The Filipino Diaspora

Filipino Cigarrillos

Whenever I read something about the flight of Filipinos from their homeland to work abroad, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. And when I read this morning that some 33% of the population would leave the country to live elsewhere, and that 25% of the population has no confidence in the future of the Philippines, I cry for the state of one of my favorite nations.

What in the world has gone wrong? Why are people leaving their homeland in record numbers? You don't see this phenomena anywhere else in Southeast Asia, so why has mass migration become the vehicle of choice for a growing proportion of the country? Where is the blame? Most Filipinos I talk to will almost uniformly blame their lousy government for the sad state of the Philippines, but this seems just an easy out and certainly doesn't explain the malaise. Is the national character at fault? The church? I really don't have the answers, and the Filipinos themselves will need to pull themselves out of this malaise, but the continuing decline of the Philippines is a real heart breaker.

The Maid Industry
The Manila Times
By Alfredo G. Rosario
Dec 1, 2005

I will not be surprised if out of the eight million Filipinos working abroad about a million are maids. Ten years ago an international survey showed that there were 1.7 million foreign maids in Asia and the Middle East. Out of this figure, 275 were Filipino.

But the number of Filipino maids worldwide has since soared. We have over 100,000 domestic helpers in Hong Kong, 70,000 in Singapore and about 100,000 in Italy. We havenÂ’t reckoned with the number of Filipino maids in such favorite destination points as Canada, the United Kingdom and other European countries and Australia, which could be significant.

From January to June this year the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration has registered a total maid deployment of 82,000 in three areas alone—Hong Kong, Singapore and Italy. Of an estimated 540,000 total deployment in other countries for the same period, it is safe to assume that one-tenth, or 54,000, are domestic helpers.

The rise of the Philippine maid industry is attributed to a number of factors, particularly the attractive wages offered by the rich countries, not to mention the lack of jobs and poor pay in their homeland.

A maid in Hong Kong receives over P24,000 monthly, which is a little less than the income of a senior government official in Manila. She is entitled to labor fringe benefits, on top of free food and accommodation. She is given a day-off every week and is covered by insurance.

In 1985 the number of Filipino maids in Singapore was only 20,000. The figure has since ballooned to about 70,000. Their salary ranges from P15,000 to P20,000, which is a little less than what maids in Hong Kong receive.

In the past Filipino maids were deployed in Singapore without going through the normal POEA processing. They availed themselves of the no-visa policy of member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in entering Singapore.

But today the government of Singapore has tightened its visa policy concerning foreign workers. Its labor department has also strengthened its labor rules and regulations for the protection of foreign workers from abuse and exploitation.

For a time, Canada became the dream workplace of Filipino maids because of its immigration policy of granting them permanent residence after two years of employment. Since one of the governmentÂ’s requisites is a working experience certified by their immediate employers, several maids in Hong Kong, Singapore and in Middle East countries applied in droves and were taken in.

The immigration policy was stopped in 1991. However, foreign maids are allowed to change their employment after two years to other jobs for which they are qualified. Domestic helpers who desire to work in Canada are required to have at least 70 college units to make sure they can switch to other jobs upon the expiration of their contracts.

The Manila Times Link

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One in three want to leave Philippines
The Nation
Nov 30 , 2005

Manila - One in three Filipinos want to move to another country and almost one quarter believe that the Philippines is hopeless, said a survey published Wednesday.

Asked whether or not they agreed with the statement, "If it were only possible, I would migrate to another country and live there," 33 per cent of respondents said "Yes".

This was a sharp increase from July when only 26 per cent said they would move abroad, according to the independent Manila-based Pulse Asia pollster which carried out the October 15-27 survey.

The survey also found that 23 per cent of the 1,200 people polled agreed with the statement that "this country is hopeless", more than double the 11 per cent that felt that way in July.

Seventy-four per cent of the October respondents said they expected life in the Philippines to get worse in the coming year, while 43 per cent said they would be poorer than last year this Christmas season,.

The survey comes amid a political confrontation between President Gloria Arroyo and the Filipino opposition which is seeking to oust her based on charges that she cheated to win the May 2004 elections.

The Nation Link