Yesterday's newspaper heralded that in October the Philippines received a record high in terms of remittances sent back to the country by Overseas Filipino Workers. In one month is was US$1.78 billion so about US$20 for each man, woman and child in the Philippines. The destinations for the more than half a million Filipinos who have decided to try their luck overseas responding to formal jobs are mainly the Middle East, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
However the scale of how the Philippines is impacted by this exodus of its people (9 million work overseas as OFW) isn't really so remarkable in the headlines in the Business section of the newspaper but more by the everyday conversations that you have. Every family seems to have a relative that works overseas that it is almost unremarkable. Driving with 3 Filipinos that I work with the other day. The first spent 25 years working in Saudi Arabia as an engineer and manager, only returning to visit his family once a year, now his daughter in turn is in the USA and they have been unable to see her for the last five years. The second is a 28 year old electrical engineer who is planning to work "over" (local terms for overseas) sometime soon before he marries. Two of his sisters graduated in Business Administration but then discovered it was hard to earn enough money in the Philippines so they work on the production line in a car parts factory in Korea. The third who is also an electrical engineer but a bit older has just returned with his family to the Philippines after a few years working in Brunei, we spoke of his sister coming in the country for Christmas from her job in Singapore. I doubt anyone I work with here has all of their family based in the Philippines.
In the UK it saddens me that we have a tendency to vilify immigrants but for most it is simply a chance to work hard for more reasonable money so that they can support their family back home despite the hardships of separation.
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