No longer women, but more men become OFWs

MANILA, Philippines - It's no longer women, but men who are leaving in droves to become overseas Filipino workers. According to Carmelita Dimzon, deputy administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), male OFWs are more in-demand now due to the changing labor demands abroad. “High-value jobs like health care and skilled workers are more in-demand overseas," Dimzon told GMANews.TV in an interview on Tuesday. From January to August this year, a total of 884,907 Filipinos went overseas for employment, which is a 26.4 percent increase from 699,937 in the same period last year. Dimzon said 60 percent of the deployed OFWs this year were males. She said the 47 percent decrease in the number of Filipino women leaving the country could be attributed to the policy reforms that the POEA had implemented in 2007, including salary adjustments of household service workers. Even the number of Filipina entertainers – mostly in Japan - had dropped significantly from 80,000 in 2005 to 7,000 in 2007. The POEA is optimistic that the number of Filipinos deployed abroad would reach 1.1 million by year end. Asked whether a resurgence of the feminization of OFWs would happen with Filipinas taking manual labor such as welding, Dimzon said: “I don’t think [Middle East countries like] Saudi Arabia will take female construction workers. Maybe in the United States." The deployment of more female OFWs began in the late 1970s with the rise of newly-industrialized countries like Taiwan, Singapore and Japan. Most of the female workers were employed in low-skilled or unskilled labor. Although female overseas workers sent the bulk of remittances based on a 2007 report by the World Bank, most of these women were subjected to "dirty, demeaning, and dangerous" jobs. The upsurge of female deployment caused serious strains in OFW families. The departure of mothers have redefined their traditional roles as the primary caregivers by taking on the position of the father as the main provider. Dr Lourdes Arellano-Carandang, who did a case study on families left behind by OFW mothers, explained that when fathers take most of the jobs abroad, it left only a little dent on the Filipino family because fathers are generally perceived as income providers. “However, when mothers left, the entire family had to adjust. They may have the money but the family is sad because the mother is gone. Is that fair?" said Carandang. No celebration There is, however, no reason to celebrate about the "de-feminization" of overseas labor, according to the Development Action for Women Network (DAWN), a non-government organization assisting Filipino migrants. Carmelita Nuqui, DAWN executive director, told GMANews.TV that any member of the family who leaves for work abroad is a concern that should be addressed by the government. “Even the men are members of the family," Nuqui said, “Men are fathers too." “The government should monitor its policies. Even if the men are the ones leaving, they still undergo hardships at work," she said. Also, according to Nuqui, DAWN has yet to feel the magnitude of the de-feminization of OFWs because thousands of females still look for jobs abroad even if it means their being vulnerable to abuse and exploitation like those OFW runaways in Jordan. - GMANews.TV