Russians study RP's labor export strategies
MANILA, Philippines - With almost ten percent of the Filipino population working or living abroad, even the Russians are looking up to the Philippines as the perfect migration model.
A 14-person Russian delegation sponsored by the World Bank went on a three-day visit to the Philippines this week to study the country’s migration strategies.
"We were picked as one of the model countries because we have a well-established migration management program. This has been our long-time activity," Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) chief Jennifer Manalili told GMANews.TV.
Manalili said the Russians toured the POEA premises, looked at the licensing and processing centers, and asked them a lot of questions.
“For them it was more like an explanatory thing because they wanted to know exactly how we do it," she said.
Aside from the POEA, the Russian delegation also went to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Department of Labor and Employment, Overseas Workers Welfare Association (OWWA), and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda).
Citing the visit as a “very interesting exchange," the POEA chief said she asked the World Bank to provide opportunities for the Philippines to learn the migration processes of other countries through such an exchange.
“It was a learning experience, that’s why I told the World Bank representatives to also consider us," said Manalili.
From stop-gap measure to permanent policy
Migrant workers started going to other countries in the 1970s, when then-Labor Secretary Blas Ople hatched the idea of deploying Filipino workers to the Middle East as a temporary solution to the unemployment problem in the country.
But thirty years later, what was supposed to be a stop-gap measure against unemployment has become a permanent government policy.
Government agencies like the POEA, OWWA and the DFA Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs were set up to aid overseas Filipino workers (OFW).
Last December, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Administrative Order 247 that transformed the POEA's regulatory functions into “full-blast" marketing efforts.
She also instructed Tesda to “intensify its skills retraining and skills upgrading program" to complement the labor marketing efforts of the POEA.
Price to pay
The International Labor Organization and the International Organization on Migration have commended the Philippines for its handling of workers' migration.[See: RP's migration program seen as model - DoLE exec]
But migrant and militant groups have criticized the Philippine government for allegedly making its citizens pay for its policy of sending more and more Filipino workers abroad in order to keep the economy afloat.
Fr. Fabio Baggio of the Scalabrini Migration Center has previously said the Philippine government’s enthusiasm for the increased deployment of more highly skilled and professional migrants should be reviewed in the light of the political consequences of the brain drain and “professional exodus."
In addition, he said the government’s reliance on migrants’ remittances has progressively taken the appearance of economic dependence.
“At the macroeconomic level, for the last years the surge in remittances has been boosting the Philippine peso, easing the foreign debt burden and taming national inflation," he said.
In 2008, OFWs remitted about US$16.43 billion or almost P800 billion.
The POEA said 1,236,013 Filipino workers were deployed abroad last year, representing a 14.7 percent increase from 2007.
The Philippines has become one of the countries with the biggest number of migrant workers. The others are India, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Jordan and Sri Lanka. - GMANews.TV
A 14-person Russian delegation sponsored by the World Bank went on a three-day visit to the Philippines this week to study the country’s migration strategies.
"We were picked as one of the model countries because we have a well-established migration management program. This has been our long-time activity," Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) chief Jennifer Manalili told GMANews.TV.
Manalili said the Russians toured the POEA premises, looked at the licensing and processing centers, and asked them a lot of questions.
“For them it was more like an explanatory thing because they wanted to know exactly how we do it," she said.
Aside from the POEA, the Russian delegation also went to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Department of Labor and Employment, Overseas Workers Welfare Association (OWWA), and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda).
Citing the visit as a “very interesting exchange," the POEA chief said she asked the World Bank to provide opportunities for the Philippines to learn the migration processes of other countries through such an exchange.
“It was a learning experience, that’s why I told the World Bank representatives to also consider us," said Manalili.
From stop-gap measure to permanent policy
Migrant workers started going to other countries in the 1970s, when then-Labor Secretary Blas Ople hatched the idea of deploying Filipino workers to the Middle East as a temporary solution to the unemployment problem in the country.
But thirty years later, what was supposed to be a stop-gap measure against unemployment has become a permanent government policy.
Government agencies like the POEA, OWWA and the DFA Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs were set up to aid overseas Filipino workers (OFW).
Last December, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Administrative Order 247 that transformed the POEA's regulatory functions into “full-blast" marketing efforts.
She also instructed Tesda to “intensify its skills retraining and skills upgrading program" to complement the labor marketing efforts of the POEA.
Price to pay
The International Labor Organization and the International Organization on Migration have commended the Philippines for its handling of workers' migration.[See: RP's migration program seen as model - DoLE exec]
But migrant and militant groups have criticized the Philippine government for allegedly making its citizens pay for its policy of sending more and more Filipino workers abroad in order to keep the economy afloat.
Fr. Fabio Baggio of the Scalabrini Migration Center has previously said the Philippine government’s enthusiasm for the increased deployment of more highly skilled and professional migrants should be reviewed in the light of the political consequences of the brain drain and “professional exodus."
In addition, he said the government’s reliance on migrants’ remittances has progressively taken the appearance of economic dependence.
“At the macroeconomic level, for the last years the surge in remittances has been boosting the Philippine peso, easing the foreign debt burden and taming national inflation," he said.
In 2008, OFWs remitted about US$16.43 billion or almost P800 billion.
The POEA said 1,236,013 Filipino workers were deployed abroad last year, representing a 14.7 percent increase from 2007.
The Philippines has become one of the countries with the biggest number of migrant workers. The others are India, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Jordan and Sri Lanka. - GMANews.TV
Comments