Multi-layered diaspora
Multi-layered diaspora
Updated 07:26am (Mla time) Oct 21, 2004
By Juan Mercado
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on Page A12 of the October 21, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
HELEN Santiago-Sigua is a physician. She chairs the family medicine department of San Beda College and has a master's degree in hospital administration. So why is she not abroad-or taking a nursing course? Half of the members of her University of the Philippines class (Batch 1985) have gone.
"I stayed for the same reasons others left -- family," she writes. This includes a diabetic father who values a doctor-daughter's care, a husband professionally rooted locally, children getting "globally competitive education here." As a doctor and educator, she "manages to be happy, if not necessarily contented."
Such experiences are a backdrop for the Philippine College of Physicians' covenant for doctors where 6,000 of them pledged to work at home for at least three years. Philippine Medical Association records show that 2,000 doctors leave yearly.
Abroad, the demand for health-care givers, especially nurses, has soared. This spurs many, like Dr. Elmer Jacinto, who topped the 947 medical school graduates who hurdled the board exams, to work as a nurse. One in every five members of the Philippine Medical Association has enrolled in nursing schools (300 today from 127 a decade back).
But doctor-as-nurse is only one aspect of a multi-layered diaspora, say the Washington Post's Ellen Nakashima and Edward Cody in their article, "Filipinos Take 'Going Places' Literally."
"What makes Philippine migration remarkable is its scope," they write. "No other Asian country has so many types of workers-from nanny to engineer and circus performer in so many different places: Hong Kong to Italy, Chad to Khazakstan."
Lack of economic opportunity and "a sense of being a nation adrift" will drive about a million Filipinos abroad this year. Almost 38 out of every 100 Filipinos live below the poverty line. And OFW relatives bail them out.
Today, 35 percent who leave are professionals, including computer specialists and agricultural scientists. The top United Nations migration specialist is a Filipino: Manolo Abella of the International Labor Organization. The Philippines is now the world's top exporter of nurses.
Musicians and performers form a second layer. "Their architects, artists and musicians are more artistic than ours," former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew writes in his memoirs. Musicians on a Caribbean cruise ship were superb, my sister in Toronto wrote. "They were Cebuanos."
Domestic workers make up the third -- and largest -- layer. They hazard abuse to support families here. "Millions leave their country for jobs abroad beneath their level of education," Lee Kwan Yew noted.
Smell the demographics. Job creation lags behind population increases, which is inevitable when a demographic transition wobbles on its way to lower birth and death rates. "The country would explode if the flow of migrants were halted," write Marites Vitug and George Werhfritz in Newsweek's story on "Filipino Flight."
The central bank says OFW remittances reach almost $8 billion annually. When flows via unofficial channels are tacked on, the total can reach $14-21 billion, according to the Asian Development Bank.
Few assess the social costs, the Catholic Commission on Migrant Workers notes. Prolonged absence of parents results in many kids "becoming emotional orphans." They're more likely to commit crimes, take drugs or have children out of wedlock, reports Newsweek.
Government reaction has been schizophrenic. The health department says stay, while the labor department says go, the Washington Post noted. We want you here, the education department insists. The Overseas Economic Assistance Office snaps: No, we want you there.
The migrants go anyway. So, this diaspora will accelerate, given the current economic crunch and instability. Filipinos will continue to take your EKG in Amsterdam, pilot you in West Africa, manage cigarette factories in Korea, offer Mass in Addis Ababa, teach in Indonesia and sail those ocean vessels.
Realities are shaping policies of reluctant tolerance. Officials are short of long-range answers, probably, because there are none. At home, from health care to schooling, Filipinos rely on those who stay, like Dr. Helen Santiago-Sigua.
"Nursing is not lower in rank to physicians but a different aspect of the same calling," she points out. "We should not stereotype occupations ... When a doctor works as a nurse, he does not demean himself."
"What's happening to Filipino doctors is a symptom of a societal disease. Government must help physicians find meaning and reward. At this hour of need, we deserve more than a medical malpractice bill.
"Perhaps I'm still 'stuck' because I've managed not to get demoralized by our local situation. As a clinical professor and prefect of students, I realize we must inspire would-be physicians-not for cash, prestige or ease -- but to be 'doctors for the right reasons.'
"Being a doctor is a healing craft ... It's about alleviating pain and caring for creatures that may be the very least to society but most valuable to God. In fixing the body or mind, a doctor touches even the spirit, giving his profession almost magical dimensions. To perform this craft where it is most needed gives it its greater essence."
