The Philippine economy more than ever, is heavily dependent on the export of its own people, euphemistically termed as human capital. The income from this three-decade old economic program has various macro and micro economic benefits. The cash is used by the banks and other financial instructions and by the families of the OFWs respectively. By spending their cash on education, health, and homes, the OFW families are instrumental in triggering the spending pattern of the country, producing the much needed growth, at least in statistical data.

For some time, Philippine labor migration has been described as one that wears a woman’s face.  Feminization of labor migration.  Indeed as for the last decade at least, the women migrants being deployed rose to the average of 70 percent among the new hires. 

The year 2007 however, saw the number of Filipina domestic workers hired abroad dropped by 72 percent in the first eight months. Also, the year-ender report of the Department of Labor and Employment showed a decline in deployment of domestic helpers as the main factor in the slump in job hiring for OFWs during the said period. Of course the government considers this shift in the statistical data as positive, apparently, only skilled and relatively educated Filipinos will be deployed in the future.  The government believed that it will reduce cases of maltreatment and other abuses, on the assumption that more educated OFWs are not prone to violence. But even assuming that this is true, another social problem inherent to the labor-export industry is exposed. Almost 80% of students in higher education in the Philippines are attending private schools, and only those with enough money can afford it.  And since the proper skill and technical know-how is directly correlated to higher education, only those who are relatively well-off can actually access the education system and ultimately be deployed to work abroad and to earn higher wages.

But for the past 3 decades, the ability to ease poverty from the remittances from labor migration has remained unproven.

Furthermore, traditional occupational groups, and even deployment destinations are already showing some strains in their capacity to absorb foreign workers, particularly Filipino migrants.
 
And the ordeals that migrant workers has to go through continue.  In a recent study done by Joyce Ann O. Dela Cruz entitled, “Issues and Challenges under the Employment Permit System” (EPS) reveals, that in South Korea, long hours of work, poor working conditions, delayed or unpaid salaries, and misunderstanding due to language and cultural differences are the most common problems of Filipinos working under the Employment Permit System (EPS).  Korea’s Employment Permit System (EPS) is a government-to-government hiring scheme intended to curb the problem over illegal recruitment. South Korea’s labor ministry has increased by 20 percent the job roster quota of the Philippines in 2007 to 12,000, from 10,000 in 2006.


The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates remain the top two deployment destination for Filipino overseas workers. And many of the most atrocious cases of violence against Filipino migrants originate from the region that includes the two countries. Joselito Alejo’s case is one. Alejo was charged with murder in 1997 in Saudi Arabia because he had the misfortune of having the same name as the real perpetrator. His case was only brought to Saudi Arabia’s high court five years after he was arrested. When the Saudi court decided to impose 350 lashes, the Philippine embassy appealed for clemency. Alejo at first did not want to appeal because it meant conviction. He later acceded in order to get back to the Philippines, few years after. Ana and Lina (not their real names) were recruited to work in Saudi Arabia as chambermaids. They were turned to a rich Saudi national as sex slaves instead.
 

PROFILE OF PHILIPPINE LABOR MIGRATION

Source: POEA

Source: POEA

Europe and Asia, two of the major continents expected to absorb overseas Filipino workers are already showing strains from their capacity to hire foreign workers. Asia remains a viable destination primarily because of the Middle East, and specifically Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. But even this will not remain forever. Already, both the governments of the said two countries have laid down programs designed to absorb their own citizens. Europe as a market is also problematic because it’s traditional preference of hiring migrants from Africa, being former European colonies. The rest of Asia is also showing some weaknesses in its capacity to absorb, partly because other developing countries, notably Indonesia, Bangladesh and Vietnam are eyeing deployment of their workers to cope up with their own unemployment problems.

What job categories are we deploying?

