What Pinoys Abroad Tell Us

Pinoys Abroad is a GMA News TV show that is replayed from 7:30 to 8:30 am from Mondays to Fridays with broadcast journalists Ivan Meyrina and Rhea Santos as hosts. The two get to travel to different countries where our fellow Filipinos can be found.

Diverse places and cultures are seen and experienced through the eyes and sensibilities of fellow Filipinos in the person of Ivan and Rhea and in the person of our Filipino OFWs, which make seeing and experiencing other places and cultures closer to one’s heart and soul owing to our connection to one another as fellow Filipinos. When fellow Filipinos experience the wonder and amazement of seeing other places and experiencing other cultures, the effect on the Filipino viewers like me is different. We are able to see and experience those places and cultures through common lenses, viewpoints, and sensibilities.

This article talks about the plus and minus points in the reality of Pinoys working abroad. The reality of Filipinos scattered in more than 180 countries all over the world speaks a lot of things about us; they tell us things worth exploring and relating.

There are plus points in the fact that Filipinos are now scattered all over the world in over 180 countries. First, it shows that we are a courageous and adventurous people; it shows that we are willing to face and experience what is new and unknown and to work hard to succeed in a different place.

We are not only seafarers but we are ready to take on jobs that can be characterized as humble, lowly, or hazardous as domestic helpers, caregivers, nurses, house cleaners, plantation workers, or factory workers. This is not to discount the fact that there are also some professional Filipinos working abroad as designers, musicians, professors, doctors, engineers, and scientists.

Second, it shows our adaptability to different cultures, places, climates, and people, and that we welcome intercultural relationships and marriages. (The case of white foreigner-Filipina relationship proliferating in Cebu is another matter). We know how to put into practice the saying “When in Rome, be a Roman” or “When in Singapore, be a Singaporean.”

Third, Filipinos who live abroad form groups with the objective of helping one another in a foreign land. Their common identity serves as a bond with one another such that Filipino communities are found in different countries. As Filipinos, we have a common bond with one another that transcends geographical boundaries. We feel the impact of this phenomenon when we hear and see OFW stories of success, tragedies, and victories after much struggle and encountering troubles.

Fourth, we share with the rest of humanity that innate inclination to explore and experience new things as every healthy human being would want to travel all over the world, see new places, experience different cultures, taste different menus, meet different people, and be wowed by the experience of it all. We are meant to explore, discover new things, and experience different things both wonderful and distressing so we can continue to learn and grow limitlessly. It is awesome to think that Filipinos can be found in all the continents – Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Australia, Antarctica, and Africa, but mostly in Asia, Europe, and United States.

There are also minus points in the reality of Filipinos working abroad. First, it shows that poverty pushes many of our fellow Filipinos – many of them women – to work as domestic helpers, caregivers, nurses, laborers, factory workers, – servants of the rich in other countries where they are prone to abuse and exploitation.

Second, the reality of poverty makes us vulnerable to be downgraded or discriminated in the international scene as we are seen to be poor people working as servants abroad. We hear stories of Filipinas who get raped, physically and verbally abused, or maltreated by not being fed by their employers. We hear stories of OFWs who resorted to killing their abusive employers, leading to their imprisonment with or without death sentence.

Third, the phenomenon of poverty entails separation from one’s loved ones which has led in some cases to infidelity of either the wife or the husband. It also means not being able to take care of one’s own children to be able to take care of other couples’ children. It has become a sociological problem because family members become alienated from one another due to the physical absence of the husband from the wife or the parent from his/her children.