Updated 07:26am (Mla time) Oct 21, 2004
By Juan Mercado
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on Page A12 of the October 21, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
HELEN Santiago-Sigua is a physician. She chairs the family medicine department of San Beda College and has a master's degree in hospital administration. So why is she not abroad-or taking a nursing course? Half of the members of her University of the Philippines class (Batch 1985) have gone.
"I stayed for the same reasons others left -- family," she writes. This includes a diabetic father who values a doctor-daughter's care, a husband professionally rooted locally, children getting "globally competitive education here." As a doctor and educator, she "manages to be happy, if not necessarily contented."
Such experiences are a backdrop for the Philippine College of Physicians' covenant for doctors where 6,000 of them pledged to work at home for at least three years. Philippine Medical Association records show that 2,000 doctors leave yearly.
Abroad, the demand for health-care givers, especially nurses, has soared. This spurs many, like Dr. Elmer Jacinto, who topped the 947 medical school graduates who hurdled the board exams, to work as a nurse. One in every five members of the Philippine Medical Association has enrolled in nursing schools (300 today from 127 a decade back).
But doctor-as-nurse is only one aspect of a multi-layered diaspora, say the Washington Post's Ellen Nakashima and Edward Cody in their article, "Filipinos Take 'Going Places' Literally."
"What makes Philippine migration remarkable is its scope," they write. "No other Asian country has so many types of workers-from nanny to engineer and circus performer in so many different places: Hong Kong to Italy, Chad to Khazakstan."
Lack of economic opportunity and "a sense of being a nation adrift" will drive about a million Filipinos abroad this year. Almost 38 out of every 100 Filipinos live below the poverty line. And OFW relatives bail them out.
Today, 35 percent who leave are professionals, including computer specialists and agricultural scientists. The top United Nations migration specialist is a Filipino: Manolo Abella of the International Labor Organization. The Philippines is now the world's top exporter of nurses.
Musicians and performers form a second layer. "Their architects, artists and musicians are more artistic than ours," former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew writes in his memoirs. Musicians on a Caribbean cruise ship were superb, my sister in Toronto wrote. "They were Cebuanos."
Domestic workers make up the third -- and largest -- layer. They hazard abuse to support families here. "Millions leave their country for jobs abroad beneath their level of education," Lee Kwan Yew noted.
Smell the demographics. Job creation lags behind population increases, which is inevitable when a demographic transition wobbles on its way to lower birth and death rates. "The country would explode if the flow of migrants were halted," write Marites Vitug and George Werhfritz in Newsweek's story on "Filipino Flight."
The central bank says OFW remittances reach almost $8 billion annually. When flows via unofficial channels are tacked on, the total can reach $14-21 billion, according to the Asian Development Bank.
Few assess the social costs, the Catholic Commission on Migrant Workers notes. Prolonged absence of parents results in many kids "becoming emotional orphans." They're more likely to commit crimes, take drugs or have children out of wedlock, reports Newsweek.
Government reaction has been schizophrenic. The health department says stay, while the labor department says go, the Washington Post noted. We want you here, the education department insists. The Overseas Economic Assistance Office snaps: No, we want you there.
The migrants go anyway. So, this diaspora will accelerate, given the current economic crunch and instability. Filipinos will continue to take your EKG in Amsterdam, pilot you in West Africa, manage cigarette factories in Korea, offer Mass in Addis Ababa, teach in Indonesia and sail those ocean vessels.
Realities are shaping policies of reluctant tolerance. Officials are short of long-range answers, probably, because there are none. At home, from health care to schooling, Filipinos rely on those who stay, like Dr. Helen Santiago-Sigua.
"Nursing is not lower in rank to physicians but a different aspect of the same calling," she points out. "We should not stereotype occupations ... When a doctor works as a nurse, he does not demean himself."
"What's happening to Filipino doctors is a symptom of a societal disease. Government must help physicians find meaning and reward. At this hour of need, we deserve more than a medical malpractice bill.
"Perhaps I'm still 'stuck' because I've managed not to get demoralized by our local situation. As a clinical professor and prefect of students, I realize we must inspire would-be physicians-not for cash, prestige or ease -- but to be 'doctors for the right reasons.'
"Being a doctor is a healing craft ... It's about alleviating pain and caring for creatures that may be the very least to society but most valuable to God. In fixing the body or mind, a doctor touches even the spirit, giving his profession almost magical dimensions. To perform this craft where it is most needed gives it its greater essence."
posted by Dante at 7:26 AM
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