MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / June 12, 2013) – The Philippines could experience a large-scale reverse migration of overseas Filipino workers or OFW in the coming months, according to Migrante.
The Filipino migrants’ rights group urged the Aquino government to prepare for the worst and mitigate its impact to OFWs and their dependents and to the country’s economy, in general.
MIGRANTE vice-chairperson John Leonard Monterona, also the group’s coordinator in the Middle East and North Africa, said: “The Philippines already witness the early stage of reverse migration among OFWs. The dilemma is that OFWs are coming home not for good, but for worse.”
Monterona said reverse migration has been noted and documented among OFWs in the Middle East, specifically in Saudi Arabia, due to the implementation of Kingdom’s Nitaqat law, which strictly requires the hiring of its own national over expatriate workers, coming to an end.
Monterona cited the displacement of thousands OFWs not only happening in Saudi Arabia, but also in Bahrain and Oman due to their intensified localization of its labor market giving priority the employment of their citizens over migrant workers.
And the OFWs in Bahamas also face the threat of being displaced and so is Egypt, Libya, and Syria which are affected by the so-called Arab Spring that forced thousands of OFWs to leave these countries.
“What’s happening in Saudi Arabia and other mid-east countries is actually the shrinking of labor markets, which immediate impact is jobs displacement,” Monterona said, adding at least around 120,000 OFWs were directly affected by Saudization, including the estimated 28,000 undocumented OFWs.
Around 12,000 OFWs have sought government’s assistance for repatriation with Philippine embassy, consular and labor officials, while others are trying to legalize their status by transferring to another sponsor for employment which the Saudi Labor ministry has allowed by giving 90-day grace period to fix illegal migrant workers status or leave the country.
More than 200 stranded OFWs were already repatriated from Saudi since April. While nearly 5,000 OFWs came home from Syria, while around 114 OFWs in Amman, Jordan are expected to be repatriated soon.
There are an estimated 2.3 million OFWs working in the Middle East, of which 1.5-M are in Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom has been the number 1 destination of OFWs since 1990s’ recently averaging 25,000 deployment every month.
“Unfortunately, OFWs reverse migration phenomenon has been interpreted wrongly by the current PNoy administration and its labor honchos to bolster their claim of economic growth, which we expect PNoy to cite this during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) next month. But, it’s a cheap shot and a mere spin,” Monterona lamented.
Monterona further said it’s a hard to reconcile OFWs ‘reverse migration for good’ with the country’s high unemployment amid 7.8% GDP growth during the 1st quarter of this year.
The country’s unemployed stood at 7.5% of the labor force, which means around 3 million, in April 2013 compared to 6.9% of the same month last year.
“Who didn’t want reverse migration for good? Yes, we still hope for it. But this will never happen if the country has only superficial GDP growth that only a few rich – the local big businessmen and multinational corporations -gains from it,” Monterona said.
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