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| OFWs at the airport. Courtesy of antipinoy.com |
I sat beside a good friend of mine, a
former student, and a former associate of my consulting firm Step Up Consulting
Services, in one of my regular plane rides to Bohol one sunny weekend. We talked about many things but one thing
that stayed on me until now is the realisation that several of my students are
already out of the country to permanently live and work elsewhere. She herself is starting her own process of
migrating and even encouraged me to do so.
She said, “I already lost hope in this country”.
It’s disturbing to hear these statements
from exemplary young people whom we need in order to make that big turn-around
in this country. It is already even disappointing to see them leave Bohol and
work elsewhere as their competencies are those that we need in several public
and private entities within the province.
Our human resources are one of our greatest assets and watching
Boholanos leave the province, much more this country, is sad in itself.
Interestingly, it has been said that Boholanos
are the first recorded OFWs. In 1800s, skilled Boholanos were recruited as pearl
divers to work in Australia (Santiago 2003).
Since then, throngs of Boholanos have already left Bohol to live
elsewhere in the country (the phenomenon of internal migration) or abroad (external
migration). The old joke that if all
Boholanos all over the world will go home to Bohol, the Bohol islands will
sink, may be true.
OFWs in Bohol plays a pivotal role in its
economy. The same case can be true also to this country. In recent financial crises, it has been
argued that OFW remittances cushioned the country from experiencing deep shocks
brought about by the volatility in the market.
The effect
of remittances - income transfers of migrant workers to their families – to
improvements in living condition can not be ignored in the Philippines
(Rodriguez 1998). An empirical study
(Yang and Martinez 2005) shows that increases in household remittance receipts
resulted to “reduction in poverty migrant’s origin households”. Moreover, transfer incomes from abroad are
not only found to have decreased poverty but also encouraged greater
investments in education of recipient households, “the so-called ex-ante brain
effect” (Sawada and Estudillo 2006).
Quantitative evidence in Bohol exists to support the claim that
remittances from OFWs have positive impact on poverty reduction. The Peace
Equity Access for Community Empowerment Foundation study on levels of
deprivation in the province (2004) showed that 75% of the poorest
municipalities have very low percentages of migrant workers, between 2.9% to 6%
of the total municipal population.
Likewise, 60% of the better-off municipalities have high
OFW-to-population ratio ranging from 9% to 22.
In another study (HNUCRLG 2004), the presence of migrant workers in
the family was one of the indicators used to compare development performance in
the years 2001 and 2003. The study
revealed that in 2003, the number of migrant workers in District 1 and 2
increased by 67% and 173% respectively as compared to 2001. However, the number of migrant workers in
District 2 decreased by 67% in the same period.
It is to be remembered that among the three districts, poverty incidence
is at its highest in District 2 and poverty reduction in this District between
2003 and 2001 did not significantly improve.
While these figures are insufficient to
explain improvements in living condition, because they only represent number of
workers but not remittance value, it suggests that Yang’s and Martinez’ theory
may be applicable. However, even when
remittance value can be obtained, the “ex-ante brain effect” may not
necessarily materialize since it may not necessarily equate to utilization in education.
However, despite lack of causality, the figures tell something which may
support an anthropological observation that there are many decent and even
extravagant houses in Bohol because of OFWs.
But these economic effects come at a great
expense. I do not want to elaborate here
the social costs of having parents working outside of the country. I am more concerned however, that the “ex-ante
brain effect” will be submerged by the loss of skills and talent that happens
because of people working outside, and by the prospect of those educated out of
OFW remittances to leave the province or country and spend the rest of their
lives elsewhere. I call this the cyclical negative effect of out-migration
which can diminish the number of skilled, talented, and competent people at
present but will also result to another wave of loss in succeeding cycles.
Simply put, if a young woman migrates and sends money to her family back home
for schooling of her siblings, and the siblings as a result of education are
more positioned to migrate and later do so, then the out-migration yields not
just a single but a double effect which can continue in a cycle.
Considering the push (e.g. hardships, lack
of opportunities in Bohol) and pull factors of migration (e.g. better life in
Davao, Cebu, Manila, or in other countries), this is not far from
happening. Bohol’s primary economic
drivers are agriculture and tourism.
Agriculture, at one hand, has a declining relevance to the young, and
generates least attraction as a job or livelihood option. Tourism,
on the other hand, will reach a saturation point for it to be sustainable. One can only have as many tourist spots and
establishments as the carrying capacity of the province. This, besides the fact that because of
inadequate labour absorption (i.e. more employable people than number of jobs),
tourism establishments here pay very small when compared to other cities which
then becomes another push factor. It can
be possible that if trends will continue, there will be more young people
leaving Bohol than those staying; the more brains lost, the lesser people to
build a stronger provincial economy. It
is possible, that at a provincial scale, Bohol will experience a demographic
problem, where dependency ratio is high as most of the productive workforce
resides elsewhere and only the young children and the old retiree, and a few of
the in-between remain.
I also left Bohol, in terms of work, both
caused by a push and a pull factor. My capacities
in Bohol are valued so outrageously low when compared to how it is valued
elsewhere. There is this economics of things that I, a father of two, have to
contend with. I need not elaborate the
circumstances that happened that led me to decide to leave Bohol, as a
professional, and work elsewhere. I
believe these are the same circumstances that many of us who chose to do work
outside of the province had to face.
On a larger scale, these push and pull
factors also enticed our young people not only to leave the province, but the
country. It is true there are still
opportunities for them here. But to get a raise or a promotion is so stiff
that one works hard for a small return. In other countries, an hour of work
equates a month of effort in this country, and social security systems are
good, crime rates are low, and while it snows some months of the year, one can
afford a comfortable bed, a thick duvet, and a good heating system with
uninterrupted power supply.
Who leaves? Those who can.
Who stays? Those who chose to do so, or
those who do not have a choice.
Indeed, even in our aspirations, the world
is so unequal. There are those who are
fortunate to be able to dream big and make their dreams come true.
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