The brighter side of less OFW deployment

The POEA has forewarned that this year, there will be less OFWs that can be deployed and therefore, less dollar remittances.  Many economists and government planners consider this bad news for our country. With all due respect, this writer sees a different scenario. While we agree that the volume will decrease, we do not concur with the view that this is bad for the country in the long run.

 On the contrary, this may be the long-awaited beginning of a shift in our labor migration policy, and we may be seeing the starting point of our country going for QUALITY JOBS, rather than mere quantity of deployment. If we can really leave the DIRTY, DIFFICULT, DANGEROUS, DECEPTIVE and DEGRADING  jobs to other labor-sending countries, and focus on high-end work for our people, not just in motherhood statements and vague policy declarations, but in real  deployment actions, then we may be experiencing a new beginning in our labor migration.  And that would definitely be good for our country.

 First, we should understand the WHYs and the WHEREFOREs of the projected decrease in volume of OFW deployment. That downturn is the result of the political tensions in the Arab World, both in the Middle East and the North African countries, that are traditionally our labor-receiving countries, like Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Syria and even in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where almost two million Filipinos are working. Another factor to consider is the series of natural calamities, like the earthquake in New Zealand, the quake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in North Japan, as well as the tornadoes that hit the Midwestern USA where many OFWs are working as knowledge workers.

 In addition to both political turmoil and natural calamities are the emergence of endemic threats posed by global terrorists that caused the death of many Filipinos in the 9-11 attacks in the US, and the series of bombings in Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan. Finally, and this is very important because almost everybody does not know this, is that we are gradually losing labor market shares to Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Egypt, Pakistan and other labor-sending countries because it is more expensive to the employers to hire Filipinos due to alleged HIGHER WAGES and HIGHER cost of recruitment and deployment, compared to other foreign workers. Furthermore, Filipino workers are gaining the reputation as “very demanding and choosy”, relative to other migrant workers.

 Then, we need to understand that there are new laws and regulations in our country that require absolute safety nets that should be present in the destination country as a condition precedent to deployment. We are being pressed from both ends, according to the recruitment agencies. The markets are very competitive and our authorities are becoming very strict in assuring full protection for our workers. Which, to our mind, is good news, rather than alarming. We should not cry over spilt milk that is not good for our interests.  Never mind if we stop deploying hundreds of thousands of domestic helpers who are most vulnerable to abuses to human rights, maids who would only be physically, verbally and sexually harassed and molested. Never mind if we stop sending unskilled workers who will only be exploited and subjected to all forms of unfair labor practices.

 The future of our labor migration policies should be anchored on the Constitutional mandate to afford full protection to our OFWs, not merely on the high volume of deployment and billions of dollar remittances. We should avoid a repetition of the Sarah Balabagan tragedy, the fiasco of Flor Contemplacion and Delia Maga, and the saga of Joselito dela Cruz.

We should also start to implement social accounting initiatives, to evaluate how much advantage and how much damage has labor migration inflicted on the Filipino families, the very backbones of our national strength. We should not sacrifice the welfare of our young children, the hopes of our Motherland, in the altar of the almighty dollar. We should examine how our country has lost so much because of our unabated desire to earn foreign exchange. We should start thinking about what matters most for our country and people.