The OFWs' opportunities and challenges

Today, the sixteenth of April, there is a forum to be held in SM, Cebu, to discuss what opportunities are available to Filipino migrant workers, as well as the threats they have to deal with, in both the short and long terms.

The speaker is a Labor Diplomat who has had some intensive and extensive studies on labor migration, as well as an actual immersion in the foreign labor markets in the last six years in Malaysia, Kuwait and Central Taiwan. Participants include the stakeholders in the recruitment and deployment industry, which include recruitment agency owners and personnel as well as migrant workers themselves, and those intending to venture into work abroad. The opportunities include: The emerging employment prospects in traditional and new labor markets. The traditional ones would include the continuing need for oil and gas and household services in the Middle East, the hotel and restaurants and household services in Asia-Pacific, the new surge of needs for more care-givers and physical therapists in the Americas and Europe and the continuing need for qualified marine deck officers and marine engineers. The new markets would be the emerging demands for more factory workers in South Korea and Japan, for Australia and New Zealand and for highly skilled technicians, engineers and other technical workers all over the world. The Filipino migrant workers have the tremendous opportunities to earn more and learn more technologies and establish new strategic linkages and networks all over the global labor markets. Jobs abroad are effective bridges for eventual immigration to other economies or for permanent residence in countries that offer appropriate markets for Filipino skills and talents.

The threats and challenges include at least five clusters of prospective problems that migrant workers must guard against. First, they must be wary against the continuing threats of illegal recruitment and trafficking activities. Second, they must be vigilant against attempts to exploit and use them in the trafficking of illegal drugs and prohibited substances. Third, they should be well-prepared for possible natural disasters or political turmoils in their respective host countries. Fourth would be the continuing threats brought about by Dirty, Dangerous, Difficult, Degrading, and Deceptive jobs. And fifth, the challenge for reintegration as well as the adverse effects of labor migration on the basic social institutions of marriage and family.

The emerging opportunities demand in our migrant workers higher levels of skills both in operational technologies as well as in managing human relations, emotions and dynamics in human behavior. The Filipinos can easily adopt to new and ever-changing work environments. New sources of incomes also emerge from both the traditional and new labor markets, aside from the jobs themselves. Then, all foreign jobs present to our workers tremendous opportunities for learning and for establishing new linkages and networks. Lastly, immigration to Canada, Australia, European countries and even in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East are occasioned by overseas jobs first, which ripened into permanent residence. The threats include the upsurge of illegal recruitment and trafficking of persons across political and economic boundaries. Unlawful practices in the forms of excessive placement exaction, contract substitution, violations of terms and conditions of employment and falsification and substitution of work contacts and other documents. The most nefarious activities that emerge nowadays are those posed by drug syndicates that seek to utilize departing OFWs as drug couriers and mules. The execution of the three Filipinos in China signal the serious threats presented by his new phenomenon in the international drug trade. OFWs must be wise and smart enough to shun these shenanigans. Another emerging threats nowadays are those brought about by quakes and other natural disasters as well as by revolutions and shooting wars which displace our foreign workers from their jobs abroad. OFWs must be well-equipped with enough knowledge and preparedness so as to secure their lives and well-being.

The continuing threats of dirty, difficult, dangerous, degrading and deceptive jobs and those that expose our workers, especially women workers, to hazards related to health, safety and welfare, and those that bring about risks concerning morals and human dignity. The last and perhaps the most pervasively pernicious threats are those that concern the many adverse effects of labor migration on the family and marriage and the great challenge for reintegration of returning migrant into the mainstream of the Philippine society. Suffice it to say, that today’s forum will provide a venue for an open and intelligent discussion of the many issues related to labor migration, its opportunities and threats. Do find time to invest time and be there.

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