OFW Journals (OFW Stories on the News) and Some OFW Employment, Career & Business Tips

Where Their Heart Is - Interview with OFWs

By Cora Llamas
Newsbreak Contributing Writer
2005

For the past years, Pulse Asia has been asking survey respondents if they would choose to go abroad if given the chance. Every year, the number of those who want to leave increases. According to the most recent survey, one in every four Filipinos wants to migrate.

The surveys didn’t ask for the reasons that our countrymen wanted to leave. But the primary reason must be money. If not for the salaries in foreign lands that convert to huge amounts back home, overseas Filipino workers say they wouldn’t be OFWs in the first place.

Interviewed by Newsbreak through e-mail, four Filipinos in different countries share the same sentiment: if only their home country offered more opportunities, they wouldn’t want to be second-class citizens in other lands. Two non-government organizations dealing with migrants say this is the prevailing sentiment of the majority of the seven million Filipinos abroad.

But homecoming hinges on the possibility of employment in the Philippines, and preferably at the same salaries earned during their overseas posts.

Jeremiah Opiniano, executive director of the Institution for Migration and Development Issues, says: “They have felt the pressure of having to maintain a salary scale that is supposed to be higher, or almost the same, as their most recent overseas work…. Wages are very depressed in the Philippines, and that is why they are ‘returning’ abroad. In some countries, after finishing their work contracts, contract workers stay longer and risk living in an irregular immigration status so that they [can] continually fend for their families back home.”

Cesar de la Cruz, an electrical engineer in Saudi Arabia, says he will renew his contract though he has stayed “just a little over a third of my life”—12 years and 8 months—in the Middle East.

“My kids—who are with me here—are still very young. We need to save as much as we can to give them a better future. We do not have an alternate source of income yet, therefore it is difficult to just let go of a nice-paying job.

“Besides, the situation in the Philippines is not very encouraging. If I quit now and go home, in a couple of months I would probably be competing for a job with a less-fortunate kababayan unless I put up my own small business. I also believe that my contribution as an OFW—though very minute—is much needed now more than ever.”

If he were home without a contract, De la Cruz would probably be counted among the four million unemployed now trying to find any kind of work. As an OFW, he is among the so-called “modern-day heroes” who send a total of US$7 billion in remittances annually that help keep the national economy afloat. Though he disclosed no salary figures, it would be safe to say that his earnings in Saudi Arabia are at least twice what a Manila-based colleague would receive.

The Unlad Kabayan Migrant Services Foundation lists the following salary scales for some OFWs: P20,000 to P30,000 a month for entertainers in Japan (excluding the tips and fees for “personal” services), P15,000 to P30,000 for domestic workers in Hong Kong, P30,000 to P40,000 a month for factory workers in Taiwan, and P100,000 to P250,000 for seamen hired by Rotterdam-based vessels.

Unlad was founded to facilitate the reintegration of OFWs who want to stay home. One program teaches returnees how to create livelihood from their dollar earnings. Through Unlad, OFWs who are still slugging it out abroad can send money to help spur development in a small town or province. A fishery farm in General Santos is one example.

Unlad executive director Rosario Cañete says that 98 percent of Unlad’s OFW members want to return home after their contracts run out. Despite the dollar earnings, they don’t exactly enjoy job security. “Once the host country changes policies about international labor migration or importing outside work, once their contract runs out, they just might find themselves deported.”

Then there are harsh job conditions that make coming home an attractive option. “The work pressure can be overwhelming; some workers faint from exhaustion. In some cases, they are forced to work on Sundays or evenings without overtime pay. Or they get lower pay than what other nationals are getting.”

Nilo del Mundo, a maintenance technician based in Saudi Arabia, says: “Some of the OFWs here are loved by their bosses and are very successful, but they still want to return [home] because they will remain forever as second-class, if not third-class, people. It is only within their own company compounds that they are truly appreciated. The laws here are very different and the application is arbitrary.”

Ultimately, of course, there is the tug of home and hearth that no luxury in any advanced country can quite overcome. Vanessa Bonga-Bonifacio, a Web designer in Brunei Darussalam the past six years, has not lost hope for her motherland.

“I am motivated by very simple reasons. I want to build a house with a bahay kubo in the yard and neighbors could come over. [I want] my favorite places like the beautiful beaches, my hometown and SM Stores. My favorite Filipino food…. I can spend Christmas and Holy Week Pinoy style, and visit friends during fiestas. I’d watch Filipino TV shows, and listen to Filipino radio shows every day. “

Though he has filed an application for permanent residence in Canada, De la Cruz is not quite comfortable with the decision he and his wife made. “The Philippines is unfortunately hounded by corruption in the government, rising criminality and lawlessness, declining health care and education systems. I gave in to my wife’s insistence that we migrate to Canada for the sake of our kids. But I never liked the idea of becoming a citizen of a country other than the Philippines. I am a very patriotic person,” he maintains.

Remedios Esguerra, who has worked as a computer programmer in the US and Australia for the past 13 years, makes it a point to spend her vacations in the Philippines. “This is where my heart is. It will always be home for me.”