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Phillipines
Today, the Philippines has the highest rate of unemployment in Asia at 12.2%. For those with jobs, the rising costs of basic goods and services make it difficult for many to meet even the most basic needs. Due to this economic crisis, we are now looking at the worst 'brain drain' that the country ever experienced. Professionals like teachers, nurses and doctors are pressed to leave their jobs and take jobs below their credentials.
There is now an increasing and continuing exodus of people leaving the country to work as domestic helpers, construction workers, entertainers and health care providers in different parts of the world. At present an average of 2,400 Filipinos leave the country every day to work abroad - 70% of them are women.
How has this overseas migration affected Filipino families?
Overseas migration physically separated family members from one another. This separation has brought about painful social and psychological consequences and continues to do so.
Obviously, some families have benefited from the increase in income from remittances of family members working overseas. However, the basic question is how was the income spent? While there are quite a number of success stories where families were able to use the income to send their children to school, build decent homes and establish income-generating projects, there are equally the same number of families that misused the hard earned remittances of their loved ones working overseas on antisocial and consumerist lifestyles.
The incidence of broken families among overseas migrant workers is rising. One of the causes of family brokenness is infidelity. Infidelities by any one of the spouses usually exact their worst toll on the children. We have heard of girls who had been sexually exploited by the partners of their mothers while their fathers are away working overseas. In some cases, even with increased family income from foreign remittances, children of migrant workers may still not be able to go to school because the remaining parent spends the money gambling or supporting second families.
Among children, increased income and goods that their parents send them from overseas have contributed to the development of consumerist values. A glaring example of this consumerist value is that of a high school student who told her mother to go back to work as a domestic helper in Hong Kong so that she could buy an expensive mobile phone. Cases of teenage pregnancies and drug addiction are also becoming common among children of migrant workers. The list goes on but these are just some of the common social problems that arise as a result of the migration phenomenon.
On the other hand, there are families who have gone from poor to poorest of the poor as a result of their desire to look for greener pastures overseas. Recruitment agencies at home charge exorbitant placement fees so that applicants are forced to borrow money at high interest or even sell agricultural lands and farm animals just to pay the fees required by recruitment agencies. Worse, there is also a proliferation of fake/unlicensed recruitment agencies that prey on unsuspecting and desperate applicants. The suffering does not end here. When migrant workers finally go overseas, some of them suffer exploitation ranging from low and delayed salaries to outright non-payment and physical abuse including sexual abuse by employers especially on women migrant workers.
Migration for overseas employment is going to be a way of life among a lot of Filipinos because of the present Government's policy of labour export. Instead of solving the problem of unemployment locally, this policy encourages Filipinos to seek foreign employment. The increasing amount of remittances from overseas Filipino workers has helped alleviate the country's balance deficit payments and helped boost the country's Gross National Product (GNP). Unfortunately, the Government has yet to institute protection and welfare services for migrant Filipino workers and their families.
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