By Pepper Marcelo

In September 2010, a Filipina domestic worker returning to Manila from Qatar left her newly born baby in the lavatory of a Gulf Air airplane. She later claimed that she had been raped by her employer, becoming pregnant as a result and, fearing shame from her family, decided to abandon the baby in the trash compartment of the airplane restroom. The baby, later named George Francis by caregivers, survived and has been reunited with his repentant mother.

The following month, another OW committed suicide inside the plane that was bringing him home. Marlon Cueva, 36, was found dead by flight attendants as Gulf Air Flight 154 was preparing to land in Manila from Abu Dhabi. The victim was observed to have been anxious through most of the flight and kept on telling other passengers that he was “sorry.”

Cueva left for the country in September last year to work as an electrician. But barely two months into his two-year contract he resigned, citing “personal reasons.”

These two incidents are the latest grim statistics on the human toll of overseas employment. Every day a sad, often tragic, tale unfolds in every nook and cranny of the world where some 10 million overseas Filipino workers toil under physically severe and emotionally draining conditions.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is currently monitoring some 100 active death penalty cases involving OFWs around the world. Of that number, 16 are for murder-homicide (including rape-robbery with murder), and 74 involve drug trafficking. Last December, President Benign Aquino III admitted that the government had boycotted the Nobel Prize awarding ceremonies in Oslo so as not to earn the ire of the Chinese government, which protested the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to a prominent Chinese pro-democracy activist. Saying the government’s move was “in the national interest,” the President cited the ongoing cases of five OFWs facing execution in China for drug related cases.

Material gain

To be sure, overseas employment has been good to millions of our countrymen and to the economy as well. Think of the mouths it has fed, the students it has sent to school, the houses it has built, the business it has spawned and all the material wealth it has generated.

Then factor in the invaluable boon to the local economy by the enormous remittances sent in by OFWs. The remittance volume last year was projected at $18.5 billion, up by eight per cent from the 2009 level of $17.35 billion. Economists say without these money inflows, the Philippine economy would have been in tatters a long time ago.

But at what price? As if separation from one’s family is not enough pain to bear, migrant workers have to endure untold suffering abroad – abusive employers, inhuman working conditions, meager pay, inhospitable surroundings, homesickness, lack of government support, no job security, discrimination. All this contribute to indescribable physical, emotional and psychological anguish which could push the workers and their families to mental stress, bodily illnesses, and even death. One can only recall the case of Flor Contemplacion, the Filipina domestic worker in Singapore who was executed for killing a fellow Filipina housekeeper and a Singaporean boy the latter was caring for. Citing Contempacion’s unstable mental condition at the time, her supporters pleaded for clemency but to no avail,

Social cost

“It’s difficult to characterize the social cost for OFWs,” says Maria Angela Villalba, CEO of Unlad Kabayan, a program of the Asian Migrant Center which provides services to migrant workers, including savings mobilization and alternative investments at home.

“The situation is this – you’re being uprooted and placed in a situation where the people and environment around you are hostile. You work like a beast of burden from the time you wake up to the time you sleep. You’re always at the mercy of your employer. It is so unbearable that many lose their minds.”

Villalba says the suffering of migrant workers is made worse by the absence of a safe and welcoming place of refuge in their place of destination. “Their coming home to the family after a long day of hard work is taken for granted. But if you do hard work, and you have no family to come home to, and you come home to a cold bed, in a small room, and then wake up the following day to do the same thing, you get yourself into that depressing situation,” she laments.

Given the government’s inability to provides protection and services to OFWs, non-government organizations (NGOs) and migrant workers groups like Unlad Kabayan heroically fill the gap by offering a myriad of services – from crisis intervention, paralegal assistance and counseling to setting up refuge centers and educational services on self-organization, human rights and financial literacy.

The number of OFW-related deaths is rising, notes Villalba, but whether they are due to work-related stress or depression remains untracked. “The government’s response is not all of them died through mysterious circumstances,” she says. “Many of them were supposedly sick, or had accidents, and generally when they’re abroad, there’s a chance or possibility they will die.”

