Overseas Filipino Totally Explained

Everything about Overseas Filipino totally explained

An Overseas Filipino is a person of Philippine origin who lives outside of the Philippines. This term applies both to people of Filipino ancestry who now live and reside as citizens of a different country, and those who continue to be Filipino citizens and those supporting their families back in the Philippines. It may also extend to Filipinos having extended holidays abroad, however, common usage doesn't usually include this group.
The term Global Filipino is now also being used to refer to a Filipino citizen who lives and works abroad. The performance of the Philippine economy over recent decades, combined with a widespread knowledge of English, a legacy of the Philippines' position as a former United States colony, have made Filipinos one of the most internationally mobile nationalities. Filipino workers greatly contribute to this, as they need to support their families back at home. As a result, many countries around the world have a substantial Filipino community. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently coined the term Overseas Filipino Investor or OFI for Filipino expatriates. This is due to the direct economic contributions of Overseas Filipinos in means of remittances, buying property back in the Philippines, and creating businesses that would help job creation back home.

Population in Diaspora

There are more than 11 million overseas Filipinos worldwide, about 11% of the total population of the Philippines.

Overseas Filipino Workers

An Overseas Filipino Worker (often abbreviated as OFW) is a Filipino who is employed in work outside the Philippines. Some eight million Filipinos, out of a population of 80 million, have left the country to seek work abroad, attracted by jobs with salaries that far exceed those of jobs available in the Philippines. These jobs often include nursing, technology, fishing, and teaching, although a third are composed of unskilled workers. This makes the country the fourth largest recipient of foreign remittances behind India, China, and Mexico. The amount represents 13.5% of the Philippines' GDP, the largest in proportion to the domestic economy among the four countries mentioned.
However, the exodus of workers from the country includes an increasing number of skilled workers taking on unskilled work overseas, resulting in what has been referred to as "brain drain," particularly in the health and education sectors. Also, the exodus can result in underemployment, for example, in cases where doctors undergo retraining to become nurses.

Nations with large Filipino constituencies

United States. Despite race relations problems of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the American Northwest, most Filipino Americans today find it easy to integrate with American society, with a majority belonging in the upper middle class. The Filipino population in the U.S. is estimated to be 2,807,731. Filipinos remain as the second-largest Asian American group in the country; Tagalog is the fifth most spoken language in the U.S. Filipinas comprise a large portion of the roughly 4,000-6,000 women who annually come to the U.S. via international marriage agencies. The US State Department raised its estimate to 4 million Filipinos in the US as of 2007.

United Kingdom Nurses and caregivers have begun flocking into the United Kingdom in recent years. The island-nation has welcomed about 20,000 nurses and other Filipinos of various employment and lifestyle during the past 5 years. According to news reports, the United Kingdom is home to around 200,000 OFWs. See also: Filipino British

Iraq. In spite of the Philippine government ban on OFWs working in Iraq, an estimated 1,000-3,000 Filipinos work there. Most work on US Military bases around the country as cooks and laundry service, sometimes as third-country national security guards. This is the only foreign nation in which Filipino men outnumber Filipino women.

Canada. Only a small population of Filipinos resided in Canada until the late 20th century. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration has estimated that as of 2006 there were over 400,000 Canadians of Filipino origin.

Hong Kong. There are approximately 140,000 Filipinos in Hong Kong, of whom most are domestic helpers (30,000 of them being members of the Filipino Migrant Workers Union). Filipino maids are known by the locals as amahs, or more often feiyungs (less politely bun mui or bun bun). A Hong Kong work visa requires some amount of higher education; and in some cases Filipino women with college degrees and perfect command of English are willing to work as maids and nannies for a salary higher than they could make at home in professions.

Singapore. As many as 136,000 Overseas Filipinos work and reside in the nation-state of Singapore. Moreover, about 200,000 Filipinos visit the country annually, making them one of the biggest foreign tourists of Singapore.

Taiwan. According to the 2006 data of the government of Taiwan, there are 96,000 Filipinos currently living in Taiwan. Of these, 58,704 are in manufacturing industries and 34,602 are in social or personal services (for example maids). However, according to 2004 data by the Philippine Government, there are 2,037 Filipinos living in Taiwan permanently, 154,135 are in Taiwan for work contracts, and 4,500 go to Taiwan irregularly, which make a total of 160,672. It isn't known why there's such a big difference between these two numbers (96,000 vs. 160,672).

Middle East. Many Filipinos work in the Middle East (mostly Saudi Arabia and UAE) as engineers, nurses or hospital workers, accountants, office workers, construction workers, restaurant workers and maids. It is estimated that more than 2 million Filipinos have made the Middle East their home.

Japan Some 250,000 Filipinos and people of mixed Filipino and Japanese descent are listed to be living within Japan's geographic confines. However, this number is speculated to be larger, surpassing the one million mark, in relation to many unlisted and illegal Filipino nationals in the Land of the Rising Sun.

South Korea According to the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, as of December 2006, some 70,000 Filipinos work and live in Korea. Of this number, some 6,000 are permanent residents, some 50,000 work legally, and some 14,000 are "irregular" or don't have the proper documents. and kidnappings. Saudi Arabia, and Sarah Balabagan. The Philippine government NGOs catered for them, such as Migrante and Gabriela. are also present. Action by the government on these cases have had mixed results with some OFWs returning to the country happy
Other problems faced by OFWs today include the risk of involvement in a conflict and Nigeria.
Another great risk for OFW's is the rise of Filipina women becoming sex slaves in neighboring East Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea. Thousands of Filipina women travel abroad for domestic work only to be tricked by their foreign employers into sexual slavery. The employer takes their passports, holds wages or physically abuses them all together in order to force them into submission. With the rise of unemployment, alcoholism with Filipino men and government corruption, more and more Filipinos are traveling abroad and increasing the risk of OFW women being sexually abused.

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