From Jagna, across the world

Author: ADAM CHAABANE

When walking through the narrow alleys of Tubod Mar or navigating the crowded front of the Jagna market, a familiar question from locals would follow me as an HKU student in town: “Where are you from?”.

When I reply that I am from Italy, the reaction is almost instantaneous. Their faces light up with huge smiles.

“I have been there, many times!” “Buongiorno, come stai?” (“Good morning, how are you?”, in Italian). 

I unexpectedly found so many local men passionate about Italian language, food, perfumes, clothes, and lifestyle. While I knew that Italy is a popular tourist destination and its exports famous worldwide, I did not expect that people from a small barangay in Bohol would hold such intimate, first-hand knowledge of cities like Palermo, Naples, Civitavecchia, or Genoa.

So why have so many men from Tubod Mar been to Italy? The explanation lies in the economic reality that the Philippines is the world’s premier supplier of maritime labour. Tens of thousands of young Filipinos get posted through local agencies onto cargo ships and cruise liners as seafarers (or seamen). Many of them come from places like Jagna, coastal towns in the Visayas where knowledge about the sea is ingrained in the people’s everyday life. By working on ships, the seafarers can secure salaries far higher than what the local labour market in the Philippines can guarantee. These men are among the most well-traveled people in the world and have seen places all across the globe during their service, from the port of Hamburg to the fjords of Norway, and across the Caribbean to China.

The global exposure does not stop with the seamen’s experiences and memories; the knowledge is brought back to Jagna and actively shapes its everyday life. Take the local tricycle I met on my first days of the program: He recounted his years working as a cruise ship chef, where he mastered the traditional Italian recipe for carbonara. Upon returning to Jagna, he consulted for local restaurants to introduce the dish. However, due to budget constraints and to cater the local palate, the ingredients had to be adapted using more affordable, Filipino-style ingredients. Today, there is plenty of foreign-influenced food in town, and the global experience of the seafarers has a lot to do with it. 

Yet, there is a profound paradox at the heart of this global mobility. My conversations with the local men reminded me of my sociology studies in university, where we analyzed in class this exact phenomenon; the global experience of Filipino seafarers on ships is increasingly physically and structurally confined by international immigration regimes, securitization and the strict spatial nature of the shipping industry. From a western perspective, international travel can be easily experienced as a leisurely activity. Instead, seafarers are frequently denied shore leave due to visa restrictions or tight duty turnarounds, leaving them stranded on ships for extended periods, just meters away from the foreign lands they sail to.

 My studies connected on a human level when I spoke with my host father, who spent nearly 30 years working in cargo ship engine rooms. He does not regret his choice, as it was a proud and vital sacrifice that allowed him to provide for his family, see the world outside of his own country, and interact with diverse cultures. However, his lived experience reflects the conditions of the industry: he spent vast stretches of time aboard the ship, When docking, leaving the vessel was a not a guaranteed privilege, and was subject to strict procedural and time constraints. 

For most Filipinos, traveling abroad is an extreme privilege and very few have the chance to do so. Becoming a migrant worker is a noble way to see the world while supporting the family, and that is why men in Jagna are so proud of their experiences on the ships. In Hong Kong, I observed the same sense of pride when working with an NGO supporting migrant domestic workers, most of whom come from the Philippines.

After years or decades of sailing, the men return to Jagna to rejoin their families. The COVID pandemic has been a major blow to their employment, highlighting the fragility of being a migrant worker; as global trade slowed down and the cruise industry halted, a wave of massive staff downsizing led many on the way back home. Today, while the labour demand has regained stability, some of the former seamen have found new occupations as tricycle drivers along the roads of Jagna. They remember working in the ships as a rewarding yet tough job far away from home. In the Philippines, family is the ultimate anchor and support unit, so the decision to leave it for work is never made light heartedly.

Reflecting upon these dynamics while living in Tubod Mar reframed the way I want to approach this course. When I arrived, I had in mind some standard, competitive, and growth-oriented business approaches and intended to apply them in my consulting experience. However, by being immersed into the local culture and hearing life histories, I understood that no individual nor business in Jagna works independently. The small enterprises that we are following are driven by the very same sense of sacrifice and fragility that pushes many to leave the community to become migrant workers and send remittances home.

Rationales of strong business growth and fierce competition do not work here, where people rely on their community more than on welfare cushions, and where in enterprise preference is given to resilience, security, and harmony. I realised this the best when asking the owner of my assigned business about their competitors; she responded that they while she tries to do the best for herself, she respects other entrepreneurs around her and does not intend to compete with them.

This experience has also dismantled my assumption that a rural community of a developing country lacks global understanding and sophistication when compared to an internationalized city such as Hong Kong. In reality, the families and entrepreneurs that we interact with daily have also strived to navigate complex environments, either locally or abroad. Their dreams are not much different from the ones we have, they are just pursued differently as we are subject to different constraints in life. As HKU students, every conversation we have in Jagna is a golden opportunity to listen to a different perspective in approaching very similar challenges to the ones we face.