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The social costs of being Filipino migrants abroad
A POINT OF AWARENESS By Preciosa S. Soliven | Updated October 30, 2008 - 12:00am 0 0 googleplus0 0
Launched in 2002 by Philippine Social Science Council (PSSC), the book – Filipinos in Global Migration: At Home in the World? – a book project of the Philippine Migration Research Network (PMRN), brings together writings about Filipino migrants all over the world by non-Filipino scholars published in international journals between 1986 and 2000. Dr. Filomeno V. Aguilar Jr., the editor, should be commended for bringing home this collection of thoughtful articles which is a homecoming of sorts, isang maligayang pagbalik!
According to the 1995 Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, the Philippines has the largest population of deployed migrant workers. Today, there are more than 11 million overseas Filipinos worldwide. They work as doctors, nurses, accountants, IT professionals, engineers, architects, entertainers, technicians, teachers, military servicemen, students, caregivers, domestic helpers and household maids. The exodus includes an increasing number of skilled workers, particularly in the health and education sectors.
Trying to conform
In 1971, when Armando Alvarez was five years old, the family left Cebu City and settled in Los Angeles where his mother found work at a local hospital as a nurse. His father was less fortunate. A civil engineer with ten years experience, he was unemployed for the first eight months. He secured an entry-level engineering position in a nearby city only after he worked first as a draftsman. The family then moved to a middle-class, all-white neighborhood.
“Being in an all-white environment when I was not white has, in a lot of ways, helped to retard my own sense of myself as a Filipino,” Armando complained. “When I was in high school, I did a lot of things that were almost anti-Filipino. I didn’t hang around Filipinos nor join Filipino organizations. I just wasn’t very proud
A POINT OF AWARENESS By Preciosa S. Soliven | Updated October 30, 2008 - 12:00am 0 0 googleplus0 0
Launched in 2002 by Philippine Social Science Council (PSSC), the book – Filipinos in Global Migration: At Home in the World? – a book project of the Philippine Migration Research Network (PMRN), brings together writings about Filipino migrants all over the world by non-Filipino scholars published in international journals between 1986 and 2000. Dr. Filomeno V. Aguilar Jr., the editor, should be commended for bringing home this collection of thoughtful articles which is a homecoming of sorts, isang maligayang pagbalik!
According to the 1995 Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, the Philippines has the largest population of deployed migrant workers. Today, there are more than 11 million overseas Filipinos worldwide. They work as doctors, nurses, accountants, IT professionals, engineers, architects, entertainers, technicians, teachers, military servicemen, students, caregivers, domestic helpers and household maids. The exodus includes an increasing number of skilled workers, particularly in the health and education sectors.
Trying to conform
In 1971, when Armando Alvarez was five years old, the family left Cebu City and settled in Los Angeles where his mother found work at a local hospital as a nurse. His father was less fortunate. A civil engineer with ten years experience, he was unemployed for the first eight months. He secured an entry-level engineering position in a nearby city only after he worked first as a draftsman. The family then moved to a middle-class, all-white neighborhood.
“Being in an all-white environment when I was not white has, in a lot of ways, helped to retard my own sense of myself as a Filipino,” Armando complained. “When I was in high school, I did a lot of things that were almost anti-Filipino. I didn’t hang around Filipinos nor join Filipino organizations. I just wasn’t very proud