Personal Recognition Strategies of Undocumented Migrant Domestic Workers in The Netherlands

Abstract

The struggle for recognition of undocumented migrants is usually portrayed as a public affair involving the contestation of legal status. We advance a broader conceptualization that demands attention to the more intimate sphere where relational processes of recognition take place in interactions with significant others. Based on 70 in-depth interviews, we identify four recognition strategies adopted by Filipino undocumented migrant domestic workers in the Netherlands: being the breadwinner, taking pride in work, creating a sense of belonging, and being civically engaged. By illustrating the importance of personal recognition, this paper contributes to ongoing debates on recognition and migrant agency.

Keywords:

• recognition
• undocumented migrants
• domestic work
• labor migration
• overseas Filipinos
• relational agency
• status dilemmas
• self-verification

Introduction

Many undocumented Filipino migrants in the Netherlands work informally in the domestic sector. They clean, babysit, iron, cook, tend the garden, and do other tasks as required by their private employers. As undocumented migrant domestic workers (UMDWs), they experience a situation of double precarity. For one, their precarious legal status restricts their access to welfare. They have no access to social services except for medically necessary health care and certain forms of (night) shelters (Leerkes, 2016). In addition, they lack legal recognition as workers befitting rights. This creates insecure work conditions whereby they toil long hours without contracts or provisions for sickness and unemployment (Brooks & Van Gelderen, 2008).

While domestic work is often seen as “low prestige” and a “dead-end job” (Triandafyllidou, 2013), Filipino UMDWs actively strive to blend in and lead a good life. While at times beset with anxiety and the stigma of being undocumented, they take pride in their work and role as the breadwinner of their families back home in the Philippines. Besides the respect they earn from employers and family members due to their hard work and personal sacrifice, their enduring presence in the Netherlands allows them to create a sense of belonging through friends who are “like family” and to establish meaningful ties with other valued members of the Filipino migrant community. The picture that emerges from these lived migration experiences then, is not straightforward. It neither corroborates the well-known narrative of vulnerable, exploited undocumented workers whose rights are violated, nor the story of politicized, “undocumented and unafraid” activists who are claiming their rights (Swerts, 2017).

In this paper, we argue that recognition theory is well suited to adequately capture the palpable tensions and ambiguities inherent to Filipino UMDWs’ narratives about migrant life. Recognition in the context of irregular migration is usually evoked in relation to conceptions of rights and citizenship (Chimienti & Solomos, 2013). The focus is then on public recognition or more specifically, politico-juridical recognition, which is the ascription of migration status and the corresponding rights and entitlements on the basis of a particular country or territory’s political regime and legal framework. Philosophical notions such as Taylor’s “politics of difference” and Hegel’s “struggle for recognition” have become staple phrases to account for the myriad ways whereby undocumented migrants attempt to gain recognition as full members of their societies of residence. However, as Swerts and Oosterlynck (2021) has argued, more attention needs to be paid to “the manifold, intricate ways in which misrecognized actors have to continuously position and reposition themselves within pre-structured social fields in the quest for recognition” (p. 5). Furthermore, the one-sided focus in the literature on public recognition obscures the more everyday strategies that individual UMDWs deploy to achieve recognition in the private sphere.

Based on 70 in-depth interviews, this study illustrates how Filipino UMDWs in the Netherlands negotiate status dilemmas and adopt various personal recognition strategies depending on the relational or interactional setting wherein they are deployed. Our analysis identifies breadwinnership, work pride, belonging, and local civic engagement to be important sources of self-verification. By stressing the importance of micro-level recognition strategies, this paper contributes to ongoing debates on recognition and migrant agency. By illustrating the conditions under which personal recognition occur, this paper also opens up analytical space for a reconsideration of the politico-juridical recognition of undocumented migrants on the basis of their interpersonal relationships (see Friedman, 2003; Nedelsky, 2011).

Background

The social position of UMDWs in The Netherlands

Undocumented migrants in the Netherlands used to be treated with considerable leniency (Van der Leun & Ilies, 2013). Since 1991 however, stricter immigration and labor market policies have been instituted. This marks a move toward a “thick enforcement regime” with an interest to return as many undocumented migrants as possible, complemented by a relatively strong infrastructure to do so (Leerkes & Van Houte, 2020).

Among several legislations, the “Linking Act” of 1998 makes the entitlement to state-sponsored public services conditional on immigration status (Van der Leun & Kloosterman, 2006). However, systematic exclusion does not deter undocumented migrants from affirming their presence and participating in social life. Despite the oft-cited limitations imposed by a precarious legal status, migrants are not precluded from using their agency and integrating into segments of the destination country and community through support networks, the informal economy, and political activities (Chauvin & Garcés-Mascareñas, 2020; Engbersen et al., 2006). Efforts initiated by the civil society and municipalities also serve to stymie some of the extreme exclusionary policies (Spencer & Delvino, 2019). In 2012 for example, the Dutch government decided to close the emergency shelters for undocumented migrants. Civil society organizations challenged the ruling based on the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Social Charter (O’Cinneide, 2020), and various municipalities managed to keep the shelters open and continue with the “bed, bath and bread” provisions (Leerkes, 2016).

