by Adobo

Boller and Halbert’s American Citizenship and Expatriatism paper talks about the American expat experience as well as the concept of “global citizenship”. Aside from work and entrepreneurial opportunities, a major reason cited for expatriatism is an increasing disassociation from the American Dream, with a yearning to experience different cultures driven by curiosity and discontent. In short, American expats often leave their home country to explore and experience the world.

In the Philippines, however, not a lot of Filipinos have that privilege. While it’s true that the average Filipino middle-class family can afford to travel abroad for leisure (Filipinos made around 5.1 million international trips in 2015![1]), there are still many who leave the country for work. Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority shows that the total number of Overseas Filipino Workers (or OFWs, the Filipino counterpart of the American expat) was estimated at 2.3 million during the period of April to September 2017 alone[2], with a majority working blue-collar jobs. This points to a heavy reliance on foreign remittances from OFWs, and is reflected in Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ report on OFW cash and personal remittances in 2017. Totaling a whopping $28.06 Billion for cash remittances and $31.29 Billion for personal remittances, OFW income and remittances account for a substantial chunk of our country’s 2017 GDP and GNI[3].

While it is generally acceptable to work overseas, here’s where it gets problematic: a heavy reliance on OFW remittances could mean lesser government efforts to develop human capital for the country’s own progress and industrialization. Upon closer observation, we could note that government efforts towards developing its human capital seems to be directed towards the Filipino’s marketability – just the use of English as the medium of instruction instead of Filipino gives us the implication that a Filipino child is honed to work overseas from the moment he or she starts school. There also seems to be a premium placed on college courses like nursing, engineering, and teaching – graduates of which often seem to opt for job opportunities abroad, and we can attribute this to the fact that jobs in these fields (and other fields, such as research) don’t pay well if you work here in the Philippines. As a result, the Philippines remains a developing country with a heavy reliance on agriculture and services rather than industrializing.

To answer the question, what bothers me most in light of the discussions tackling the aforementioned issues is that there is not enough government support for developing its human capital for its own sake. For instance, there is a lack of government funding in areas like research and development leading to a reliance on imported technology rather than increasing support for local researchers and developers. Because of this (along with low wages despite harsh working conditions), the typical Filipino, regardless of his/her chosen career path, is discouraged to work here in the Philippines, therefore creating a cycle of mere production of human capital that is not only marketable to other countries, but is actually more driven to leave the country for work. While I believe every person has the right to experience different cultures and conform to whatever concept of citizenship they prefer (as discussed in class), taking a closer look shows us people like OFWs simply do not have a choice, and the absence of it is what bothers me most.

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[1] Abellanosa, P. (2016) Filipinos made at least 5.1 million international trips in 2015. Workalife blog. Retrieved from https://workalife.com/2016/06/12/filipinos-4-7-million-international-trips-in-2015/

[2] Philippine Statistics Authority (2018). 2017 Survey on Overseas Filipinos (Results from the 2017 Survey on Overseas Filipinos).  Retrieved from https://psa.gov.ph/content/2017-survey-overseas-filipinos-results-2017-survey-overseas-filipinos

[3] Schnabel, C. (2018) PH remittances beat gov’t target, hit record in 2017. Rappler article. Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com/business/196148-philippines-ofw-remittances-december-2017