With a 93% literacy rate and with English as an official language, the Philippines has become a lucrative labor market for (more or less) industrialized countries to fill their own labor shortage. Currently, there are over 11 million Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) worldwide, roughly 11% of the entire population of the Philippines. Coming from a pool of varied skill sets, Filipinos are hired to do anything from construction and domestic help or aids, to entertainers and sea men, to doctors and nurses. Every Filipino family has at least one member working abroad, and it is a goal for most Filipinos to work abroad and earn foreign currency. After all, remittances account for 14% of the country’s GDP, bringing in billions of dollars each year.
It’s become apparent that the Philippines, with such a sterling reputation for its contribution to the global work force that much doesn’t necessarily translate to what occurs in the homeland. While billions of dollars come into the country every year, nothing in my opinion, at least when it comes to infrastructure, has changed. Shopping malls and condos have a higher priority than mass transit and the development of a better highway system. Regardless of all the statistics you hear, I feel like the incessant traffic of Metro Manila is one of the worst. I can’t even begin to explain how it’s so bad.
With the last two generations paving the way as OFWs, the promise of a better, wealthier life living in a foreign country has been instilled in the minds of the current middle class generation. I mean, I guess it’s true considering the large number of Filipino immigrants to the States and their relatively high incomes. And I guess my family made it out too, but anyway let’s not digress. A fairly common golden ticket to the land of the free and higher valued currency is through a nursing degree. While I was in the Philippines, I’ve noticed the number of schools advertising –often named after Saints or other religious figures- nursing programs (there are hundreds of privately owned colleges offering technical and nursing programs), as well as the number of students, mostly young girls, dressed in their nurse outfits (unlike the States where they wear scrubs, students are required to wear all white and wear that white hat thing). Among the cousins who are my age, three of them are studying nursing. Perhaps it’s the middle class upbringing, or moving to liberal ass Seattle- actually, I take it back, it is because of my middle class upbringing and moving to liberal ass Seattle that I feel some sort of unwarranted bitterness/sympathy for the lack of diversity when it comes to advanced studies. Again I digress. Filipino nurses have a bubble of their own. While nurses are still in high demand worldwide, the Philippines have produced so many that they are regulated in foreign countries, and since there are so many nurses in the Philippines already, the domestic market for nurses has been long filled. But what do I know.
But I guess my real concern or problem or whatever is the Philippines’ obsession of living a comfortable life. Every middle class family has one or two live in maids that do everything from childcare to cooking and cleaning and even hand washing clothes. I don’t know where this trend stems from, but I’d like to think it originates from the Spanish empire and telenovellas, where all protagonists live dramatic, physically painful lives and ultimately get their big break getting rich somehow, as well as the Philippines’ deep infatuation with American/Western consumerism (most American brands can be found in the Philippines), materialism and extravagance. This all is part of the cycle when it comes to OFWs and remittances and studying to become a nurse. For those who work abroad, it is common and expected that a majority of their income (if they aren’t married to someone abroad) to send money back to their families. You can tell when a family has a member abroad when additions, extensions or remodels are made to their modest homes. The same applies for kids and Nikes. Should we blame the colonizers?
With the number of talented and educated Filipinos living and working abroad and a percentage of young people studying and training to work abroad, and ultimately returning home for a comfortable retirement in the province, what does that leave for improving their homeland? iPhones and Levis jeans have successfully integrated itself into the culture but recycling and mass transit, some indicators of a industrializing country, are scarcely found.
While I was born in the Philippines, I’m an American citizen and have not lived in the Philippines so as a disclaimer I cannot say that I fully understand the dynamics of what happens in the Philippines and what I say here is purely observation and opinion. I will say though that the Philippines is a beautiful, diverse, culturally rich place with wonderful people and delicious food (and even more delicious tropical fruit) and you should all visit.
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In other and possibly more controversial news, I went to Taiwan and it was great.
