AS IN the past issues of this column on the historical and developmental aspects of OFWs and migrants in various destinations in the world today, we continue our brief discussion on the varied and current issues facing these Filipinos concerned since the past decades when this historic event also called by some writer as "diaspora" or travels of many of our people to find a better life for themselves and their families.
To briefly reiterate our earlier observations based on various official or media reports, the great majority of Filipinos involved in these contemporary situations of our labor force are OFWs who are contracted as temporary workers in countries which do not allow immigration or permanent residence.
Hence, after working for a few years or longer in these countries, especially in some Middle East states or Asian mega cities such as Hong Kong or Singapore, Filipinos or other foreign workers eventually return to their home nations.
On the other hand, in the case of migrants to some countries with an increasing number of Filipinos who are reported to be preferred destinations for Filipinos applying for permanent residence or even future citizenship, have become more widely reported.
For most Filipinos concerned, these countries are the USA, Canada, Australia and several countries in Europe. For the USA, official or media reports have estimated Filipino migrants today in the order of about three million with more applicants submitting their papers with the US embassy in Manila. Smaller but increasing numbers are also lining up in the Canadian, Australian and UK embassies in Manila.
Next to the USA, as a favored destination for migrants today is Canada which has been reported as having Filipinos with the fourth largest population of about six hundred thousand Filipino migrants also continuing to increase every year.
On the whole, it may be noted that these reported dollar remittances sent by OFWs or migrants to their families in the Philippines are a major part of the estimated over 20 billion dollars remittances which is a substantial support to the gross domestic product of our country.
As this column noted earlier, these OFWs and immigrants have experienced many difficulties in their efforts to enter foreign destinations. As widely reported by local and foreign media, these intrepid Filipinos have taken great pains and risked to find jobs abroad and the term used by many writers for these Filipinos as “modern day heroes” is well deserved.
Apart from various family related problems, which we have already highlighted in our earlier issues, there are other problems which this column will discuss. The hope here is that the Philippine government is continuing the effort including special programs to address problems of OFWs in their situations abroad.
In our coming column we will share more specific issues currently affecting our OFWs or migrants in different countries.