Chatting up Filipinas in airport queues

By JUAN L. MERCADO (Reprinted from the Philippine Star, October 14, 2002)
OFW Journalism Consortium

"FILIPINA" was stamped all over her: from the simple T-shirt-cum-jeans, braids, accent - and the affectionate way the two Chinese kids snuggled up to her.

This was China Southern Airlines flight 309 from Hong Kong to Beijing, connecting for Ulan Bataar in Mongolia. Se was obviously one of the over 7.4 million Filipinos who work today in over 120 countries.

In the airport queue, Pangasinan's Manuela Rodriguez and I chatted. Her Hong Kong employer's family would tour the Great Wall, Forbidden Palace and other places. As nanny, she tagged along.

"Step forward please," an airlines staffer urged passengers. Our petite Filipina smiled, waved goodbye and herded her two restless wards forward. They disappeared into the lines.

The incident came to mind on reading the new Philippine Human Development Report 2002. Among other things, it says: 800,000 or more Manuelas make a beeline for departure exists yearly.

Barring war or an unlikely sudden explosion of job creation here, that diaspora, which has shifted away from the Middle East to Asia, won't ebb soon.

Emergence of the Philippines as Asia's largest exporter of brains and brawn has outstripped government's ad-hoc policy of treating foreign jobs "as a went for underutilized labor," the PHDR says.

"No solid evidence on loss of skilled manpower, due to labor migration, has surfaced," asserts the study published by the United Nations Development Programme, and the Human Development Network.

"The consensus is: going abroad increases the returns to investments in education and skills," PHDR urges. "Overseas workc should be encouraged."

Today, you bump into Filipinos everywhere: form the Termini in Rome, St. John's Cathedral at Kuala Lumpur's Bukit Nanas, to king crab restaurants in Alaska. Musicians on the cruise ship putting out from Brindisi in Italy, my sister in Toronto wrote, were Filipinos.

The Philippines is Asia's largest labor exporter today - ahead of Indonesia, China, Vietnam, ranked in that order, the Asian Development Bank has pointed out. Worldwide, the Philippines is second only to Mexico.

Majority (4.7 million) of those who left used legal immigration channels. But they're overshadowed by over by one TNTs (tago ng tago, or irregular migrants) in every four abroad. A hefty 1.8 million (almost 27 percent) burrow their way in, either as runway trainees, overstaying tourists, stowaways, etc.

About 2.6 million pulled up stakes for North America and Oceania: 81 percent of them opting for the United States; 397,000 (12 percent) Canada, and 258,000 (eight percent) in Australia and New Zealand - where sheep outnumber people four to one.

"The largest group are Filipinos who crossed by small boats to Sabah (Malaysia) to settle and work there," the report points out. Given similar features and culture, they blend into the population.

Today, about 22 out of every 100 - in a labor force of 30.9 million - work abroad. That's up from the 15, out of every 100, in the mid 1990s, despite the slowdown of migration to the Middle East.

This "migration transition" is seeing more workers head for Asian destinations like Brunei, Japan, Singapore, or Taipei. "Migration," ADB notes, "is now chiefly an intra-Asian phenomenon."

Total number of Filipinos abroad probably now exceeds 10 percent of the population, or "21 percent of the labor force" (the Population Reference Bureau estimates the Philippine population at 80 million by mid- 2002).

"It's not clear what the fairly large scale migration of labor costs the economy," PHDR 2002 states.

Migration obviously tamped down joblessness "at the aggregate level and by skill category." But "except for computer professionals, no shortage has reported for other skill categories."

There's "skimming off" experienced better-qualified workers, mostly in prime age groups. "US and Canada have been recruiting high school and grade school teachers from the best schools in Manila like the Ateneo and Philippine Science High School."

But "each destination is a separate market." Singapore and Hong Kong hired mainly female domestic workers. Taiwan selects manufacturing skills and Indonesia finance managers. The Middle East seeks highly-skilled blue collar workers. And the US and Europe need care givers and special skills.

These factors give rise to "wage differentials." Among professionals, engineers, for example, earn US$2,750 in Guam but US$517 in Bahrain. Within production workers, machine fitters take home $790 in Qatar and $248 in Libya. Domestic helpers can earn $900 in France and $202 in Malaysia.

Lack of jobs here and substantially higher incomes abroad are powerful "push and pull factors." Sometimes, wages can go as high as four times domestic salaries.

"Foreign earnings raised the level of income for about 20 percent of families, allowing them to send their children to higher level school, build homes and buy appliances, etc." - not to mention prohibitive health care.

PHDR 2002 admits a data gap on psychic and other social costs to migrants and their families. Surveys have not probed this aspect in depth.

There is anecdotal evidence of "significant costs." The Catholic Church has expressed concern over the impact of prolonged absene of parents on families.

But the attack on the World Trade Center ha sled to tightening of immigration rules and the "3-S strategy:" Entry visas are given only for "skilled workers for short-term employment in specific sectors."

Government should eventually move away from direct placement of workers and leave this to private institutions, the report suggests.

Instead, it should focus on providing reliable information, standard setting, and rationalization of private placement agencies. It ought to encourage private insurance and pension plans of overseas workers and protect workers' rights abroad," says Solita Collas Monsod, the formidable HDN president and former National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) chief.