Families left behind

Back home, many families left behind by OFWs are not faring in terms of their psychological and emotional well being. Countless accounts have been told about broken families caused by philandering spouses, either the one abroad or the other left behind.

“Marital relationships require nurturing and intimacy,” says Dr. Gina Hechanova-Alampay, psychologist and founder of the online counseling site OFWOnline. “This becomes difficult when the spouses are physically separated from each other. The OFW and his/her spouse need to find a way to establish such intimacy at least emotionally across the miles. Unless this is done, it is not surprising that they will turn to people who can fulfill their needs for companionship and intimacy.”

With regards to the children, many feel abandoned, and potentially grow up to be spoiled and undisciplined without proper parental guidance. Communications technology such as the internet and cell phones cannot fill the vacuum created by absentee parents.

“Parenting is not just about providing for the needs of children. It is also about being their emotionally and psychologically in order to raise children and teach them the right values,” says Hechanova-Alampay. “Having an OFW parent simply means that the burden of this may fall on the parent who is left behind unless the OFW can constantly communicate with their children to provide such support.”

Besides the separation anxiety that comes from longing for parental care, children of OFWs may also be confused about gender roles or develop a materialistic attitude. Sometimes, when the father is reluctant or unwilling to fill the parental void left by an absent mother, it is usually the eldest daughter who assumes the role of caregiver for the family.

Government’s role

The Philippine government is fully aware of the problems confronting OFWs and their families. But for all its avowed concern for the “Bagong Bayani,” it has not been able to provide the necessary services for workers abroad and their families at home. The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO) and the Philippine embassies and consulates are grossly short of funds and staff.

Migrant groups have complained that government agencies are slow to respond, and even insensitive and apathetic to the plight of the migrant workers. “I’ve heard reports from workers about government officials admonishing them, ‘With the lack of jobs in the Philippines, you should be thankful to have a job in the first place,’” narrates Villalba. “It is not very encouraging, to say the least.”

Hechanova-Alampay adds that government political and legal officers and consulate staff are not trained to provide psychosocial support to migrant workers. “I think the government needs to recognize this need and find ways either by assigning people in the consulate who would have the capacity for such type of psychological service or to at the very least train staff on doing ‘first-aid counseling’.  The consulate staff could also be trained on spotting danger signs so they can refer OFWs to appropriate professionals.”

Given the government’s inadequate resources and services to cope with the myriad of pressing problems of our migrant workers and their families, our OFWs have only themselves, their kababayans and migrant organizations to fall back on. With very limited options, they can console themselves with the thought that perhaps conditions back home are not any better.

For workers experiencing hardship abroad, Villalba advises them to remain optimistic and to focus on their goals for the future.

“Save your money, and then build your dream or plan your future while you are still here in your destination country,” she says. “You will not be in that country forever; you have a family to come home to. Put your plan together early and realize it with your family before you become strangers.”

By Mynardo Macaraig

The Philippines’ famous diaspora of overseas workers is fuelling a boom in the real estate market back home as they snap up houses and apartments to safeguard their futures.

Property prices have recovered strongly since the global financial crisis of 2008, with investments from the 9 million Filipinos toiling away in foreign lands a significant factor, industry figures say.

“Overseas workers are moving the market. Properties now are selling and when there is demand, prices go up,” Emily Duterte, head of the Real Estate Brokers Association of the Philippines, told Agence France-Presse.

Industry sales nationwide this year are estimated to hit 300 billion pesos (6.9 billion dollars) compared with about 100 billion pesos each in 2009 and 2008, according to Claro Cordero from Jones Lang La Salle, a global real estate consultancy firm.

Quick recovery

“Nobody thought there would be such a quick recovery from the slump that began in 2008,” said Cordero, research head of the company’s Philippines’ branch.

