Low-skilled OFWs Top Dollar Remitters

planetphilippines.com
Jul 4th, 2009

Contrary to popular belief, low- and semi-skilled overseas Filipino workers are the top source of dollar remittances of the country, according to an analysis of remittance data made by the Institute for Migration and Development Issues. In her analysis of the data from the National Statistics Office from 2001 to 2007, Beverly Jane Bulanday, an intern at the institute, found that the collective remittances of male and female low- and semi-skilled OFWs comprise the biggest among the other skills level categories.

OFWs who fall under the categories “trades and related workers, plant and machine operators and assemblers, and laborers and unskilled workers” are the “major drivers of the country’s ‘remittance economy.’”

Findings show that female domestic workers and male production workers are the top overseas Filipino remitters, she said.

Bulanday explained that low- and semi-skilled OFWs contribute the biggest amount of remittances because they comprise the biggest number of migrant Filipino workers.
“This is simply because job markets abroad call for such occupations for foreign workers. This trend will all the more continue even as there are efforts to attract more skilled workers in developing countries, and there are continued restrictions to the movement of low-skilled or semi-skilled labor,” she predicted.

HK domestics told to stagger days off to prevent flu spread

Filipino maids gathering by the thousands during their Sunday day off may be spreading the swine flu virus, a Hong Kong health official said. Gabriel Leung, the city’s undersecretary for health, said employers should consider switching their maids’ days off to reduce the risk of the Influenza A (H1N1) virus spreading. Leung’s remarks came after a 28-year-old Filipino maid was admitted to hospital with swine flu and three other cases were detected in people visiting from the Philippines. Filipino maids traditionally gather by the thousands in public spaces in Hong Kong’s Central district on Sundays, their usual day off. Leung said there might be a community outbreak of swine flu in the Philippines and appealed to Filipino maids to pay extra attention to their personal hygiene. Hong Kong is particularly sensitive to virus control after the severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS outbreak in 2003, which infected 1,799 people and killed 299.

Nearly half of OFWs are youths

Nearly half of the estimated eight million Filipinos employed in 190 countries abroad are young workers, the International Labor Organization (ILO) reported. ILO said youth, or those belonging to the 15 to 24 age bracket, account for 35 percent of all overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Filipino workers abroad sent home some $16 billion in 2008 and their remittances are still growing despite the prevailing global financial crisis.

Recognizing the Filipino youth’s contribution, ILO and other concerned United Nation agencies have developed a program with the aim of improving the young Filipino migrants’ access to decent work. “The program will run for three years and aims to improve policy coherence affecting the employment and migration of youth through full stakeholder participation,” ILO said.

Earlier, ILO director Linda Wirth warned that more Filipino children, particularly girls are likely to leave school and be forced to work as a result of the global financial slump. Wirth then stressed the need for the Philippine government to allocate more funds for programs to curb the worst forms of child labor.

Remittances post slow rise, defy expectations

Money sent home by Filipinos working abroad has fallen by single-digit levels, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said. Nevertheless, remittances – which drive demand for consumer goods such as cellphones and appliances – continued to rise for the first four months this year, contradicting earlier projections that the crisis will lead to declining remittance inflows.

Remittances in April reached $1.4 billion, resulting in a four month total of $5.5 billion this year, 2.6 percent higher than the same period last year, the BSP added. Besides expectations of a four percent decline this year, remittances have continued to defy projections. This has prompted the BSP to say that its zero growth prediction for this year was already considered conservative. Remittance growth was brought about by increased remittances from both sea and land-based workers, who were reported to have hiked money they sent home by 2.5 and 2.6 percent, respectively, the BSP said.

Taiwan to hire more Pinoys

Taiwan is looking to hire Filipino migrant workers, the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) reported.

Antonio Basilio, MECO managing director and resident representative, noted that Taiwanese companies continue to recruit qualified talents, notwithstanding the slowing economy. “The Filipinos are among the most experienced, skilled and highly educated workers in the market today and as such, the job fairs that we held in recent weeks received great support from the recruitment and business community. The positive response from our fellow OFWs was also immediate,” Basilio said.

Labor Secretary Roque disclosed that around 50 percent of the retrenched overseas Filipino workers at the onset of the crisis are now being rehired, particularly in Taiwan. “Based on the latest inventories of the export sectors, especially in Taiwan’s electronics and textile industries, the production is now low and as such, they would need additional workers to manufacture their products,” Roque said.

Saudi needs 1,000 Filipina nurses

The Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is in urgent need of female nurses to fill up some 1,000 positions in its government hospitals, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administrator said. Applicants should be licensed nurses with at least one year hospital experience, and should not be more than 45 years old. The POEA said qualified nurses may personally submit their documents, including a detailed resume with job description, school credentials, employment certificates, copy of passport, and two pieces of 2×2 recent photo at the Manpower Registry Division, Window M at the ground floor lobby of the POEA building on Ortigas Avenue corner Edsa in Mandaluyong City.

The Ministry of Health of KSA offers benefits that include annual paid vacation, free economy round trip ticket, housing and transportation allowance, and yearly renewal of contract.

More registration centers for OFWs proposed

Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said mobile voters registration centers should be put in place in areas with huge numbers of Filipino overseas workers. Pimentel proposed that Philippine embassies and consulates abroad set up these centers to encourage more OFWs to register and exercise their right of suffrage. “In Saudi Arabia and the US, for example, there are Filipinos who live in states or provinces that are too far away from the Philippine embassy or consulate, which are the designated registration and voting centers,” Pimentel said.

He stressed that the deficiencies in the Overseas Absentee Voting Act (Republic Act 9189) should be corrected to encourage Filipinos abroad to vote and to help them overcome problems in registering and casting their ballots.

“Unless these flaws are rectified by amendment of the law if necessary or by action of the COMELEC (Commission on Elections) where possible a huge number of qualified overseas Filipinos will be deterred from availing of their right to vote for national government officials in their homeland,” said Pimentel.

Overseas absentee voters crucial in 2010 polls

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) expects some 700,000 overseas absentee voters “to significantly influence” the outcome of next year’s presidential elections. “We are counting on over a million overseas Filipinos to sign up as absentee voters, and at least 70 percent of them to actually cast their vote. This is enough critical mass to considerably affect the selection of the next President,” said TUCP secretary-general and former Senator Ernesto Herrera. Overseas registration records as of middle of June, however, show that only some 100,000 overseas Filipinos have registered. Registration ends in August.

Herrera said TUCP had obtained feedback from labor posts abroad, indicating a surge in the number of overseas Filipinos, mostly migrant workers, seeking to enlist as absentee voters for the first time. He said the low absentee voter turnout in the 2007 mid-term elections was not surprising because the country’s top two posts were not at stake then.

“Next year, however, we expect (absentee) voter turnout to easily surpass the 64 percent (turnout) in the 2004 presidential polls,” Herrera said. Qualified overseas Filipinos have until Aug. 31 to register as absentee voters. The new listing began on Feb. 1.