Stable jobs, wages, and welfare services

How can Filipino migrants be enticed to return back to the Philippines? We learned that this was a recent question raised by a Philippine Embassy official before civil society migrant advocates in Tokyo.

With Japanese immigration policy strictly targeting the irregular migrants, will we expect more of our migrants in Japan to be apprehended and sent home this year? The Filipinos are the 3rd biggest national group in Japan, with a significant number of irregular migrants as well.

A number of present Filipino migrant detainees in Japan are bringing their cases to court, with the hope that they be allowed to stay longer in Japan rather than be deported. The longer they are detained, however, the more expenses the Japanese Government has to incur for their meals and accommodations at the detention centers. If more irregular migrants will be apprehended, the present detention centers may also not be able to accommodate a larger number of detainees, not only from our country but from other countries as well.

While irregular migrant labor has been officially prohibited by host countries, there is also no denying that irregular labor also contributes to the host countries in terms of cheap labor, profit, and viability of small and medium-scale industries. Elderly population and the absence of local labor interested to do dirty, dangerous, and difficult jobs are internal factors that provide the entry door for irregular migrant labor into host countries.

Given this perspective, based on reciprocal need of the host country for labor and the need for employment in sending countries, there are those who call for relaxation of immigration prohibition against unskilled migrant labor. This proposal, however, is not yet acceptable. While positive contributions are recognized, campaign to deport irregular migrant labor is still ongoing.

Can migrants, especially the irregular ones, be encouraged to go back to our country? How?

News of economic growth alone will not at all be enough to attract our OFWs to return to the Philippines. Only if there are stable jobs and wages, sustainable, guaranteed, and genuine will our migrants probably start to consider returning home. Also, our migrants may consider returning, not only once stable jobs and wages are truly available. They may also consider only if guarantees for good education, health and other welfare services are also mainstreamed and sustained. Add peace and security and effective governance to stable jobs and wages and welfare services- then not only will OFWs consider returning for good; the rest of the Filipino people may also consider not going abroad, making migration finally a choice, among our people.

It is good news to learn that Budget Secretary Butch Abad himself recognizes that the PNoy administration, that he is part of, still has to generate enough jobs for our people and that economic growth has to reach all Filipinos to be truly meaningful.

There are about 10 million Filipinos who are either unemployed or underemployed and about one million or more Filipinos joining the labor force each year, requiring about 14.6 million jobs to be generated until 2016.

What stable jobs and wages can the government generate soonest to stabilize the lives of Filipinos and to keep them from migrating or to attract them to return soon from abroad? Any helpful suggestions from you, our readers, please?

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