What this suggests is that in the Netherlands as is in other countries, stricter controls are not very effective at preventing irregular migration (Ambrosini, 2018). While the reception of undocumented migrants has changed considerably, policies to exclude undocumented migrants from the labor market, especially the informal labor market, have only partially been effective (Leerkes, 2009), and there is an ever-present demand for cheap labor that undocumented migrants are willing and able to fill (Van der Leun & Ilies, 2013).

While domestic work in private households is not formally recognized as economically productive work, it is estimated that there are over a million domestic workers in the Netherlands of which many are migrants with irregular status (Brooks & Van Gelderen, 2008). The demand for domestic work has been largely driven by the increasing number of Dutch women – like women elsewhere – encouraged to become more active in the labor market, and many migrants who faced obstacles finding formal employment found providing services to private households a relatively attractive option (Van Walsum, 2011).

For undocumented migrants in particular, domestic work offers advantages in terms of salaries, flexibility of hours, and security (Echeverría, 2020). Private households are not subject to inspections like other worksites and compared to cleaning in a hotel or restaurant for example, domestic work minimizes exposure to the authorities. Despite their precarious legal status, UMDWs are also relatively insusceptible to “thick enforcement” as government efforts to combat irregular migration usually center on rejected asylum seekers and other undocumented migrants who come to the attention of the authorities because of crimes or misdemeanors (Leerkes et al., 2012). This means that apprehension and deportation risks for UMDWs are relatively low, and they can easily blend in or pass unnoticed in big cities like Amsterdam or The Hague.

The public dimension of recognition

When examining the available academic repertoire on strategies adopted by UMDWs to achieve recognition, two dominant strands can be discerned. On the one hand, the emerging literature on undocumented immigrant activism in citizenship and social movement studies stresses how – against all odds – UMDWs can organize themselves collectively to claim their “right to rights” (Mescoli, 2021; Swerts & Oosterlynck, 2021). What is highlighted is the activism of undocumented migrants and their active participation in social and solidarity movements which include mobilization efforts together with allies and supporters in reaction to restrictive migration policies (Chimienti & Solomos, 2013). These activist strategies are adopted in order to “fight back” against the system that denies undocumented migrants politico-juridical recognition in the form of citizenship and its associated privileges. Altogether, they exemplify what Sassen (2002) refers to as acts of “informal citizenship” which affirms the presence and constitutes a partial recognition of undocumented migrants as “full social beings” (p. 282). In doing so, undocumented activists often attempt to become “less illegal” by presenting themselves in ways that resonate within the moral economy of deservingness that underpins who is deemed “worthy” of citizenship (Chauvin & Garcés‐Mascareñas, 2014; Swerts, 2015, 2017).

On the other hand, scholarship in migration and urban studies tends to focus on the everyday counterstrategies that undocumented migrants adopt to survive, cope, and avoid getting arrested and being deported. Survival strategies refer to “resources… that allow undocumented migrants to survive and wait for the possibility to become regular residents” which include among others, networks, work, familiarization with employers, and support from solidarity institutions (Ambrosini, 2014, p. 36). Coping strategies meanwhile, are defined as “strategically selected acts… to pay for basic necessities (food, clothing, shelter) and not fall too far below society’s level of welfare” (Snel & Staring, 2001, pp. 10-11). Finally, residence strategies are “strategic activities aimed at prolonging residence in the Netherlands and preventing deportation” (Engbersen et al., 2001, p. 223). The image that resonates through such strategies is that of heavily marginalized, vulnerable migrant subjects who are just about able to make ends meet under conditions that are largely beyond their control.

What is relatively absent in these discussions is an account of how UMDWs try to exercise more agency and achieve recognition at the interpersonal level.

The personal dimension of recognition

There is another dimension to recognition that is not about claims-making but is directed instead at identity formation at the personal level (Iser, 2019). This conception of recognition is rooted in self-understanding and self-orientation; the kind of recognition directly experienced by human beings that helps us to shape, or even determines, our sense of who we are, and the value or positive status accorded to us as individuals (McQueen, 2021).

