12. Sending your best people overseas is the Lousiest way to earn dollars
By most counts, there are now well over 10 million Filipinos working overseas. The numbers continue to grow annually from over 600 thousand in the early 2000s to close to a million in 2009. They are not found only in advanced countries but in almost every nook and cranny of the world, including Iraq, Haiti, Nigeria, and Sudan. It is almost as if the dream of a Filipino is just to get out of the country, and any place is better than home. If there is one thing you can boast, it could be that the sun never sets on the OFW.
The OFWs (overseas filipino worker) are encouraged to go out as the local economy cannot find them jobs. It is worthwhile to note that many of them migrated not by choice but by necessity. There are simply not that many jobs to offer locally. Even when close to a million migrate every year, and over 10 million has done so, the unemployment and underemployment rate totals nearly 30 percent.
This gets even more problematic in that more and more people are entering the labor force every year ( getting to 2 million now) , but the ability of the economy to absorb the workforce still stands at a few hundred thousand. There are two other bad repercussions here.
First, the people who leave are the most qualified. It is because those who can will leave, and only those who can’t stay. Losing skilled workers does not solve your employment problems, because as we said, the skilled people create opportunities, and their staying here can usually mean they create jobs for other people. Many companies don’t invest in training because doing so will just mean they will lose the people to brain drain. Many companies also can’t grow because they cannot find qualified people to staff their management and mid-supervisory position. And sending people out means broken families.
The government may be happy with the dollars they sent, but they could have contributed several times more than their remittances if they stay here.
May 18th, 2010 at 10:47 pm
[...] to look after your interest 11. A Skilled Immigrant or Expat is not your enemy, but your friend. 12. Sending your best people overseas is the Lousiest way to earn dollars 13. Productivity is what improves income and standard of living 14. The way to Prosperity is by [...]
May 21st, 2010 at 9:02 am
i agree – not even counting the social cost of a generation of broken families. but whether we like it or not, the filipino is one of the best – and he will always be headhunted for offshore jobs.
May 29th, 2010 at 4:13 am
the country has not yet graduated from its labor export policy. there is a need i guess to overhaul the industrial policy in this country if indeed there is a genuine one. there is a growing fear of moral hazards problems associated with this OFW phenomena.
May 30th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
HI Adrian,
thanks. There is much comment about OFW being the ‘Dutch’ disease. uNdoubtedly, based on your feedbacks, you are an economist. I would most valuable your feedbacks…. I will be putting some more articles soon.
May 31st, 2010 at 9:14 am
@Admin,
” dutch disease” associated with developing only one or few sectors in the economy leaving behind the others, results instead to de-industrialization. many terms arose, immiserizing growth, the Rybcnszki theorem or the ‘” the Ryb”…Jagdish Bhagwati contributed I supposed in this field in the international trade lit.
Literatures on OFW Diaspora, Poverty and other issues are well research by Prof. Ernesto Pernia (ADB and UPSE). Prof Balisacan also deals extensively on Philippine Poverty Dimensions. A rich source of scholarly works can be found also in the books edited by Balisacan and Hill, (The Philippine Development Policies and Challenges and the Dynamics of Regional Growth in the Philippines and SEA)- cannot remembe the full titles.
Hope it helps…;)
May 31st, 2010 at 2:14 pm
thanks for the heads up!
July 9th, 2010 at 3:40 am
I do not fully agree to the statement quote Many companies don’t invest in training because doing so will just mean they will lose the people to brain drain unquote. I believe there are still other competent/big companies locally which include training as one of their objectives so that their employees would become more productive. I think it is the prerogative of the concerned employee to look for better opportunities abroad on a case-to-case basis. It is just that there should be a binding agreement between the employer and the employee on such trainings conducted, whether the latter should not leave the company after the consummation of the training on a specific period of time. Or that she/he has to pay the corresponding training costs paid for by a concerned company in exchange for his/her job abroad. In this view, local companies should have their own rules/regulations established in this context without jeopardizing the welfare of their employees.
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November 2nd, 2010 at 12:25 pm
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December 16th, 2011 at 9:18 pm
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