For 2007, deployment of overseas performing artists or OPAs did not make it to the top ten list by occupational group. A first time in many years. From 71,489 in 2004, the government was only able to deploy 6,421 for 2007. Although Japan drastically cut-down its hiring of OPAs in response the US Government criticism regarding possible encouragement of human trafficking a few years ago, it still remains the main deployment country for OPAs with its 4,592 new hires for 2007 followed by South Korea with 1,350. South Korea, it can be noted, is showing a growing trend of hiring OPAs which started in 2003 with only 237.

For seven years now, many Filipino nurses had been trying their luck in other countries. In Saudi Arabia for instance, Filipino nurses were being deployed in their thousands annually since 2000. The US registered only a meager 186 deployed for 2007. However, this doest not reflect the actual numbers of those nurses leaving for the US because many of them opted not to undergo the usual process under POEA but process their papers directly.  For 2007 for instance, the Commission on Overseas Filipinos registered some 128,910 Filipinos in the US under temporary category. This is different with permanent (immigrants) and undocumented, both of which, more than half a million.

Caregiver, except for Israel and Canada, is a declining occupation. This is particularly true with Taiwan which consistently led the hiring of Filipino caregivers in 2003. Only Israel and Canada show a relative stable growth in terms of absorbing Filipino caregivers. But even the combined capacity of the two countries to absorb Filipino caregivers is equivalent only to total hiring capacity of Taiwan.

The deployment of Household workers in 2007 showed a sharp decline, probably because of the minimum salary stipulated in the new POEA guideline. This is particularly true in those countries in the Middle East.  Spain and Italy showed an exactly opposite trend: rising number of household workers being hired. Hong Kong however, continued its growing need for household workers and at the same time maintaining its position as top destination.

Sea-based workers

Though comparatively smaller than the deployed land-based workers, seafarers also face the harsh reality of unemployment in the country. Recent hostages and sea piracy for the last few years have shown the particular vulnerability of Filipino seafarers. Hostage taking has been rampant in Africa, particularly Nigeria, while piracy remains a problem in the Malacca Straits (between West Malaysia and Sumatra, Indonesia). 

Deployment of Seafarers by Top 10 Positions
(For the Year 2007)

For 2007, waiters, male and female, made it to the top 10 sea-based deployment. More and more Filipinos are accepting this relatively lower-paying job because of the comparatively high tip coming from the passengers especially from cruiseships.  Majority of Filipino seafarers being deployed however, remain those at the bottom of pecking order such as able seamen, oilers, and ordinary seamen. Notwithstanding the presence of foreign-owned manning agencies with scholarships, many Filipino students enrolled in Marine Engineering are normally incapable of finishing their degrees primarily because of the costly tuitions and they usually seek work aboard on their second year in college.  

LABOR AND MIGRATION

For 2007, it was estimated that 8,726,520 Filipinos were scattered in 198 countries. Some 500,000 Filipinos were added from the 2006 data of 8,233,172. Those falling under permanent category, presumably immigrants, comprised about 3,692,527, while those with temporary status registered with 4,133,970. A considerable number, 900,023, was listed under Irregular category.

WOMEN AND MIGRATION 

While Filipino migration has taken the face of a woman over the years, there has been a considerable drop in the number of Filipino women deployed for 2007. Data from the POEA show that only 47 percent (or 146,337) of the 306,383 new hires in 2007 were women. This number is 38,117 short of the previous year’s volume of 184,454 Filipina new hires.

For one, women migrants under the professional and technical category went down to 21,761 from the 24,046 in 2006. This trend has been consistent for the last few years, contrary to several articles from newspapers which points supposedly to the improving lot of women workers in the world of work. In 2004, there were 80,470 women workers deployed under this category.

Women migrants remain the main composition under the service workers category. Service workers include household workers and related housekeeping service workers, caretakers (building), and caregivers and caretakers, and waitress. These are the very work positions in which by experience, women migrants are prone to being victims of physical and sexual abuse, drug dependence, prostitution, mysterious or violent deaths, and trafficking.