A useful theoretical starting point for such a framework is Taylor’s philosophical conception of recognition in what he calls “the intimate sphere.” As opposed to the public sphere that serves as an arena for political contestation and making demands for equality, the intimate sphere is a crucial site for personal identity formation through a continuous dialogue with “significant others.” Taylor argues that our individual identity is not self-generated and constructed from within, rather it is constantly negotiated, shaped, and reshaped by our interactions with family, friends, teachers, colleagues – the people who contribute to our deeper understanding of who we are as human beings. It is for this reason that Taylor characterizes recognition as a “vital human need” (1992, p. 26-37).

To better grasp the mechanisms that support personal recognition processes, we also draw on the sociological literature on status dilemmas and self-verification. As Merton (1972, p. 22) points out, individuals do not have a single status or one-dimensional position within the social structure. Instead, they have variously interrelated statuses in different spheres of social life and may experience certain status dilemmas when these are difficult to reconcile. When engaging in social interactions, people generally expect others to conform to their self-conceptions, including those that relate to one’s status identities. Self-verification is the process whereby individuals seek to confirm and ensure the stability of their self-conceptions by looking at the views or responses of friends, colleagues, and intimates (Swann, 1983). It is through self-verification that one can sustain “the vitally felt idea of what I am like… what I am striving toward and have some encouragement to believe I can achieve” (Turner, 1968, p. 98).

Applied to the present case, there is a need to identify how Filipino UMDWs negotiate status dilemmas in ongoing dialogue with significant others. The sociological and anthropological literature on migrant illegality contains useful insights in this respect. Several authors have shown that undocumented migrants attempt to manage and even “shake off” the stigma that comes with their precarious legal status by underlining their economic and civic deservingness. Gomberg-Muñoz (2011), for example, has argued that Mexican undocumented workers employed in low-skilled sectors renegotiate their marginalized status by creating a culture of “hard work” and stressing their identities as family men. Furthermore, Swerts (2017) has argued that positioning oneself as an active community member through civic engagement and volunteering can constitute a form of “performance-based deservingness” for undocumented migrants. While broader understandings of deservingness mediate processes of identity construction, these insights point toward the fact that interactions with significant others play a crucial role in how UMDWs strive to achieve personal recognition.

Methodology and information on research participants

This paper is based on 70 semi-structured interviews conducted by the lead author with undocumented migrants from the Philippines. Soraya (2012) reports that undocumented migrants in the Netherlands are mainly from the Philippines, Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco, Turkey, Colombia, Brazil, China and Indonesia. The choice of participants from the Philippines as the research population has a practical underpinning: the most difficult part of doing research with undocumented migrants is locating, connecting, and gaining their trust (Cornelius, 1982), and the personal networks of the lead author in the Filipino community helped facilitate initial contacts.

The first set of interviews with 24 participants was conducted in person between April and June 2018 in The Hague and Amsterdam. The second set with 46 participants was done between November 2020 and January 2021 over the phone because of COVID-19 mobility restrictions. The first few participants were located through introductions by friends and acquaintances, and the rest by snowball sampling. While it is usually criticized for selection bias and lack of representativeness, snowball sampling remains effective in facilitating connections with an otherwise rather elusive target research population (Van Meeteren, 2014). The interviews were conducted following strict ethical protocols. Full names, home addresses and employer identities were deliberately excluded from the questions, and all the participants were given reassurance that the information they were willing to share, or would rather withhold, was entirely their prerogative. The interviews were conducted in the colloquial Filipino language. All participants agreed to audio recording of the interviews and the average duration for each individual conversation was 1 hour and 35 minutes. The recordings were then transcribed; coded on ATLAS.ti both inductively using concepts emerging from the interview data, and deductively using sensitizing concepts from relevant literature; and finally analyzed qualitatively using thematic reflexive analysis.

The majority of the participants live in The Hague and Amsterdam. Fifty-six of them are women and fourteen are men. The majority has tertiary education. The representativeness of the sample is impossible to establish but it is consistent with the observation that most of the undocumented Filipino migrants in the country are women and are highly educated (Brooks & Van Gelderen, 2008). The youngest participant at the time of the interview is 25 years old and the oldest is 66. The median age is 39 and the mean is 40. As for the length of continuous stay in the Netherlands, the range is between less than a year and 29 years. The median is 8 years, and the average is 9. Most of the participants, 39 among the 70, arrived in the Netherlands with tourist visas having been invited by family members or friends; 24 were with au pair permits. The rest were movers from other Schengen countries or absconded domestic staff of privileged persons or Middle Eastern company executives. The majority of the participants reported that they knew upon arrival that they would inevitably transition to undocumented status.

Results: Precarious legal status and status dilemmas

To contextualize the personal recognition strategies of Filipino UMDWs, it is imperative to first examine how they motivate their decision to migrate to the Netherlands and make sense of the status dilemmas arising from their precarious legal status.

