar industry is being tackled by the Knesset in forming better regulations in regard to penalizing pimps, trafficking international women and weaker communities that usually turn to prostitution. 

Prostitutes are victims of the pimps due to the hardship that lead them to choose selling their body as a form of payment. In “ One Woman's Journey to the Bleak Israeli Underworld - and Back” Alma was emotionally neglected by her family, sexually abused twice, married at the age of 17 and encouraged by her heroine addict husband to pursue prostitution. She was alone once her husband had an affair and her family rejected her, which got her into working for a higher paying prostitution business that would often pay her $1,000 a night or $2,000 with tips. The Russian mafia is in control of the prostitution business in Israel often recruiting uneducated immigrant women according to Rosenthal “ women desperate to escape the collapsed economies of the former Soviet Republics and Eastern Europe.” ( Rosenthal 387) Pimps often hire immigrants because they will do anything for money for the fear of being deported, and will not complain about the split of money as Israeli prostitutes often will. Natalia was an unemployed single mother from Moldova when she answered an ad showing “$1,000 a month a masseur can make in Israel.” (Rosenthal 388) She was then taken on an “Egyptian holiday” which was later deducted from her earnings and smuggled with a group of women into Israel by a man who put them to work in a brothel. In 2001 she gave a speech to the Knesset on Trafficking Women and was later deported. 

Locals use the opportunity to create their own business out of the prostitution industry. Advertisements appear in newspapers, alongside restaurants, and billboards selling escort and phone sex services from women as a way of promoting a “sexual supermarket.” (Rosenthal 383) Local vendors even make revenue from supplying prostitutes and clients with condoms, beer, cigarettes. Religious men contribute to a fifth of the loyal customers that visit prostitutes at brothels according to Rosenthal’s testimony. Exploitation is a serious issue being addressed by the Knesset for they do not want recruitment into the growing industry “But as trafficking has subsided, the prostitution industry has flourished because demand for sex services remains steady.” According to Harretz and Rosenthal both sources agree that there are approximately 250 brothels operating in Tel Aviv. (Rosenthal 383) These women are being over worked by being with 10 to 20 clients a day working 12 to 14 hour shifts. These new legislations will hopefully create rehabilitation programs, enforce law upon pimps promoting sex services, and create more resources for women trying to get out of prostitution.