There’s a fine line separating hero and martyr.  From a macro view, overseas Filipino workers are indeed “unsung heroes” but look micro, at individuals, and you find silent martyrs.

Some nine million Filipinos work overseas, annually sending home about US$17 billion, just a bit smaller than the value of our agriculture and fishery industries output.  Thanks to worker remittances, Balance of Payments, Gross National Product, income and employment, exchange rate, prices—all economic indicators in fact—are in fine shape.  Our unsung heroes keep the county’s economy afloat.

To be an OFW, one has to have a waiting job, a passport and working visa, and a plane ticket.  These require time, patience, and money.  Think birth certificate; NBI/police/barangay clearance; bio-data; evidence of education, training and work experience; medical exam; trade test; pre-departure orientation.

One could exhaust family (or clan) savings, sell property, borrow at sky-high interest, to raise the P60+ thousand needed to cover recruitment fee (maximum—one month’s salary), health insurance premium and costs supposed to be borne by the prospective employer (but are ultimately charged to the worker anyway), e.g., airfare, working visa fee, POEA processing fee, OWWA membership contribution, etc.

There are circling vultures.  Stories abound of people getting fake passport, visa and plane tickets, of those who find themselves illegal entrants.  Some people supposedly paid US$500 to cross each of three borders only to be caught and deported back to the Philippines.

Many live miserably, work for abusive employers, get little job satisfaction—licensed teachers working as nannies, doctors as nurses, lawyers as clerks, master carpenters as peons—suffering discrimination and daily humiliations.

Earnings are not always that great even with moonlighting.  After paying for board, lodging and incidentals, and after setting aside loan amortization, an OFW could be sending home not much more than US$250 a month.  Savings could be dissipated on pasalubong, balato, good time.

The personal and social costs of family separation are heavy and worrying.  Children grow up fatherless or motherless, undisciplined and unguided.  Lonely spouse, whether overseas or stay-at-home, finds a short-term love.  Special problems arise when both parents leave and children are left with grandparents or other relatives.  A mendicancy mind-set develops, with spouse and children simply waiting for a monthly check, whining with delay.

School administrators report how the relatively rich OFW children seem not to care about learning, content with coasting along and expecting an indefinite flow of support from absent parents.

There is increasing competition from other countries’ workers, but we will no doubt hold our own in terms of total workers deployed, total remittances received.  Many rich countries function smoothly only with workers from elsewhere.  We could therefore be okay from a macroeconomic standpoint, but zoom in on individuals and you could find parents with little income and no savings, untrained and aimless children.

It is sad that there are not enough jobs to keep our best people from leaving, tragic that many in the next generation are growing up in broken homes, growing up dependent.

Comments are cordially invited, addressed to walalang@mb.com.ph.