Most of the participants cited economic reasons or the aspiration to provide for the family’s material needs as the primary motivation for migration. As Nancy (all names are pseudonyms) shared: “Children growing up means expenses are growing, too… You need money especially when it’s time to pay tuition fees.” Such motivations, however, cannot be framed in economic terms alone. Certain life course events also influence migration decisions. Some were prompted to leave the Philippines upon separation from their partners. As Karina narrated: “I need to find a way for my children to survive. I’m already a single mom. I have four kids and I have no source of income. I have no more choice but to work abroad.” Tanya was 21 years old when she first left the Philippines to work overseas. Her mother, who was a single parent, passed away. Being the eldest, she took on the role of sole provider for her three younger siblings. A death in the family also prompted Nerisa’s move abroad. When her father succumbed to illness, she moved to the Netherlands to find more lucrative work.

While migration motivations and aspirations are seemingly straightforward, life as an undocumented migrant is complicated and at times involves ambiguous feelings. As Fatima described, she simultaneously feels “happy and sad” because she can provide for her teenage children, and yet she has not seen them for almost a decade. Kat shared the sentiment:

Life here is both bad and good. Bad because it is very challenging, and you miss all your children’s milestones including school graduations. But good because you can do many things here that you cannot do in the Philippines. You can earn and save and send the children to school.

Being away from the family was cited as the biggest challenge in the lives of the research participants. Many of them also said that the inability to travel and see family in the Philippines and then come back to the Netherlands was the biggest drawback and the “only thing you cannot do.” As Fidel recalled:

The hardest part really when you don’t have papers is when something bad happens in the Philippines, when a family member passes away. I experienced this last year because my mother died… It was really very difficult for me because I was the only one who wasn’t there. Many relatives were asking why I wasn’t there, why I didn’t go home.

All the participants conceded that being undocumented is not without challenges. They also mentioned having to move houses frequently and thus, lacking a sense of stability. The rest – having to pay in cash all the time, being always conscious of paying their fares when taking public transportation, carrying their passports wherever they go, and not calling attention to themselves – were downplayed and labeled as minor hassles or inconveniences that one eventually could get used to. For Karlo and Kris, being ready was key. Karlo said that “since you know your situation, you should be ready to deal with issues.” Kris said one “should be prepared all the time, whatever happens.”

These narratives illustrate how the interplay between migrant motivations and aspirations on the one hand, and a precarious legal status on the other hand, may result in status dilemmas. Being a good provider for the family, being a responsible parent or dutiful child, or being “law-abiding” in the host country are variously interrelated statuses that needs reconciliation with being an undocumented migrant. As Karina shared:

Being away from your family is hard, but between my life here and in the Philippines, I prefer it here. The Dutch have a very high respect for human rights. I don’t have papers, but I have peace of mind in terms of safety. Sometimes the police are there, but for as long as you don’t violate the law, it’s okay.

Having human rights of course does not eliminate the possibility of human rights being violated. However, compared to Filipino domestic workers based in other Asian countries and the Gulf States who are frequently subjected to abuse and “from a human rights standpoint living under conditions of neo-slavery” (Parreñas & Silvey, 2016, p. 41), the situation in the Netherlands is less exploitative and offers more opportunities. For example, Myrna, who was brought to the Netherlands by her former Middle Eastern employers, explained how life has improved considerably ever since:

I’m proud! I’m thankful, I’m very satisfied! I’ve levelled-up! Before I didn’t have any day off. I worked from 6:30 AM until 8 PM. I was always hungry, and they paid me the equivalent of €350. I was a slave. The Dutch certainly treat you like a person. Now I earn €1,200 monthly.

Being a UMDW is not without challenges but motivations and aspirations for oneself and family members provide a strong incentive to negotiate and reconcile ensuing status dilemmas.

The personal recognition strategies of Filipino UMDWs

It is against this backdrop that we now look into recognition on the more personal level. Based on Taylor’s exposition, this pertains to recognition that arises out of relations with significant others. This relationship is the “key loci of self-identity and self-affirmation” (Taylor, 1992, p. 36). We may then define personal recognition as the ascription of a positive status to an individual by their significant others. This kind of recognition emerges from important relationships and contributes to a deeper understanding of who the participants are as valued human beings, above and beyond their status as UMDWs.

While our discussion is focused on the micro-level, we underscore the fact that personal interactions occur in a social context. Personal recognition strategies, therefore, are not strictly private but rather, embedded in meso and macro structures. Statuses are also constructed and negotiated within different settings of social interactions. This is consistent with the relational nature of recognition. Regardless of the sphere in which it takes place, recognition is always dialogical, that is, accomplished through interaction with others or with the self in the exercise of self-reflection. In the same vein, agency is also relational. The ability of UMDWs to shape and exert some control over the conditions of their existence are socially embedded (Gomberg-Muñoz, 2011). We identify four recognition strategies: breadwinnership, work pride, belonging, and local civic engagement. For each strategy, we also identify the interactional setting and the various statuses acquired that contribute to self-verification.

