Changes: Same Old, Same Old: Crispin Aranda June 10, 2019 Manila Times

Changes: Same Old, Same Old
Crispin Aranda
June 10, 2019
Manila Times
“THE more things change, the more they stay the same,” an epigram by
Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, a French critic, journalist and novelist, may
well describe the life of a Filipino intending migrant.
By now the number of Filipinos leaving daily remain unchanged – ranging

from 5,000 to 7,000. There are no official figures: none from the Philippine
Statistics Authority, the Bureau of Immigration, the Department of Foreign
Affairs, or the Department of Labor including the Philippine Overseas
Employment Administration (POEA).
Wait, there are statistics. But getting an accurate and reliable number is
elusive.
To leave the country in a formal way, one must have a passport.
Then there is the issue of visas, the document issued by a foreign country
through its consulates in the Philippines, allowing a Filipino to apply for
admission or entry into the country of choice – to visit, study, work, do
business, invest or reside permanently.
But the Department of Foreign Affairs does not have a tally of how many
Filipinos apply for and are subsequently issued or refused passports.
The DFA website offers information about consular services, which

includes the procedures and requirements on the issuance of passports –
the documents needed to apply, how much to pay, location of Philippine
embassies and consulates.
But no statistics on how many Filipinos apply for a passport, how many of
these official documents to travel abroad are issued.
With the passport, an applicant may then travel to countries with or
without a visa. Member countries of Asean allow nationals from each
country to travel without a visa to facilitate free movement of people
within the region.
Former presidential spokesman Harry Roque reported in 2018 that there

were 63 countries and territories that a Filipino can visit without the need
of a visa. This distinction ranked the Philippines 72nd out of 199 countries
with visa restrictions, according to Henley and Partners Index for 2018.
Two of the countries with the greatest number of Filipinos visiting (and
ultimately getting work) are Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. Other
Asian countries welcoming Filipino visitors visa-free are Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macao, Malaysia, Maldives,
Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor Leste, and
Vietnam.
Twenty countries in Africa also offer visa-free visits. Work may not be as
easy to get while visiting as they are in Hong Kong, Singapore and
Malaysia because in these three countries, a kababayan support base exists.
Lately, 10 countries from Oceania allowing visa-free visits, including Fiji,

Papua New Guinea and Palau, have been moving up the ladder of OFW
destinations.
Even the five Caribbean countries have been targeted by POEA marketers
as destination for Filipino workers, not to mention Central American
countries with drug lord issues.
For the rest of the Filipino passport holders, the countries with historic,
stable, regular need for workers visas are needed.
The same goes with countries offering permanent residency: Australia,
Canada, New Zealand, UK and the US.
To follow the trail of the number of Filipinos leaving every day, the
passport holder must apply for a visa to countries requiring this entry
document.
Before a Filipino can leave (unless he or she has a departure hold order
issued against him or her) he or she must go through the Bureau of
Immigration lines at airports. The porous southern Philippines border is
beyond the BI’s reach, willingly or otherwise.
But the Bureau of Immigration also does not have a record of those leaving.
But one can actually get a record of his or her own travel record (fill up an
application form to request for travel records).
But statistics on how many Filipinos go through official ports of departure

is not available.
The Department of Labor’s agencies – Philippine Overseas Employment

Administration, the Overseas Workers and Welfare Administration – have
been keeping tabs of those deployed and repatriated.
The POEA’s latest stats for 2015 and 2016 show the continuing increase in
OFW deployment – from 1,844,406 in 2015 to 2,112,331 the year after.
As expected, the Middle East hosted the most OFWs: 913,958 in 2015,
increasing to 1,058,514 the year after, with the Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and
the United Arab Emirates cornering the most OFW.
From the figures obtained by migrant advocacy groups from POEA and
recruitment agencies, anywhere from 5,000 to 7,000 Filipinos leave for
overseas jobs daily.
Officially, “the number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who worked
abroad at any time during the period April to September 2018 was
estimated at 2.3 million. Overseas contract workers (OCWs) with existing
work contract comprised 96.2 percent of the total OFWs during the period
April to September 2018.The rest (3.8 percent) worked overseas without
contract” (Philippine Statistics Authority, release date April 30, 2019)
On April 27, 2018, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported the number
of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) at 2.3 million, 97 percent of which had
existing work contracts, approximately 100,000 more than the year before.
The POEA figures show 2,112,331 OFWs, without specifying whether the
total includes both new hires and rehires.
Then there are the four million permanent residents and citizens from the
Philippines in the US, another million each in Canada and Europe, close to
a million combined from Australia and New Zealand (to include long-term
residents in student and exchange visitor status).
Changes in migration policies in these countries with work and residency

opportunities may affect the flow, but not by much.
While Australia, New Zealand and the UK have enacted policies targeting
lower migration numbers, Canada has rolled out a longer and wider
welcome mat.
All of these countries, however, offer sweet deals for migrants who will
work and live in regions, provinces and territories instead of the main
cities.
Australia’s State and Territories have fine-tuned their occupations-in-

demand list.
New Zealand, on the other hand, has changed its immediate skills shortage
list to regional skills shortage list supplemented by a construction and
infrastructure skill shortage list.
The 11 provinces and territories of Canada have been competing with each
other in recruiting the foreign workers that are likely to be affected by the
restrictions in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the Trump
administration’s “America First” policy.
Changes in administration—from the Ferdinand Marcos regime to the first

three years of President Rodrigo Duterte—have simply moved some goal
posts, but not the goal.
To millions of Filipinos, overseas jobs, student to residency options and

direct application for immigrant status remain as the destination.

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Changes: Same Old, Same Old

By now the number of Filipinos leaving daily remain unchanged – ranging

To leave the country in a formal way, one must have a passport.

The DFA website offers information about consular services, which

Former presidential spokesman Harry Roque reported in 2018 that there

Lately, 10 countries from Oceania allowing visa-free visits, including Fiji,

But statistics on how many Filipinos go through official ports of departure

The Department of Labor’s agencies – Philippine Overseas Employment

Changes in migration policies in these countries with work and residency

Australia’s State and Territories have fine-tuned their occupations-in-

Changes in administration—from the Ferdinand Marcos regime to the first

To millions of Filipinos, overseas jobs, student to residency options and

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