THE COST OF EXPORTING FILIPINOS

The ever growing number of OFW’s contribution to the Philippine economy astounds me. Not the sheer size of the figure and the surrounding hoopla about it but the social cost to Filipino society that everyone seems to have conveniently overlooked. Nobody ever talks about the social costs. We are all blinded by the money that the export of Filipino labor brings back to us.

Is exporting Filipinos abroad really a viable and sensible long-term solution to the problem we face at home which is - WE ARE UNABLE TO CREATE ENOUGH JOBS FOR OUR PEOPLE. A PEOPLE WHO ARE GROWING AT AN ALARMINGLY FASTER RATE THAN WE CAN SUPPLY RESOURCES TO THEM.

Bear with me for a moment and think hard about this. For every Filipino and Filipina, who is married with a family, we ship abroad in exchange for their precious foreign currency, there is a family left behind in the Philippines. A family that is without a father, without a mother (possibly without both father and mother), without a husband, without a wife. Children left behind with now more cash than they need but relegated to secondary caretakers. Even if it were the grandparents or aunts and uncles who raised these children, do you really think that they are better off with a more lavish life but growing up without their parents?

Spouses left behind by themselves who now have the solo burden of raising their children. Is this really a good formula for inspiring fidelity in a marriage, a union one commits to because of togetherness and partnership?

I am not a parent yet but I can tell you one thing from my own experience being a child - children need role models in their parents. I have changed dramatically in certain respects having lived abroad from ages 17-34, but the core of me has stayed the same. Many many thanks to both my parents’ hard work, time and dedication to raising me full-time and hands-on.

People always think that they are automatically better off when they have more money. Truth of the matter is, you are in some ways because you can buy more things, more vacations, more luxuries and more comforts. In other ways, the cause of happiness in life has no relation whatsoever to money. Studies across cultures and ages have shown that the main drivers of happiness are personal/professional fulfillment, spiritual well being, good relationships and feeling of belonging & contributing to a community.

If this were not the case, you would find a direct correlation between how much money people have and how happy they are. If you’ve been around insanely wealthy people (like I have because I worked in private banking in the U.S.), you would know that the correlation might even go in the opposite direction. More money, more complications in life and therefore, more misery. What a paradox!

At my age of 38, I have come to the conclusion that money can indeed buy you out of many unhappy situations because it gives you freedom. The unfortunate thing is it cannot buy you happiness. For this reason, it makes me terribly sad that we are celebrating the fragmentation of Filipino families and Filipino society in exchange for money.

In the future, I think we may look back and say it wasn't really worth it......We should start asking the important questions now as to what kind of generation of children we are raising – children whose parents are “out of reach” because they have been exported.

Tina Vitas
Makati City