Of the 70 participants, 56 are women, which is consistent with international estimates of domestic worker numbers and the prevailing gendered expectation that domestic work is “women’s work” (Parreñas, 2017). The interplay between migration and conventional gendered roles and family structures cannot, therefore, be discounted when reflecting on the personal recognition strategies. In the case of Filipino UMDWs however, the findings are the same irrespective of gender, and this may not be generalizable to undocumented migrants in all countries and/or other nationalities. It is again worth stressing that those working in private households have relatively low visibility and smaller chances of being apprehended and deported. This means that they face fewer barriers to adopting personal recognition strategies.

Being the breadwinner

Breadwinnership occurs in the intimate sphere of social life and typifies the relationship between UMDWs and their family members left behind in the Philippines. The transnational practice of providing for the material needs of the family by sending financial and in-kind remittances serves as a primary source of personal recognition for our research participants. The majority regularly remits money ranging from €100 to €1,000 per month. This is true even when the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly reduced their incomes. Those with children consider it a parental obligation. Those without children send remittances to their parents because as Fidel explained, in the Filipino culture it is the “natural and rightful thing to do.” Kat and Tessa added that since they were single and had less expenditures, they had taken it upon themselves to provide their aging parents “allowance.” Many of the participants also help relatives with school, medical, and sometimes funeral expenses. The majority of those interviewed in 2021 said that while the COVID-19 pandemic was a difficult time for them personally, their family members in the Philippines definitely had it tougher, which was why they would still remit whatever amount they could spare.

In relation to financial remittances, “sacrifice,” “obligation,” and “breadwinner” are three words recurring most during the interviews, and so are “hero,” “generous,” and “respect.” The family members and relatives acknowledge their sacrifice and appreciate their generosity. Filipino UMDWs command respect from the people they support because as Tanya described it rather graphically, “I tell them I work hard here. I scrub toilets for the euros. I don’t just excrete the money.”

Kat’s son recently finished high school with honors and dedicated his award to the mother he has not seen for 13 years. This kind of recognition is what fuels Kat’s ambition to work and save more so she can attend his college graduation. Like Kat, the parents from the pool of participants reported daily communication with their children in the Philippines made possible by the internet. They help with schoolwork and have meals together with the children online. As Parreñas (2017) notes, numerous migration scholars have found evidence that “physical distance does not hamper intimacy” and technology enables parents to be “here and there” (pp. 18-19). Prolonged separation from family members is one of the consequences of being an undocumented migrant but being able to maintain strong kinship ties with family members and to send remittances enable UMDWs to also take on the role of being a good provider or sacrificing family member.

Taking pride in work

Despite their precarious legal status, tertiary level education, and former professional occupations, Filipino UMDWs take pride in their work cleaning houses and caring for other people’s children. The work sphere serves as another relational setting within which the relationship between UMDWs and their employers is exemplified. Apart from kudkod (to scrape clean), “part-time” is another word participants frequently use to describe their occupation because they divide their hours among different employers. They get paid between €10 and €15 per hour. Before the pandemic, the participants report earnings between €650 and €2,800 per month, or €1,500 per month on average. This is considerably higher than 22,000 pesos or €367 which is the average monthly household income in the Philippines (Philippine Statistics Authority, 2016). Because of the pandemic however, many shared that their usual incomes has been reduced by at least half, particularly during the first round of lockdowns.

When asked about how they feel about domestic work, some expressed wistfulness about their former lives in the Philippines. For example, Karina who was a manager in a luxury department store in the Philippines had this to say:

Financially, double the salary… But of course, the nature of the work is very different. I used to carry pen and paper and now, it’s a vacuum cleaner, rags, and a bucket. I never even once carried a bucket in the Philippines, but here I did it.

Isabel stressed that apart from physical strength, trustworthiness is also vital to her job. Being given a key and hence, free access to someone’s home is a symbol of trust. She feels that she is a family member and a second mother to the children. Her employers always introduced her as a friend - never as the cleaning lady. Even the men among the research participants affirmed that there is “dignity” in domestic work, and while it is generally quicker for women "to complete the hours” meaning, to have enough number of part-time jobs to have a full work week, there are also employers with a preference for male domestic cleaners who can do more physically demanding tasks.

In most cases, the participants’ employers, some of which work for the government, are aware of their undocumented status, and this does not appear to have any negative bearing on their relationship. Only a few of the participants mentioned instances of rejection or dismissal upon disclosure that they did not possess a valid residence and work permit.

