Filipinos are the Overseas Class
Richard Paddock of the LA Times offers a different perspective on the “Philippines’ most successful export: its workers.”
The Philippines has both benefited from cash remittances from OFWs. On the other hand, the exodus of doctors, the lack of teachers and the long term effects of migrant workers is a stop gap solution and undermines the level of poverty and hardship that many Filipinos left behind undergo.
What is your opinion on the matter? How do laws and government policies on Immigration affect countries that rely on this export?
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LA Times: The Overseas Class
The Philippines isn’t the only country suffering from this phenomenon, Germany and Austria, of the several European countries, are also facing this employment predicament. If anything those leaving the country to work abroad are doing three good things: 1) earning more money for themselves and their relatives back home 2) benefiting the country with cash remittances and 3)giving the rest of the Filipinos the chance to have work where OFWs have resigned or have chosen to collectively ignore. They aren’t the only Filipinos in the Philippines. There is an influx in population and we should never see the exodus of the so-called “bright ones” or “industrious ones” as a big loss to our country. It’s a loss, yes, but that loss is the country’s gain as well in so many levels. It’s also not an excuse for the left-behind Filipinos to cry “Woe is me!” Theirs is the challenge to be the best where they are, contributing to the growth of the country.