The profile of Filipino migrant workers has, altogether changed and improved over the years, a study conducted by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) showed.

Compared to their domestic counterparts, Filipino temporary migrant workers are shown to be “younger” and “better educated” with around seven of every 10 migrant workers are of ages between 24 and 44 years old and half of them having at least some tertiary education.

“Temporary labor migration is likewise selective of sex, with majority of them being women,” said PIDS senior researcher Dr. Aniceto Orbeta Jr. and research analyst Michael Ralph Abrigo’s study, titled “Philippine International Labor Migration in the Past 30 Years: Trends and Prospects.”

Orbeta and Abrigo’s research also maintained that labor migration has helped mold the country’s economy in the last three decades and is recognized as an “enduring” feature of Philippine development.