Filipino workers abroad have a reputation for working as lower-paid employees, such as construction workers, maids, sailors and janitors.

But their sheer magnitude — they account for about 10 percent of the Philippine population — mean they have long been a major force in the economy.

In 2009, they sent home 17.3 billion dollars, making up more than 10 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, according to government data.

And Filipinos are increasingly moving into higher-paid sectors, such as medicine, engineering and the media.

Overseas workers usually opt for houses costing about two million pesos (45,000 dollars), humble by foreign standards but well in the middle-class bracket for Filipinos, according to Duterte from the brokers’ association.

Real estate investment

Fifty-year-old merchant seaman Rodolfo Oliverio has spent most of his working life outside of the Philippines but he is an active player in the domestic real estate market.

Oliverio has used his overseas earnings to buy two small houses in the heart of Manila for his wife and children to live in, and he is paying for a third he recently bought just outside the nation’s capital.

“If you work here, nothing will happen. The salaries are too small. The only way to afford a house is to become an overseas worker,” Oliverio told AFP while on his annual vacation in Manila.

“Naturally, among overseas workers, the most important thing is a house and lot.”

Oliverio said that as a ship’s bosun — the crew’s foreman — for a foreign company, he earned about 82,800 pesos a month, roughly four times more than he could earn doing the same job with a local cargo line.

Home sweet home

With his salary, he said he was confident he could afford the repayments on his third house, a middle-class 42-square-meter (452-square-feet) place south of Manila which cost a little over 1.5 million pesos.

Industry observers said Oliverio’s real estate goals were typical of many overseas workers.

“Most have left families back home so they want to have a home for their families. Their children, their parents, these are the ones who stay in the houses they buy,” said Duterte.

Filipinos have traditionally preferred living in houses, no matter how small, over apartments, but living overseas has started to change preferences.

Revitalized condo market

Overseas workers have revitalized the condominium market, said Manuel Serrano, head of the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders Association.

“In the beginning, they were more interested in house and lots but in the last two years, the tempo has changed. The demand now is for condos,” Serrano told AFP.

“Most of these people have gotten used to the lifestyle abroad and, in condos, they don’t have to worry about doing a lot of cleaning, gardening and watering of plants.”

Even for the traditional housing market, living overseas has changed the tastes of many Filipinos.

“A lot of developments are incorporating designs that are inspired by architecture worldwide, with a Mediterranean or an American feel,” said Jones Lang La Salle’s Cordero.

$15.5-B in first 10 months

Meanwhile, OFW remittances grew by 10.6% in October at $1.7 billion, the highest monthly level so far this year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.

This brought remittances for the first 10 months of 2010 to $15.5 billion, up 7.9% year on year.

Money remitted came mostly from the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Japan, United Kingdom, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Italy, Germany and Norway.

The BSP noted that steady demand for professional and skilled Filipino workers abroad, and increased access of OFWs and their families to formal money transfer channels continued to boost remittance growth.

Based on preliminary data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), approved job orders overseas reached 578,535, of which about 39.2% was comprised of processed job orders for service, production, as well as professional, technical and related workers.

The central bank expects remittances to grow 8% in 2010 from $17.3 billion in 2009, a record high despite weak employment numbers worldwide due to the impact of the global financial crisis. (Agence France-Presse)

By Wilson Bailon

Vancouver, July 1 – As the country marks Canada Day today, Filipino-Canadians join the rest of the country in celebrating the multicultural mosaic that is both the cultural hallmark and economic strength of this nation of 34 million people.

During the past 20 years, Canada has slowly transformed itself from a largely European settlement into a montage of nationalities, prompted by the pragmatic demand to address the population shortfall and the requirements of the economy.

During the past two decades, Canada has taken in around 200,000 immigrants each year. Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney projects that by 2016, 100 per cent of Canada’s labor growth will have to come from outside the country.

