Brain Drain in the Philippines

Starting at around the 1970s, Filipinos have already been immigrating to other nations like the USA, Middle East, Canada, Australia and many other countries to find work in order to send money back home.

A report from Geneva's International Labour Office showed that the number of professional workers who went abroad exceeded the net addition to the professionals in the workforce during the 1990s.

Highly skilled physicians, teachers, seamen, engineers, nurses, and many others who received such a high level of university training only to apply their knowledge and expertise in other countries.

Indeed the massive amount of income they're bringing in to the country through their remittances has been keeping the country's economy afloat for many years and counting.

What is this doing to the local workforce, however?

There is no direct information on the actual magnitude of brain drain from the Philippines and how much this has changed over time. Occasional surveys may reveal the extent of location of Philippine professionals but there is no regular monitoring of movements. For example, one survey in the seventies indicated that the number of physicians in the United States amounted to half of the registered physicians in the Philippines.
Source: Skilled Labour Migration from Developing Countries: Study on the Philippines

Even without the numbers, just go to the POEA/OWWA offices anywhere in the country and you will see that everyday, hundreds of Filipinos would be there processing their applications or renewing their contracts all hoping to go out of the country and work.


It's not hard to see why, simply ask around and visit the homes of some families whose a family member is an OFW (Overseas Filipino Worker) and you'll often find that they're living way better than most Filipinos.

So for most OFWs, the reason really is just one word: economic. Although the remittances from these workers are good for the Philippine economy, it is not sustainable. The Philippines, I think, is still challenged to be able to produce something from within and be able to export goods and services for a more sustainable income. In addition, when the businesses within the country become globally competitive with good salary grids, people won't have to go somewhere else to find that elusive "Greener Pasture".

Plunket: caring for young families

Here in NZ, the young - babies and kids are quite very well taken cared of. Aside from the free maternity and medical care, there's also free care given to the young and the mothers in the form of the Plunket. This is a community where mothers can meet up for friendship, share experiences, help each other and the kids to play with each other and just hang-out. There are no fees and attendance isn't required. You can visit the Plunket center as often as you like and stay there for the whole day or just a few hours.

There's a qualified Plunket nurse that does regular checks for the babies, hands-out informations to parents and provides advices and any other help that mothers or kids might need.

The Plunket center also has a lot of toys that the kids can play with. They've got slides, swings, rides, puzzles, and many others. It's basically just another visit to the park sort-of.

The growth of the child is closely monitored especially his medical history. Here in NZ, every child born here are given a "Well Child" book for this purpose. Parents can also post pictures and  record significant milestones as he grows. It also contains a comprehensive record of his immunizations, weight and height.

A GP or General Practitioner is elected early on in order to handle all the medical checks and issues that the child might have as he grows. All regular visits and prescribed medicines are free too. The medicines are picked-up from what they call here "Chemist" and the medicine bottle even contains the baby's name, prescribed dosage, expiry date and the doctor's name.

Check out more information from these sites:

http://www.kidshealth.org.nz/

http://www.plunket.org.nz/

You all stay well.

Know the words, Blend in

It's interesting to note that English-speaking countries speak differently. I'm sure you've heard about different accents like the British Accent or the American Accent. However, accents are less to worry about than the actual words they are speaking.

I'm talking about the "slang" words that common people use in their day-to-day lives in their country. The Philippines is pretty much Americanized. We are most familiar with American English than British English. However, there are a lot of English-speaking countries that do not speak "American English". Thus, if you want to really easily blend in, it pays to know some slang of the place of which you're heading.

As far as New Zealand goes, I find that they speak British English with a twist. Forget about the twist for now. Do take a look however, at their slang words because at one time, my Auntie from Michigan, USA came over here and there were a couple of occasions where she just can't understand what they're saying.

Check this site for some "Kiwi slang": http://www.chemistry.co.nz/kiwi.htm

Cheers mate!

New Zealand Government website

More online information about New Zealand can be found on the government's website: http://newzealand.govt.nz/.

It's got lots of information and links to related websites; just about what you'd hope for a government website should have. Gather as much information as you can and consider all parameters that matters to you so you could choose wisely whether you'd survive here or not.

It's also a good channel for which to learn about the culture as to how they do things here in NZ. Similarly, you should also check out websites like this for that particular country you're interested in.

Being new to a country and community, among the things you'd hate to have are gotchas or surprises all because you didn't do much of the necessary research up front.

Kia Ora!

Get informed before taking off

New Zealanders, also known as "Kiwis", use the internet heavily. You will find that some of the sites ranked on top 10,000 by Alexa.com are actually in New Zealand. Most of the businesses here have their own websites which are up-to-date and are very informative; most of which feature online shopping.

Here are some interesting NZ websites:

http://www.metroinfo.org.nz/
http://www.trademe.co.nz/
http://www.finda.co.nz/

For those wanting to come to visit, work or immigrate, you can always refer to the NZIS (New Zealand Immigration Service) website at: http://www.immigration.govt.nz/. You can find guides, fees, forms and many other information there. It's very up-to-date and relatively easy to use; it's easy enough to find the information you need.

I would highly recommend that before you decide on what country to fly to, you must do a thorough research about it. Especially the people, environment, prices of goods, rent, electricity, etc. -- the usual stuff for your day-to-day living.

Create a journal on your notebook as it's so easy to forget these stuff. It's also a nice way of doing a comparison among the countries you've researched so far.

Once you have a good idea of what you're getting in to, try and paint a picture of what your finances would be like depending on your circumstances. Like if you have a child or two, how much would you be spending for childcare, education; all that kind of stuff.

Based on your research, you can then better negotiate how much your salary would be in a prospect company. It's also an added bonus for you if you know some bits about the country you're going during the job interview as you might be asked what do you know about their country; it will show how interested you are.

So go ahead, do some web searching, read books and magazines. Also do ask around with your friends and relatives. Beware, however, people's impressions about the country they've been to are a result of their own experiences. Do not take it as if it's the reality. I've heard a lot of different stories about NZ when we were coming here; very diverse stories from good to bad to worse. The reality is, people see the same thing differently. One person may hate snow but one may party with it. One may hate to give-way to pedestrians but one may have no problem giving-way to anybody anytime even to cows, sheeps and ducks.