less than human?

"so, where do you want to go tomorrow?"

"how about klcc?"

"huh? but there's going to be a lot of Banglas and Indons there tomorrow, you know like a whole wave of them."

"so? i don't mind. besides, they've got a right to enjoy themselves too, don't you think?"

"what???!"

"they're just as human as you and i. sometimes i see indonesian maids being treated by their employers as less than human."

***

how do we view and treat migrant workers? as less than human, just another face and body that washes our cars, does our housework for us, pumps petrol for us, works at construction sites? as potential troublemakers and disease-carrying vectors?

or do we see them as being just as human as you and i?

admittedly it's hard to do that when everyday the news brings another story of 'runaway Indon maid' or 'gang of Bangladeshi robbers' ...
but in keeping with what Pope John Paul II talked about when he described solidarity with migrant workers, it's worth learning to see them as being equally human.

in any event, what about employers who mistreat their maids? agencies which go all out to fleece foreigners from distant shores, who have come to seek their end of the rainbow only to find there is no end in sight? can we then claim to be any better than these migrant workers?

it begins with how we look at them. it begins there. from something as small as accepting and allowing migrant workers to go out on a public holiday, to be comfortable in their presence.

and someday there will be no 'them' and 'us'.
there is only 'we'.