Generally, the participants shared positive experiences with their employers and reported being accorded ample recognition for the services they provide. Taking pride in work means that the status of being a UMDW is just one part of the picture; they also take on the role of being a "trusted employee", “friend”, “family member”, “confidante,” “advisor,” or “social worker” to their employers. Contrary to Marchetti’s (2016) argument that “maternalistic attitudes” between migrant employees and their employers are “ultimately detrimental to the workers” because it only stresses their “vulnerable and needy” image (p. 148), we find that the recognition accorded them as family members elevates not only the value of the work they do but also their self-conception. The employers’ acknowledgement of their indispensable roles gives the UMDWs an important form of recognition. The kindness and generosity of the employers are not seen by the participants as condescending or patronizing but rather, expressions of true camaraderie and appreciation. Domestic workers in other parts of the world are often treated as servants, if not slaves. Those in the Netherlands therefore, appreciate the “humane” (makatao) treatment accorded them. Being invited to share meals or have coffee with the employers are thoughtful gestures that they consider acts recognizing their identity and status as, in Karen’s words, “also persons, just like them.”

Creating a sense of belonging

Personal recognition also manifests itself in the community sphere when UMDWs form romantic relationships or develop close friendships and familial bonds. While legally excluded because of their undocumented status, they gain social inclusion and create a sense of belonging through their partners or within their close ties in the migrant community.

Despite the challenges, the participants unanimously agree that one gets used to life “far away.” In fact, many of them also have relatives already established as migrants in the Netherlands. These relatives become their primary group and help them navigate different facets of migrant life especially during the first few months upon arrival. As numerous studies have established, social capital together with economic and cultural capital are fundamental to the “survival” of undocumented migrants (Van Meeteren, 2014). So while maintaining transnational bonds, UMDWs also find proxy families in the Netherlands. As Tessa shared:

In the beginning of course, you feel sad because you are away from the family, but for me now, after 22 years here, I’ve become used to it. I’m happy especially when I’m with my churchmates because they are my family here.

This was echoed by Fatima who said, “Yes, the church community is my family. On weekdays I work and on Saturdays and Sundays, I join activities in the church.”

For Helen who decided to come to the Netherlands as an au pair in order “to explore and to experience freedom” away from her very strict parents, her employers treating her “like a daughter” meant a lot. She is paid a relatively small amount, but her employers let her “enjoy life.” Helen also narrated how she was initially “very scared” but realized soon enough that she was “not alone” when she joined a Filipino organization whose members have since become her “family in the Netherlands.” Helen has also met a Dutch man with whom she wishes to settle down. Many of the research participants reported to formerly having had or currently having a romantic involvement with a Dutch or EU citizen. A few have also been in long-term relationships and have children born in the country. The births of the children are registered with the authorities, and they are attending local Dutch schools. These participants highlight their status as simply partners and parents trying to eke out as normal a migrant and family life as possible without much heed of their precarious legal status.

Being civically engaged

Also in the community sphere, UMDWs likewise form meaningful interactions with other individuals in the wider social circle like co-ethnics and acquaintances. Despite the limitations of being undocumented, some UMDWs are very active in the migrant community, providing others not only with social leverage like work referrals but also access to information and services. While creating a sense of belonging fulfills the human emotional need for connectedness and group affiliation, being civically engaged is about taking responsibility for others.

This has been highlighted recently because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Work from home guidelines, social distancing regulations and other restrictions decimated the incomes of many UMDWs. Eliza’s working hours for example, was reduced from a minimum of 40 hours per week to barely 8, and the no work, no pay arrangement meant a significant reduction in her income. Being undocumented and not having a proper contract, she did not have access to employment benefits. The effects of the pandemic are indeed “harshest” for those already in vulnerable situations pre-pandemic (United Nations, 2020, p. 2). The reduction in incomes also means a reduction in their capability to send remittances which in turn, negatively impacts the material welfare of their families, the community, as well as the broader economy in the country of origin (Siegel, 2020). As Eliza explained:

It’s hard here, but it’s harder in the Philippines. Even public transportation there has been suspended. My brother’s a tricycle driver so now he has no job. The government doesn’t do anything to help. His children will have nothing to eat if I don’t send money. They depend on me, and I can never turn my back on them.

Two months into the pandemic, Filipino organizations based in the Netherlands formed an alliance and tapped into their personal networks to collect donations in cash and in kind, all of which they distributed to their undocumented compatriots. Later, the Red Cross stepped in and started handing out grocery packs and food vouchers through the organizations.

A few of the volunteers are themselves UMDWs. “Instead of being afraid, I know the right thing to do is to have courage and to do what I can for the community”, Mic said. “The police know we’re here every Sunday, so many undocumented migrants in one place, but we’re not committing any crime so why be afraid?” Christian added. And Clara pointed out, “We are Filipinos, we do bayanihan (the Filipino spirit of solidarity, civic unity and cooperation), we help each other. Who else will show malasakit (a deep sense of compassion) especially when we are all outsiders here?” Eliza has been receiving aid from the Red Cross since May 2020. She is very grateful for the support and commends the volunteers for their selfless work. The organizations are also helping facilitate access to vaccines and medical care, as well as voluntary returns and reintegration.

