MIGRANT workers spend most for the education of their brood of siblings, a study made on the “Working conditions and remittance behavior of Davao City OFWs and their families” revealed, a clear indication that what spurs Filipinos to work overseas is to build a better future for those left behind.
In the research led by Rosana D. Sanchez of the Ateneo de Davao University in partnership with the Unlad Kabayan Migrant Services Foundation, the result of which was bared in mid-March this year, showed that around 55 percent of male migrant workers and 60 percent of female migrant workers send remittances to pay for education.
Construction of repair of a house is next with around 38 percent of males and 40 percent of females in the study that covered a sampling of 464 comprised of 204 migrants workers, 210 families of migrants, 34 focus group discussions, seven in-depth interviews and nine key informants.
“Number one gyud and education, unya ang balay kapuy-an nga desente kay payag ra man kuno ang ilang kapuy-an paglakaw (Number one is education followed by construction and repair of house because what they live in before going abroad are nothing but shanties,” Sanchez said.
Third in the list among female migrants’ spending is jewelry at around 35 percent, although only around 20 percent of male migrant workers spent on jewelry.
The purchase of jewelry, however, is not just out of whim, it was learned.
“They buy jewelry aron depensa. Mas sayon ma-prenda ang alahas, mao na sa panahon nga manginahanglan ang pamilya nga nabilin, dali lang makakuha og kwarta (Jewelry can be pawned, thus when the families at home are in need of emergency funds, they can have these by pawning jewelry,” she added.
It is not surprising then that among arriving OFWs, most noticeable are the jewelry they are wearing. After all, they can bring this in without having to pay taxes and fees.
Going abroad, however, is not as easy as it is cut out to be. Especially among OFWs in the Middle East who have to endure the cultural discrimination against women.
Sexual abuse and acts of lasciviousness by employers and other men they encounter outside work is a given in these countries.
“Ayaw na lang mo adto sa Middle East labi na nang itsurahan ka yang mga Arabo, mantas gyud, manyakis (It’s best to stay away from the Middle East especially if the woman applicants has the looks because the men there are like animals),” said an OFW during the FGD held.
The OFWs described how the Filipino menfolk would surround a Filipina worker whenever they are in the same public transport to shield the woman from lascivious acts by the locals in the same vehicle.
Despite this, a big number of the women migrants covered by the study work in the Middle East, accounting for around 30 percent as against around 25 percent in Asia, 10 percent in Europe, and eight percent in the US.
The horror stories too that we often hear in the news about abused OFWs cannot stop the desire to go abroad, majority of whom said the income they were receiving before they sought employment abroad “is not enough”.
Of the male workers, 37 or 90.2 percent of those covered by the study said it was their small income that spurred them to seek their fortunes abroad, while 123 or 73.4 percent of the women said so.
Next among the reason is being “not satisfied with present work income” with 26 or 63.4 percent of the men, and 69 or 40.8 percent of the women.
Going abroad required saving up for it with a sizeable portion raised through debts that are usually paid up within a year.
Dr. Christine S. Diaz of AdDU Social Science and Education Division, who gave her reaction to the study, underscored the fact that countries sending out migrant workers like the Philippines are the poor ones, which thus exposes the OFWs to neo-colonial policies that tend to choke them into a situation where they do not have much choice but to live within the restrictive policies the host countries come up with.
Aside from this, there is also the danger of being trafficked by unscrupulous persons who only want to cash in on willing victims.
One of the former OFWs who attended the study dissemination believes she was a legal migrant in Lebanon as she applied through a recruitment agency that was registered with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).
There, she said, she was forced to take on a job that wasn’t the one she applied for and receive a salary that was way below what she was promised.
Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) regional chief Zenobia Caro, however, revealed she was most likely a victim of trafficking since there was already a ban on deployment of workers to Lebanon when she went there.
“Hindi automatic na dahil ang agency ay licensed that they can send to all countries,” Caro said, “You have to check where the agency is allowed to send workers.”
Sad to say, most of the OFWs who attended the forum were only aware that they have to check with the POEA on whether the agency they are applying with are indeed registered with the POEA. That applicants have to check further on what countries and type of work an agency can deploy to was lost on them.
It will also help if OFWs in the city form an organization so that they can stand up as one and push for actions that will benefit their sector.
There is a move by the city to set up a Migrant Center with the approval recently of an ordinance establishing such at the City Hall. But the ordinance still cannot be implemented because there are still no implementing rules and regulations, Lorna Manding of the city government said.
She thus also pointed out to the need by the OFWs to form an organization so they can work as a pressure group for government to expedite the drafting and approval of an IRR.
In the meantime, OFWs learn through experience and hope for the day when all their sacrifices will pay off, no matter how long it will take to suffer abroad.
The sob stories thus continue of abuses, or slave-like working conditions, especially among domestic helpers, whose numbers continue to grow as more and more women try their luck abroad in the hope of providing a better future for their children.
“We send migrants and we have no choice because there are lesser opportunities here and there are needs of the family that has to be addressed,” she said.
However, she said, while the study is most appreciated, it being the first ever such study taken, there is the greater need to conduct an even deeper look into migrant families because there are social costs that have to be paid for sending out parents, who are mostly in their most productive years and when the children are still young.
“We are nurturing a generation where one or both parents are absent,” she warned.
Of greater concern is the feminization of migration where more and more mothers have to leave their children in the care of relatives or the husband.
The role of mothers in nurturing children can never be ignored, and yet there are thousands of children who now have to live without their mothers.
It is in ensuring that migrant workers do bring in the benefits of working away from their families at the shortest possible time that Unlad Kabayan is encouraging and disseminating entrepreneurship and the need to save and invest for the future.
Maria Angela Villalba, Unlad Kabayan executive director, recalled how a Chinese business friend chastised the way Filipinos regard their income, saying, "Ang lisod sa inyong mga Pilipino magplano mo sa usa ka bulan ninyong sweldo (What’s wrong with you Filipinos is you plan your month's salary). You should plan ten years ahead."
By learning to invest and to add value to what their investments can produce, then the OFWs can start a better future without having to break up their families.
After all, numerous OFWs have to take on great sacrifices just to bring home salaries that are less than P10,000 to P15,000 a month, accounting for 40.2 percent of all the OFWs covered by the study, of which 54.3 percent are in the Middle East where most of the sob stories come from.
Those comprising this group are 22.2 percent of the seafarers, 40 percent of the entertainers and performers, 56.7 percent of the domestic helpers, 17.4 percent of the professionals and associates, 50 eprcent of the service workers, sales clerks and caregivers, and 33.3 percent of laborers and unskilled workers.
“Plan our life, do not plan your salary,” she said.
Unlad Kabayan works with OFWs for social entrepreneurship.
Villaba said one of their thrusts now is into mango processing because there seem to be a number of OFWs who have bought lands with mango trees.
This is just an example of the kind of entrepreneurial drive that has to be fanned among Filipinos, she said, lest Filipinos will forever be enslaved as migrant workers.
Stella A. Estremera/taxonomy/term/98
