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OVERSEAS
Filipino Workers, or OFWs, will continue to evolve,
their numbers growing outside the traditional markets
like the US, Middle East, Europe and Asia, as more
Filipinos go abroad in search of economic opportunities.
As
traditional destinations lose their allure, and as
employers pay less, OFWs will look for other markets to
sell their skills.
Patricia
Z. Riingen, Western Union Financial Services (HK) Ltd.
vice president for the Philippines, has noted the
emerging trend over the last five years. She said more
OFWs have been eyeing the Pacific Islands, like the
Marianas, Palau and Saipan.
The real
emerging market for OFWs, however, will likely be the
Commonwealth of Independent States, or CIS, and
Africa, Riingen
said. The CIS and
Africa remain largely untapped by Filipinos looking for better pay.
There are OFWs in
Nigeria
who have been kidnapped for ransom by gunmen, but the
numbers remain sketchy.
While
money, the US dollar in particular, remains the
strongest motivation for millions of Filipinos to leave
their comfort zones in the Philippines and risk the
uncertainties of working in a foreign land, it is their
resiliency and their willingness to go that is keeping
the Philippine labor market quite active.
An
estimated 8 million Filipinos, or 8 percent of the
population, are working abroad, and sending remittances
back home to send their children to school and buy real
estate, stimulating consumer spending and buoying the
peso against the dollar.
Money
remitted by OFWs in April rose to P1.2 billion, or
32.6-percent higher from a year earlier, according to
latest data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
The numbers follow a 26-percent gain in March.
OFWs
sent back home a total of $4.7 billion in the first four
months, up 26.1 percent from a year earlier.
There
were also 343,397 Filipinos who left for abroad in
search of greener pastures during the first four months
of the year, according to the central bank statement.
The
funds coming from OFWs have also kept inflation at bay.
All this
is good for the economy, uplifting the lives of
Filipinos who are left behind, said Riingen, formerly an
executive director at the Asian Development Bank before
joining one of the world’s largest remittance companies.
The
downside, Riingen noted, is the brain drain and the
social and psychological problems, like depression,
which afflict those left behind by the OFW. |