Self-verification

Taken together, the deployment of personal recognition strategies like breadwinnership, work pride, belonging, and local civic engagement in interactions with significant others like the family members in the Philippines; and employers, partners, friends and other close ties in the migrant community in the Netherlands enable self-verification. We define self-verification as the process whereby UMDWs negotiate and to some extent, resolve potential status dilemmas arising from their precarious legal status in various spheres of social life by relying on personal recognition strategies that confirm their self-conceptions as good, virtuous and accomplished human beings and contribute to their subjective sense of well-being. It involves de-emphasizing migration status while at the same time, accepting one’s own lived experience, thoughts, and feelings as UMDWs. This is exemplified by Kris who used to be a teacher and manager. She shared:

I see myself now as mature and independent. I’m going to proclaim proudly that I’ve been in Holland for many years and cleaning is really now a career. I’m fully equipped with the required skills, I’m effective and efficient in terms of my work… I don’t use a laptop and wear leather shoes to work, but I can do many things office workers can’t do.

How educational background plays a part in the process of self-verification is beyond the scope of our empirical investigation but the willingness to accept low-level jobs may be illustrative of the immigrant bargain. While a few of the participants reported experiencing “sad moments” and noticing their “roughened hands” every now and then, most said they were “not ashamed.” Many of them also said they “feel blessed” for the opportunity to earn a decent income. As Kris concluded her statement: “You get a reward so long as you strive. It’s difficult and you have to sacrifice but you get a proper reward afterwards. In the Philippines you get nothing.”

The invocation of sacrifice as a kind of moral imperative is a common theme in the personal recognition strategies discussed, and this appears to be central in the resolution of status dilemmas. Ultimately, self-verification brings about more positive feelings like self-esteem and mastery, or minimally, reduced negative feelings of insecurity or inferiority. This was evident is Carmen’s words:

Employers need us and they appreciate us. I belong to this society. I pay tax. I buy coffee, look at the receipt, I paid VAT. Don’t say I don’t pay tax. I work and I don’t ask money from the government. And I also help my family.

Kiko left his very comfortable life in the Philippines in order to grow as a person. Five years on and he proudly said he is not a business owner like his mother, but he is “independent,” “carefree,” and “living the life” in a beautiful country. Fidel used to be “the black sheep in the family” but since moving to the Netherlands has shown himself capable of making something out of his life. He has been taken back to the fold and his success has earned him “participation in the family’s decision-making process.”

Other participants expressed self-verification by taking pride in their material accomplishments. They cheerfully talked about their gift of education to children, siblings, or nephews and nieces, and the real-estate properties, businesses, savings, pension plans and insurance policies they have managed to bear the expenses for on top of their regular remittances. As Isabel put it, she must make sure “her sacrifice amounts to something and all the hard work is not just for nothing.”

These narratives show how the migrant experience shapes how Filipino UMDWs view themselves, and how crucial personal recognition strategies are in the process of self-verification. They also illustrate how they can navigate through the complexity of their status sets and resolve dilemmas. In accentuating other statuses, migration status is de-emphasized, and they are able to rationalize and make peace with their life choices. Instead of fixating on the limitations of being undocumented and spending their lives in fear and worry, they are thereby able to develop a positive conception of their identities and roles in society. The following statement by Erika conveys the important role personal recognition strategies play in negotiating the stigma of a precarious legal status:

It’s just a paper. … I’m still free. I still live my life the way I want it to be… I don’t mind, it’s just formalities, it’s just a tag. It’s not important for me… What matters is that I have a job and that I can support myself and my family.

The participants are not in denial of their precarious legal status but being undocumented is just one status among many – they are also good providers and respected family members, trusted employees, partners, active church members, second family to friends who are fellow migrants, helpful co-ethnics, community leaders, volunteers, and so on. UMDWs assert and utilize their agency and in doing so, achieve personal recognition and consequently, a certain level of self-verification.

Conclusion

In this paper, we contend that the struggle of undocumented migrants for recognition does not only revolve around collective efforts to claim the “right to rights” in the public sphere. We draw on extended fieldwork with Filipino UMDWs to argue that recognition also involves the careful everyday negotiation and renegotiation of social statuses in interpersonal interactions with “significant others” in the private sphere. Despite the limited legal and socio-political recognition experienced due to their precarious legal status, UMDWs adopt what we propose to call “personal recognition strategies” which are instrumental to the process of self-verification and thus, crucial to the confirmation of positive self-conceptions. In other words, academic discussions on recognition and irregular migration should not remain limited to politico-juridical recognition; they should also consider how personal recognition plays out in the more intimate sphere of undocumented migrant life.