The International Labour Organization provides significant evidence of the feminization of labor migration, a trend most evident in Asia, where hundreds of thousands of women emigrate each year. According to the ILO, many Asian migrants are teachers and nurses, but even more are employed as domestic workers or are recruited to work in “sweatshops.” Sweatshops have increased because of the globalization of international brands of garments, shoes, toys and sports equipment and working conditions are often poor. For example, in Saipan (in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, administered by the United States), more than 50,000 young female migrants from China, the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Thailand were discovered working as virtual prisoners in workshops. They were forced to labor 15 hours a day, seven days a week. (“Towards a Fair Deal for Migrant Workers in the Global Economy” ILO 92nd Session, 2004).

REMITTANCES

Remittances from temporary and permanent Filipino migrants in 198 countries remain to be a major source of foreign exchange for the Philippine government, a singularly important factor that had kept the country’s economy afloat. In 2005, remittances channeled through formal channels reached some US$12.8B.

The huge amount of money however, was hardly felt by the country’s burgeoning number of poor. The direct beneficiaries of the remittance mainly used it in food, education and some investments particularly in building houses. This fact is correlated by a study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that although remittances have boosted the country’s consumption-led growth, they have not reduced poverty in the Philippines. The paper recommended that government should package bonds and offer them as savings or investments of OFWs. Income can be used to fund local infrastructure.

OFW remittance trends

Factors in the increase of OFW remittances

Significance of Remittances

Breakdown of OFWs remittances in cash and through banks

Types of remittances sent by OFWs:

From the total cash remittance sent:

Why women send money

A lot of people are migrating to earn a higher income, in the case of the Philippines because of the lack of employment opportunities. A considerable part of their income was often sent to their families in their countries of origin. Labor migration and the remittances that go with it play a major role in the global economy. In fact, in the forthcoming 2nd Global Forum on Migration and Development to be held this October in Manila, the “stakeholders” of migration include private commercial banks and even other private companies such as manufacturing corporations. Suddenly, migrants and migration are a catchphrase, especially with any fora in which remittances as tool for development is being tackled.

Further, the gender perspective is almost lacking in any studies on patterns of remittances, transfer channels, and uses of remittances for development. A report by the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women proposes that women migrants’ patterns of remittance will vary depending on their reasons for migrating.  

Household providers. This describes most women who send remittances. They may work long hours in hazardous jobs to earn as much money as possible to send home.

Movers by choice, not financial need. They probably remit less, and when they do it may be to support family investments, such as paying for their siblings' school fees.

Dependents. They probably do not contribute much to remittance flows. The available data tell a powerful but broad story of movement and the feminization of migration. (Carlota Ramirez, Mar Garcia Dominguez, and Julia Miguez Morais, Crossing Borders: Remittances, Gender and Development, June 2005 Working Paper (New York: The United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, 2005).

THE HEAVY PRICE OF LABOR MIGRATION

The Philippines is fast competing to become the biggest labor-exporting country, notably tailing India and Mexico.  And while huge amount of annual remittances help spark local consumption, infusing blood to the ever hemorrhaging Philippine economy, the process of deploying 3,000 Filipinos daily is a source of untold misery for many of them.

The following data culled from cases handled Kanlungan Centre Foundation, Inc. for 2007, though relatively limited compared with those handled by the POEA, tells a lot of this harsh reality. Illegal recruitment remains as a major problem. For a government claiming to be model for other countries in terms of deployment program, this is something surprising. Contract violations and other related cases follow. Violence against women cases is also on the rise, including trafficking.  About 36 local agencies were involved in these cases.

Cases handled by POEA provide a bigger picture. From January to October of 2007 there were 132 establishments that were caught conducting illegal recruitment activities, victimizing 850 desperate job seekers, mostly residents of Metro Manila. These cases do not include the eight Filipino women who were rescued from a prostitution den in Malaysia. The POEA assisted 4,347 complainants in the filing of administrative charges against several licensed recruitment agencies for pre-employment and recruitment violations.
South Korea, Spain, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States were identified as the top countries of deployment by illegal recruiters. They deploy mostly for positions of factory workers, hotel staff, housekeepers, caregivers, and domestic helpers.