In the next two decades, the foreign-born population is expected to grow four times faster than the rest of the population, according to government statistics. It could reach between 9.8 and 12.5 million people by 2031, comprising 25 to 29 per cent of the Canadian population.

By 2013, the so-called visible minorities (those who come from “non-white” countries of Asia, Africa and South America) will become the majority in two major Canadian cities: 63 % in Metro Toronto and 59 % in Metro Vancouver.

There are about half a million Filipino immigrants in Canada, most of them living in the big cities of Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa and Montreal.

China, India, the Philippines and Hong Kong have consistently been the top sources of immigrants to this country in the past two decades.

In 2008, the Philippines outpaced China and India as the top source country for permanent residents and foreign workers, combined. That year, 69,893 Filipinos — 24,887 permanent residents and 45,006 temporary workers — entered Canada.

The trend is seen to continue in the foreseeable future as Canada reshapes its immigration policy to put a premium on quality skilled workers over other entrants. Thus, in 2008, Canadian policy-makers decided to fast-track the entry of so-called economic-class immigrants with skills needed to sustain and grow the economy. The aim is to attract highly-skilled newcomers to man the computers, build skyscrapers, and care for an aging populace.

This aggressive immigration policy has greatly enhanced the chances of Filipino immigrant applicants.

Under revised regulations governing the Federal Skilled Worker Program, only those who belong to one of the 29 in-demand occupations identified by the government are eligible to apply for permanent residence.

This bold move ss designed to accomplish three things. First, the new policy enables Canada to filter only those applicants with skills that meet the manpower demands of the economy.

Second, it minimizes the number of unemployed overqualified university graduates. In the past, anyone who met the required number of points in the selection grid could enter Canada, regardless of their occupations, which gave rise to the phenomenon of PhD graduates driving taxicabs.

Lastly, it addresses the huge backlog of immigrant applications which used to require enormous bureaucratic funding and long processing time. Lengthy waits for an immigrant visa — stretching up to seven or eight years in many overseas posts– has become a thing of the past.

Today, skilled worker applications are being prioritized and processed in about seven months. (While the government continues to trumpet its avowed goal of family reunification, applications by Canadian citizens and permanent residents to sponsor close relatives are taking a longer time.)

Among the 29 in-demand occupations are nurses, pharmacists, physicians, architects, dentists, restaurant and food service managers, chefs, cooks, electricians, plumbers, heavy equipment mechanics and social workers.

But that is only the first hurdle. Applicants are also assessed based on a set of criteria which include work experience, education, age, proficiency in English or French, and adaptability.

Under this selection process, immigrants from the Philippines have more than a fair chance of qualifying compared to applicants from other countries. For one, the country has an oversupply of skilled workers in many of the listed occupations. Filipinos also score high in English language proficiency.

Immigrants from China and India have also benefited from this government move which prioritizes highly skilled people over close relatives of Canadian citizens and permanent residents. According to recent government statistics, the Philippines has become the leading source of skilled workers (including temporary workers) in the past few years, followed by China and India.

Incidentally, these three Asian countries, by the sheer number of their immigrants in the country, also have the highest number of sponsored family relatives. Under Canadian immigration laws, citizens and permanent residents may sponsor their spouses, dependent children, parents and grandparents to join them here.

Skilled workers who do not fall under any of the 29 in-demand occupations may still enter Canada and eventually become permanent residents by going through the longer route of becoming a temporary worker first.

Temporary foreign workers are constantly needed to fill certain job vacancies in different Canadian provinces, ranging from caregivers or nannies and fast food attendants to power lines installers and hotel housekeeping staff.

But many of these jobs are classified as low-skilled and workers in this category are not eligible to apply for permanent residence. Only two kinds of temporary workers are eligible: those who have job offers for a full-time position in a managerial, professional or technical capacity for an indeterminate period, and live-in caregivers with at least two-year work experience here.

(The writer is a Certified Canadian Immigration Consultant. For inquiries about immigrating to Canada, send e-mail to wgb.westbound@gmail.com.)