OFW’s
(Overseas Filipino Workers)
Last night we accompanied my cousin Jacquelyn to the airport in Manila. She is in the air now bound to Italy as OFW. She is one of the millions who fly abroad to seek better employment that the Philippine government cannot provide.
As the statistics shows:
The total number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who worked abroad at anytime during the period April to September 2011 was estimated at 2.2 million. The estimate for the same period of 2010 was 2.0 million . The overseas contract workers (OCWS) or those with existing work contract abroad comprised 95.3 percent of the total OFWs in 2011. ( http://www.census.gov.ph/tags/overseas-filipinos )
Ever since I was a child I often regarded the foreign country as “Saudi”. Jokingly when I heard “galing ang tatay niya sa abroad..” ( his father went home from abroad..) I often regarded “abroad” as Saudi Arabia until I realized in Grade school that Saudi was one of the many countries where most of the Filipinos work in many fields imaginable.
The following data show the number of deployed newly-hired, land-based workers by major occupational category in 2012:
Service workers (Domestic workers) - 222,260
Production workers (factories) - 146,448
Professional and technical workers (Dancers, singers, nurses) - 54,617
Clerical workers - 13,893
Sales workers - 9,346
Administrative and managerial - 3,241
Agricultural workers - 1,563
Middle East-bound
The study also showed that the Middle Eastern countries remain the primary destinations for over 67% of OFWs. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia remained as the top destination for many workers.
Data revealed that 70% of OFWs go to the top 5 destination countries. The percentage of OFWs in the 5 countries in 2012 are as follows:
Saudi Arabia - 24.4%
United Arab Emirates - 18.8%
Singapore - 10.2%
Hong Kong, China - 7.9%
Qatar - 7.8%
The report also showed that the number of seafarers increased by 75% in the past 10 years. Filipinos constitute 20-25% of all international seafaring crews. This backs the Philippine claim of being the ship-manning capital of the world. ( http://www.rappler.com/nation/32361-ph-migration-report-ofws )
And those remittances from OFW’s really help the Philippine economy booms as it wants to be. Since the families of the OFW’s are oftentimes left here in the Philippines they have to remit the dollars earned through banks and other channels so that their loved ones here can have money to spend. In that case the dollar reserves of the country has increased.
I myself is also planning of working abroad. Most of my contemporaries are working overseas. They have reaped more money thus having a greener life. They have sacrificed to be far from the family to earn those much-needed dollars.
Last night Tiya Empen had teary eyes since her daughter will go again to Italy to work. Though my aunt is certain that her daughter’s safety in Italy is no doubt in good hands since her two sons are also in Italy. They have labored too much and work even at night to earn. I really admire them.
I wish I could go abroad this year. And find my luck there.
