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Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Opiniano: A pseudo-economist on the 'migration economy'
By Jeremaiah M. Opiniano
(Editor's note: Speech to be delivered by this columnist before sophomores of the University of the Philippines (UP) School of Economics who are taking up a Civic Welfare Service course on Aug. 16, 2006 in Diliman, Quezon City)
FORGIVE me but I barely passed my Economics 101 course and until now the supply-and-demand equation still puzzles me. But this "pseudo-economist" is being asked to give his five cents worth over how young people like you - all hurried and results-oriented - should give attention to the country's major reasons for our economic survival.
I will not be surprised if many of you are children or relatives of those toiling in Turkey, Lebanon, Greece, Italy, Korea, Singapore, Canada, Australia, and some 185 other countries where an estimated 7.9 million of our compatriots are. The international migration of Filipinos, in the years that have passed, has become a visible phenomenon. People queue our international airports; concrete, painted houses are sprawling in unheard-of Philippine rural towns; nursing and caregiver schools have mushroomed; and I was told people here in Diliman either loved or hated the victorious "OFW (Overseas Filipino Workers)" speech of Patricia Evangelista, delivered at a global public speaking contest over two years ago.
We were still either toddlers or unborn when Filipinos had that tendency to migrate abroad during the Spanish era; during the first recorded Filipino overseas emigration in the 20th century (by Ilocano sugar planter workers who went to Hawaii), during the time that "baby-boomers" like our parents and grandparents went to the US and Europe during the 1960s or during the time our government declared overseas labor migration a "temporary and stop-gap" economic and employment measure in 1974. Our previous and current leaders even envisioned a "stop" to this, especially if the country has reached what is called a "Newly-Industrialized Country (NIC)" status at the turn of the millennium.
Well, international migration still persists owing to many things, good and bad. What's your take? I think it does not need to take a resource person like myself for all of you to be enlightened. If you are a child of a domestic worker overseas, you know what I am talking about. Even those not directly by international migration, such as intelligent students of UP and student bar-hoppers and boozers from other schools, can say a thing or two about the benefits and curses of what is called the "OFW phenomenon".
Since you are all Economics students, this "pseudo-economist" learned economics because of the international migration phenomenon. Let me say that the Philippines is now a migration economy. For a long time, we have been a bangkang papel (paper boat) economy (quoting a top lady demographer) because consumption spending and billion-dollar remittances have made our boat float. The two biggest benefits of international migration to the country are foreign exchange and jobs; the "migra-dollars" keep our balance of payments steady, our credit standing before foreign creditors stable, our financial system liquid, our consumption spending going, our cash-strapped families buoyant, and even our regional poverty alleviation levels improve (as empirically proven by a July 2006 study of a UP resident economist, Dr. Ernesto Pernia). The overseas jobs-be it semi- or highly-skilled ones-have long alleviated the country's struggling domestic employment conditions. Filipino economists call this situation "structural unemployment"-and it does not exempt anyone, whether you are the summa cum laude graduate of this state university, or a former mayor, government official, or company executive. The lure of the dollar, dirham, or dinar coming from an overseas job or permanent residency opportunity simply can't pass you up.
These images also surround us daily: the five-year-old brother or sister silent and enduring papa's or mama's long absence; the Philippine flags that are backdrops of KTV bars in Japan because of the Filipina entertainers there; a typical family scenario where kuya (elder brother) awaits the padala (giveaways) and does not work anymore here; or the quandary over why the piggy bank is drying up despite tens of thousands of monthly remittances from abroad. If you wish to argue about the economic and social benefits and costs of international migration, the empiricism of economic data and studies can't just simply debate with the anecdotes and micro-studies of the social dimensions of international migration.
Making that emigration decision is rational individually, said Ateneo's top economists Fernando Aldaba and Leonardo Lanzona. But if you have nearly a million of those individually rational decisions confronting the nation, you wonder what kind of a Philippine society is in store for us. If you want to debate over this, at least from an economic point of view, I hope you don't get crazy over it. It is difficult to discuss international migration and development in the Philippines, more or less strategize a win-win solution from it.
So this migration economy is facing a tough future. Recently, businessmen have heard both the good and the bad about the migration phenomenon. One of them, Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, then remarked: "let us embrace the OFW phenomenon." To one who hears it right away, and who knows much about the migration issue, the question to ask reminds me of a World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) tagline: "Are you ready?"
Are you ready for a future where more dollars from abroad will come in the country? A future with more "super maids?" Of seeing yourself abroad and reaping economic benefits? Of more brain drain that hits are critical industrial sectors? Of more profit opportunities for banking, property, pre-need, and telecommunications sectors? Of rising inequality which remittances quietly exacerbate (as proven by a UP School of Economics best thesis three years ago)?
For the ordinary UP student, what can you do then? Some 30 percent of Filipinos want to go abroad if given a chance, says Pulse Asia in its last two or three annual surveys. Why will you be crazy to stay here and suffer lower paychecks and disheartening politics?
I will not abhor you if you make that decision to emigrate overseas, or even be elsewhere than here for good. Whether you are here or abroad, surely the Filipino is still in you.
* Take care of your family-a Filipino family at that. Then, contribute to family unity and, hopefully, economic prosperity and professional success. This is one of the best things you can do for this country.
* Hopefully, when the family is taken cared of, others' welfare will be in your radar screen. If you are abroad, and then you joined a Kapampangan group in Austria, pool a fund and contribute it to economic development in your Kapampangan hometown. You can even invest your earnings in alternative financial instruments that reap higher returns and, at the same time, give benefits to rural areas. I know of a group that is trying to promote to Filipinos abroad placing five-year time deposits in microfinance rural banks that give them 8.5 to 10 percent returns.
* Use your economics skills. Teach your family members and others how to spend properly, how to save, and make proper, intelligent, and safe investments. Whether Filipinos are abroad or are here, financial literacy is very important. Can you teach me how to create a savings habit? Can you do it now, starting with just 25 cents?
* And if you are given the opportunity, whatever field you excel in, help your country. The only way for the Philippines to make an economic turn around is for the gross domestic product to have at least a 10 percent rate in the next 25 years. If this happens, many of those abroad will come back home. But these big challenges begin with small steps-from volunteering, aspiring for professional excellence, making a business here grow and succeed, to inspiring the next generation of Filipinos.
A buoyant Philippine economy is even a Filipino domestic worker's dream. I hope that dream comes to us soon, and may young people like you help make that happen.
Comments are welcome at ofw_philanthropy@yahoo.com.
(Jeremaiah M. Opiniano is executive director of the two-year-old nonprofit Institute for Migration and Development Issues (IMDI). The Institute (www.filipinodiasporagiving.org) does research, advocacy, networking, and development journalism on migration and development issues in the Philippines.)
(August 16, 2006 issue)
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