At Home sa Abroad: Is exporting Filipino workers a good thing?

MANILA, Philippines – Months before he became president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. made it clear that he wanted to export Filipino workers just like his father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Under the term of the elder Marcos, labor export became a pillar of economic development. Today, overseas Filipinos are sending billions of dollars in remittances each month. They sent a record $31.4 billion in cash in 2021, helping the Philippines bounce back from the economic crunch brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, with a department dedicated solely to the needs of overseas Filipino workers, the Philippines’ plan to export more workers is in full swing. Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople said her department hopes to deploy more OFWs in 2023, noting that the Philippines fielded more than 486,000 OFWs from July to November 2022. 

Is exporting Filipino workers a good thing?

In this episode of At Home sa Abroad: Stories of Overseas Filipinos, Rappler multimedia reporter Michelle Abad speaks to Jean Franco, political science professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman, to unpack labor export and its nuances.

At Home sa Abroad: Stories of Overseas Filipinos is Rappler’s one-stop video podcast for all things Filipino diaspora. – Rappler.com

Watch other At Home sa Abroad episodes:

• What OFWs expect from new Department of Migrant Workers
• How this leadership program helped Fil-Ams connect with their roots
• How is the local economic crisis affecting OFWs?
• Inside a migration reporter’s notebook
• The Filipino diaspora through a migrant’s eyes