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The Filipino Family in the Age of Globalization

The Filipino Family in the Age of Globalization:
How Labor Migration Affects the Family


Globalization is a phenomenon that affects many facets of society. Part of the social dimension of globalization is the social cost to families resulting from the internationalization of labor. There are now more than nine million documented Filipino migrant workers (FMW) in more than 180 countries all over the world. As of mid-year 2003, the Central Bank of the Philippines estimated that the foreign exchange inflows from these workers comprised 85% of the country's gross earnings. With the country's unemployment rate of 12.7% second half of 2003, "Filipino labor migration appears unstoppable, and will likely make the Philippines retain its standing in the years ahead as the world's second largest exporter of human capital, next only to Mexico" (Macaranas, 2004, p. 99). Migrant labor has become a "solution" to the high unemployment rate in the Philippines.

Labor migration causes long separation from the home country and from families. FMWs have to cope with loneliness, insecurity or terror as unprotected guest workers in foreign lands (Binghay, 2005; David, 2002). Women and children are especially vulnerable to trafficking for illegal employment (Abella, 2002).

A survey on overseas Filipino workers (OFW) conducted by the National Statistics Office revealed that despite the increasing number of female OFWs, there are still more male-headed OFW families, meaning, more male spouses work overseas more than female spouses (Morada, 2003). OFW spouses are relatively younger. Male OFW spouses are likely to be in the age 41 while the female spouses are 38.6 years old.

Households have an average of 3 children. When asked about the presence of children aged less than 7 years old, it was found out that male-headed households have the greatest number of children aged less 7 years. This may be explained by the fact that child-rearing is still left to mainly to the mother so she stays behind while the husband leaves for abroad (Morada, 2003).

These findings have important implications. Overseas Filipino worker families are young families with children who are at childhood or adolescent stages. These are the stages where the presence and guidance of parents is important to raise well-functioning children.

Because of the distance in time and space, migrant workers do their best to connect to their home country. One sociological truth is that Filipinos are close-knit families and no matter how far they are, manage to communicate with loved ones they left in their homes.



References

Abella, Manolo. (2002). International migration of labour: A brief survey of trends and
issues. In G. Gust, G. Maayo, R. Ofreneo, J. Sibal (Eds), Changing work and
employment relations in a globalizing Asia: Towards decency and fairness.
Quezon City: University of the Philippines School of Labor and Industrial
Relations.

Binghay, Virgel C. (2005). Protecting overseas Filipino workers in the context of a
globalized economy. Philippine Journal of Labor and Industrial Relations,
25 (1&2).

David, Randolf. (2002). Nation, self and citizenship: An invitation to Philippine
Sociology. Pasig City: Anvil Publishing Inc.

Posted by: Anastasia T. Ray

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