Migration: Solution? or Problem?

There are about 6 million overseas Filipino workers (OFW) employed or seeking employment in 137 countries all over the world. They include overseas contract workers (16.6%), undocumented workers (16.6%) and emigrants (66%).

Six million represents about 8.1% of our present population. Since most of them would be primary breadwinners, they would directly support about 49% of our total population, not to mention the industries that depend on providing services to migrant workers.

Migration is a boon to the economy in other ways. On average, OFWs remit US$ 2-4 billion annually to their families. This larger than foreign direct investment flows for any single year. Foreign currency reserves enable the country to soften the impact of the current financial crisis.

Migration hides real problems

Migration hides the huge unemployment problem of the country. Most Filipinos are literate in English, a skill that is demanded by the labor market that is rapidly globalizing. English speaking maids, singers, entertainers, teachers, nurses and seafarers are in demand worldwide. Employable Filipino workers continue to respond to the global labor market demand as long as there are no viable jobs at home. And unemployment is merely a reflection of structural problems.

Many migrants discover, however, that working overseas may not be the solution to their poverty. Many migrants die overseas due to work-related causes. Many are physically, emotionally and psychologically abused by their employers. Long separations may also cause broken families, infidelity of one or both spouses and delinquent behaviour among migrant's children.

The central problem remains. The Philippine economy is increasingly being shaped by global market demands rather than by the needs of the country. Even educational institutions are geared towards curricular offerings that meet international labor demands, risking a severe shortage of a skilled labor pool for the country's industries. When the international economy suffers periodic crises, as it has in the current currency crisi, Filipino workers are sent home to joblessness, poverty and worsening social order.

Responses to the problem

The Philippine government has responded to the problems of migrant workers in a reactive way while pursuing a more agressive labor export policy. Philippine Overseas and Labor Offices (POLO) exist only in some 22 countries and are inadequately staffed as the government itself admits. Services offered by government agencies in general are slow at best. Non-government organizations (NGOs) or Filipino overseas workers associations themselves are providing better services in many countries through crisis intervention, paralegal assistance, counseling, providing refuge, educating towards self-organization, human rights and towards savings mobilization.

Reintegration is the key

Overseas work is unstable being menial, gender specific, low skilled and highly temporary. Foreign countries precisely hire overseas workers because they are not compelled to provide more than token protection to foreign workers. They are accorded no union rights, no legal protection from gross exploitation and little accident compensation.

While it is near impossible to prevent Filipinos from seeking overseas jobs as long as there is a demand for them, the only immediate viable solution to the problems of overseas work is "re-integration" of workers. This is the planned return of migrant workers, after a conscious effort to accumulate savings and an equal effort to invest in micro enterprises at home.

Because government agricultural and industrial policies are "liberal" and promote globalization at the expense of Filipino producers, Filipinos themselves must struggle to build up their own capital and to promote alternative investments and alternative jobs. This is the goal of Unlad Kabayan.

What is Unlad Kabayan?

Unlad Kabayan was established in 1994 as a program of the Asian Migrant Center (AMC), a non-government organization based in HongKong. After years of organizing migrant workers and providing various services to help them cope with their problems, the AMC decided that the long term solution to migration is savings mobilization, building of savings associations among migrant workers and alternative investments at home.

This "re-integration" scheme was seen as a means to prepare migrant workers for their eventual return to their countries and at the same time to help create small enterprises at home. With the projected establishment of enterprises at home, the migrant workers help create new jobs for their families and communities and even for themselves in case overseas employment is terminated suddenly.

The program was set up in the Philippines in 1996 and has become a model for other labor sending countries in Asia to bring home their migrants with dignity, and as early as possible, so as to reduce the hazards they may be exposed to overseas.

Vision Mission and Goals

• Unlad Kabayan seeks to help build a society that is self-reliant, that mobilizes local resources in order that the fullest potentials of the country and her people are realized.
• Unlad Kabayan understands a viable economic system as one that promotes the use of local products and reduces the demand for imported goods. This is the best way to support local workers and their jobs.
• Unlad Kabayan seeks to build the savings consciousness of migrant workers and their families as the essential component of a capital build up program in the country.
• Unlad Kabayan seeks to empower migrant workers and their families so they themselves are able to analyze economic data, make wise business decisions and develop skills in enterprise development and management.
• It is the goal of Unlad Kabayan to help migrant workers savings associations wherever migrant workers are located and to offer services to them and towards the setting up of small-scale enterprises.