There is congruence between coping, survival, residence, and personal recognition strategies. The use of the latter, however, signals a step above and beyond self-preservation or the satisfaction of the minimum requirements for everyday living. Personal recognition strategies are more substantive and transformative in their regard for self-verification and the achievement of esteem and positive status in society. Personal recognition strategies more specifically, are the ways and means individuals endeavor to secure and promote the level of recognition in interpersonal interactions and thus, rise against the disadvantages and vulnerabilities imposed by the lack of politico-juridical recognition.

The four personal recognition strategies that we have identified here, namely breadwinnership, work pride, belonging, and local civic engagement largely confirm the insights of scholarship that focuses on migrant agency and the lived experiences of undocumented migrants. Gainful employment takes center stage as a means whereby Filipino UMDWs achieve recognition from their employers in the Netherlands and their family members in the Philippines. Existing social roles and cultural tropes associated with the social sphere of family, work, and community such as the “breadwinner,” the “hard worker,” the “close friend,” and the “active community member,” are strategically embraced by Filipino UMDWs to achieve personal recognition. These UMDWs largely succeed in coming to terms with the often conflicting and ambiguous feelings and experiences related to their precarious legal status, and depending on the circumstances, in seeing themselves as accomplished human beings regardless of their limited legal and socio-political recognition.

This is not to say that personal recognition strategies are the perfect remedy for the stigma, fear, and exclusion that UMDWs are confronted with on a quasi-daily basis nor that they necessarily bring them any step closer to being recognized as full citizens in Dutch society. While we zoom in on recognition at the personal level, we also stress the social embeddedness and relationality of the strategies identified, and highlight that the intimate, meaningful relationships operating therein may also be valued in the institutional or legal sense and serve as a basis for the provision of politico-juridical rights (see Nedelsky, 2011). Beyond rights provision, policymakers and practitioners should also acknowledge and validate the relational character of UDMW’s agency in the way that they design and implement programs to secure access to basic services and support (see Friedman, 2003).

Indeed, the argument we are trying to make here in no way intends to romanticize or idealize the everyday, lived situations of Filipino UMDWs. Furthermore, the above-mentioned reliance on widespread understandings of economic and social worthiness in personal recognition strategies is not intended to reinforce dominant understandings of migrant deservingness that have the potential to exclude “unworthy” migrants. Nevertheless, as our study points out, being undocumented does not hinder UMDWs from asserting their agency, tapping into sources of personal recognition in interactions with their significant others, and achieving self-verification in the process.

By showing that personal recognition strategies are an indispensable facet of how undocumented migrants navigate status dilemmas in their everyday lives, this study opens various promising pathways for future research. First, comparative research between UMDWs with different backgrounds in terms of legal status, origins, and socio-cultural capital could help establish how personal recognition strategies vary depending on characteristics of the population involved. Second, more attention could be paid to how contextual factors like the distribution of rights, access to institutions, and salient cultural discourses on migrant deservingness influence how personal recognition strategies take shape. Third, ethnographic research with undocumented UMDWs would help explain in more detail how migrants negotiate status dilemmas in diverging interactional settings such as the workplace, the family, and the bigger community in the destination country. Fourthly, while we have explicated how personal recognition strategies feature prominently in the intimate sphere, it is very likely that such strategies are also deployed during interactions between politicized undocumented activists and significant others in the public sphere.

Finally, the field of tension between equality and equivalence that characterizes the broader struggle for recognition of undocumented migrants needs to be accentuated (Swerts & Oosterlynck, 2021). While personal recognition strategies contribute to a limited extent to recognition of equivalence through self-verification, such strategies only go so far as to achieve recognition of equality because of the narrow scope within which redistribution of status is possible. In other words, while undocumented migrants are able to raise the level of recognition in their interpersonal interactions, the lack of redistribution of politico-juridical recognition in the form of citizenship still prevents them from becoming full partners in social interaction. Nevertheless, valuing the relational agency of UMDWs can serve as a steppingstone for recognition in terms of substantive migrant rights, participatory parity, and equality.

Ethics review

The study has been submitted for ethics review and given approval by the Ethics Review Committee Inner City faculties (ERCIC) of Maastricht University with reference number ERCIC_209_26_08_2020_A.

Acknowledgments

We are extremely grateful to all interview participants, key informants, and gatekeepers without whom this research project would have been impossible. Maraming salamat po sa inyong lahat. We also appreciate the constructive and very helpful feedback received from colleagues in the migration team at UNU-MERIT and the two anonymous reviewers on earlier versions of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.