By Derco Rosal
Working abroad will become “a choice rather than a necessity”—a promise the Marcos administration made in December 2022. It was in the same year that Aileen Cerilo, a Filipino teacher, decided to fly back to China for a better job opportunity.
Recently, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that the number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) expanded by 9.8 percent to 2.16 million from April to September 2023.
Of these, 1.2 million, or more than half, were women. Aileen is one of them.
Leaving on a jet plane
Perhaps not as emotional as John Denver leaving his loved one, Aileen had to pack her bags and bid goodbye to her colleagues and family to chase her dream of becoming a teacher. With her leaving was a sworn commitment to send her sister to a prominent state university and a promise to come back with more to offer.
"But she could be a teacher in the Philippines," you might say. In fact, she had worked as a private tutor fresh off graduation.
While still finding her footing in her career, she received a call from her sister, who was working in China. Before long, she found herself teaching children in Zhengzhou, a city seven hours away from Beijing.
“I can say it’s more convenient here,” Aileen said when asked about the upsides of working abroad.
Securing a job abroad is dependent mainly on qualifications and proper documentation, she said,
For three years, Aileen longed to return to the Philippines "for good.” When she saw a chance, she came home and began working for a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company.
“However, because of the salary differences between the Philippines and abroad, I decided to go back to China.”
Aileen left on a jet plane twice, realizing that local jobs don’t offer the same pay as those in other countries.
What drives Filipinos away
“The surge of Filipinos working overseas is driven by factors such as limited local job opportunities, economic inequality, and the desire for higher earnings to mitigate the cost of living,” Robert Dan J. Roces, Chief Economist at Security Bank Corp. asserted.
Michael Ricafort, Chief Economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), also believes that even though the cost of living might be higher where OWFs work, they often find higher wages in other countries, which helps them support their families back home.
Aileen knows several Filipino teachers living abroad and understands why, despite working for many years, they have no plans to return home anytime soon.
In talking with her, they mentioned that they are enjoying it there. Compared to teaching in the Philippines, the workload and paperwork are easier and more manageable, which helps reduce stress.
“And they earn more,” came the concluding tail to the explanation.
To choose this land
In an attempt to create more jobs, the Philippine government has updated remote work policies and introduced measures like the Apprenticeship Bill and Lifelong Learning Bill to better support workers.
The Trabaho Para sa Bayan (TPB) Act also aims to increase employment by improving skills, supporting small businesses, and attracting high-value jobs in areas such as BPO and healthcare.
These efforts could help reduce the need for Aileen’s countrymen to go abroad to earn a living.
“While government initiatives aim to reduce this trend, their effectiveness remains limited,” Roces said.
Thus, besides creating more jobs, Roces believes that to make working in the Philippines more appealing, policymakers should also focus on improving regional development.
They also need to support skills training, entrepreneurship, wage increases, and address corruption and infrastructure problems.
A ‘win-win’ setup: A view from the other side
With more Filipinos working overseas, Ricafort offered a different take on the implications. He noted that there are many local workers available who could be deployed to developed countries facing aging populations and labor shortages.
“This is a win-win for both the host countries for OFWs and for the Philippines,” Ricafort asserted.
He explained that OFWs send home over $40 billion yearly in remittances, making it the fourth highest in the world.
These remittances boost the Philippine economy, supporting local wealth and spending, which makes up over 70 percent of the country's economy.
In the previous year, 69.1 percent of cash remittances from OFWs—amounting to P129.20 billion—came from Asian countries, including China, where Aileen works.
Ricafort added that the “demographic sweet spot,” or more than half of the population being of working age, supports the country's strong economic growth and development. As a result, “this makes the country among the fastest growing economies in ASEAN/Asia.”
Now this begs the question: “Will this going to become an encouragement for OCWs like Aileen to stay miles away from the Philippines?”
No.
Will country roads take her home?
Even with his arguments, Ricafort also believes that in the coming years, “there would still be more Filipinos to take the opportunity to earn more for their families.”
Many will take advantage of opportunities in countries with attractive immigration policies, such as good healthcare, education, and social benefits.
Some of these workers might retire back in the Philippines or become entrepreneurs and investors, bringing their savings home and contributing to the country’s economy, the economist said.
Aileen’s plans to return to the Philippines might get delayed, and her stay in China stretched.
She said the competitive employment in the Department of Education (DepEd) discourages her to enter the realm of public teaching in her own rural town in the Southern region of Luzon.
“I would return to our country once I have saved enough to settle down,” she said. To her, the timeframe for that remains indefinite.