The True Value of OFWs

By Willy E. Arcilla

We must reverse the chronic brain drain led by our OFWs and émigrés -- not by forcing our compatriots to stay against their will -- but by addressing their reasons for leaving, i.e., the lack of opportunities at home to improve the quality of life for their families.

It is lamentable to hear top government leaders celebrating the exodus of our countrymen in anticipation of their monthly remittances that only feed private consumption spending.

I submit that the value of our OFWs is not only US$12B per year, which translates to a paltry US$100/month assuming a combined 10 MM OFWs & émigrés. Rather, the REAL economic value of our OFWs is reflected in the National Income Accounts of their host countries, not to mention tax revenues they pay diligently. This holds true whether they render services in medical health in North America or in architecture and construction in the Middle East; whether they pilot the world's jetliners or ocean-going vessels; and whether they are investment bankers or care for the children of investment bankers in Singapore and Hong Kong. The real economic value of our OFWs and émigrés is vastly more substantial than the monthly remittance of $100. Imagine therefore if we can benefit directly from OFWs' contributions to their host nations.

These 10MM are obviously among the best and the brightest Filipinos for them to compete globally – all of whom have come to realize that they can fetch higher compensation for their world-class skills and talent that go unrewarded locally. I beg to disagree with those who claim that our companies cannot afford to pay higher salaries given that the consolidated net income of the country's top 1,000 corporations reached P500B in 2005 alone – not to mention the cumulative earnings in the years before and the average 20% growth for the past 2 years. By attrition therefore, the country has been left with 2nd-tier talent, which, coupled with the deterioration in the quality of education that produces unqualified and unemployable college graduates, has led to an uncompetitive economy. Perhaps our OFWs and émigrés also possess stronger values than many left behind in terms of work ethic and competitiveness, discipline and perseverance, integrity and accountability – by virtue of the demands of working in a foreign land amidst an increasingly competitive global marketplace – and therefore, we have not only been suffering a serious Brain Drain, but perhaps more worrisome is a Values Vacuum..

As a result, what we have been left with is a nation of consumers because our productive workers drive the wheels of industry of their host countries (instead of ours), remitting enough only for their families' domestic consumption. Therefore, while most developing countries are enhancing the intellectual capital of their people like high-tech India (not just call center agents); achieving surpluses in food production and becoming a global agricultural powerhouse like Vietnam; or strengthening their manufacturing muscle like China, the “superfactory” of the world, the Philippines has become the “supermarket” of the planet, content with buying virtually everything from the world in shop-till-you-drop mall sales or amusing ourselves with being the world's leading cellphone texters.

Yet perhaps the most harmful side effects of the OFW diasporas are the incalculable social costs of physical separation between families, the basic unit of a society -- many of which have ultimately ended in marital infidelity and broken homes, juvenile delinquency and lack of values formation, employer abuse and even gender dysfunction.

How can we reverse our brain drain and rechannel the contribution of Filipinos to the national economy instead of just driving the economic growth of their host countries?

Encourage profit-sharing and share-ownership among our businesses because workers who are part-owners are more productive. They will drive revenues and cut costs on their own. Even the government can promote this by levying lower income tax rates for companies who practice profit-sharing. As we provide our workers with the opportunity to be the best they can be, and reward them for their entrepreneurial spirit, we can also dissuade them from leaving to earn higher salaries – only to work for foreign bosses.

In parallel, we need to reduce our cost-of-living that will make our cost structures more competitive to attract more foreign investors and generate more employment and higher incomes. This will require a maniacal focus on achieving not only self-sufficiency but surpluses in food production that can be exported; drastically reducing our power costs by objectively evaluating alternative forms including nuclear energy; higher investments in physical infrastructure (without the S.tandard O.perating P.ayola); upgrading the quality of education beginning in nursery, and extending the number of primary-to-secondary years in line with global standards; providing affordable medicines plus quality health care; and redistributing land for the landless and homes for the homeless.

Arguably the single most important factor that can encourage reverse migration or a “brain gain” -- the absence of which is precisely the very reason why our countrymen leave – is inspirational leadership in government similar to the legendary examples of our Asian neighbors like Mahatma Gandhi, Deng Xiao Ping, King Bhumipol Adulyadej, Lee Kuan Yew, Park Chung Hee, Mahathir Mohammad and Ho Chi Minh.

While the greatest triumph of the Philippine economy in the last 3 decades has indeed been OFW remittances, I believe that the greatest tragedy will be if the children and grandchildren of OFWs will continue to be OFWs themselves in succeeding generations because our government leaders, economic planners and industrialists failed to use the “borrowed time” and remittances to build an agricultural base and a globally competitive industrial sector that could have provided food and livelihood at home.