Overseas Foreign Workers: Problems Abroad
The number of Filipino foreign workers who have moved abroad for work now exceeds 11 million pinoys. This represents nearly 11% of the total Filipino population. These overseas foreign workers or OFW’s, play an important role in the economy of the Philippines today.
A majority of these workers send remittances to family members on a regular basis. The amount of money that comes into the country from remittances is greater than $16 billion (US) and makes up nearly 14% of the nation’s income each year.
Despite these positive benefits, there are some negative consequences that fall upon the shoulders of the Filipino overseas workers who must bear with these problems for the good of their families and their country.
Family Separation: with nearly 11 million Pinoys now working and living overseas, many more families are being torn apart for long periods of time. In some instances, families cope well, but it is common for the separation to result in problems for the family. These problems include marital problems, children growing up feeling abandoned by an OFW parent, and financial problems when foreign economies go through a bad period.
Quality of Education: many white collar and well educated Filipinos move abroad and find themselves in a situation where they must accept jobs that are below their level of education. In some cases, an OFW may do this voluntarily because the salary of the job may be seen as high in comparison to Filipino wages. In other cases however, an OFW may find that they do not qualify for comparable jobs in the USA. For example, many Registered Nurses are unable to obtain a nursing license in the USA and may have to settle for a lower level job – and part of this is due to the differences in the quality of education in both countries.
Brain Drain: as highly skilled workers go abroad for work, the Philippines loses a large part of its skilled workers to foreign countries. Nursing is in such high demand overseas that sometimes the best nurses are recruited for overseas work at the expense of quality health care in the Philippines.
Underemployment: in some situations, highly skilled professionals move abroad and are unable to obtain work that matches their abilities. For example, in the USA many Philippines trained doctors are unable to qualify for a medical license and go through retraining to accept a job as a nurse instead.
Illegal Recruitment Activities: each year, some Filipinos are knowingly and unknowingly recruited under illegal recruitment activities. Perhaps the worst of these activities is the recruitment of innocent filipinas into the sex industry, where the girl may find herself being held as a captive in the sex slave business or prostitution.
Physical Abuse: overseas foreign workers who obtain low paying jobs such as domestic helpers sometimes will be the victim of physical abuse by their employers. Abuse may be psychological abuse, violent physical abuse and sexual abuse of the OFW.
Other Risks: the headlines will often have stories about Pinoy overseas workers who have been kidnapped, murdered or killed in political conflicts overseas. Protection of overseas workers is not always easy, despite efforts on the part of the government to insure OFW safety in other countries.
While most overseas foreign workers will benefit from working abroad, there are some risks that they must face. And while there are clear financial benefits from the OFW for the Philippines, there are also negative consequences that affect the individual worker and their families back home.
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