THERE’S an emerging government policy shift on the deployment of Filipino workers to the Middle East. Recent statements of Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) chief Bernard Olalia were on sending to the Middle East more professionals and skilled workers instead of household service workers (HSWs).
If we shift the HSWs to other countries, those countries must be those which abide by international law on migrant workers. The new OFW strategy must include the upgrade of skills of HSWs. The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and other government training centers can redefine and upgrade HSWs to skilled workers equipped with core competencies on home economics, culinary arts, food safety, operation of household appliances and home office equipment, basic first aid, as well as health need of children, seniors, persons needing long-term home-based health care.
We must change the concept and perception of domestic workers as having no skills, low-skilled or semi-skilled. Taking care of an entire household requires competence and abilities, and the unquantifiable Filipino quality of compassionate care.
Upgrading of HSWs will also mean higher wages for them because their competencies can command better pay and benefits. Remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle East fell by $1.03 billion in the first 10 months of 2018. This Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) figures clearly show the need for a revised OFW policy to wean the country away from vulnerability to the economic fortunes of the Middle East. This must be done because OFWs pump much more funds into the Philippine economy than foreign investors.
Worldwide, OFW personal remittances totaled $26.5 billion from January to October 2018, while foreign direct investments summed up to $8.038 billion, latest BSP statistics indicate. For the Middle East from January to October 2018, cash remittances (sent through banks and money transfer conduits), stood at $5.43 billion in 2018, down from $6.46 billion in 2017. Remittances from Africa jumped 22.7 percent to $113.23 million from $92.3 million Europe remittances grew by 8.7 percent to $3.44 billion from $3.16 billion, boosted mainly by earnings of Filipino seafarers whose ships are registered in the Netherlands, Norway, Germany and Cyprus, but with significant amounts also from land-based workers, mostly from OFW professionals (nurses and engineers), some farmhands, and some household service workers.
But the priority list of alternative countries must include those states that are signatories to the international conventions on human rights, labor, social security, and migrant workers. The other criterion would be the economic growth prospects of the target host countries because that will determine how well they will be compensated for their services.
OFWs will go where they are respected, wanted, and well-paid.
