The Impact Of The Global Financial And Economic Turmoil On The Philippines

Author : Alfie Maria R. Custodio
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (989 download)

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Download or read book Overseas Work in the Global Financial Crisis written by Alfie Maria R. Custodio and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The recent Global Financial Crisis (GFC) was seen as negatively affecting the Philippines in a different way. Most of the countries affected by the GFC suffered export declines and domestic economic slowdown leading to collapse of certain sectors in the economy. Though the Philippines was affected this way in some aspects, it is more the unique nature of its economy having around 10% of its population abroad working or permanently settled but continuing to send a significant amount of remittances. It as the concern of the Philippines that the crisis affecting many of the destination countries of its migrant workers will lead to massive layoffs and create a much larger crisis at home. Based on the hypothesis, this study attempted to view how the GFC actually affected the economy by directly looking at the impacts on the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and their families left behind in the Philippines and how they coped with the perceived effects of the crisis. The quantitative aspect of the study used a semi-structured questionnaire that profied the demographic characteristics and determined the coping strategies of the respondents. A focus group discussion with ten(10) of the respondents for the purpose of triangulating the date gathered by the questionnaire was also done. The results showed that the number of affected households indicated decreases in their family income during the crisis period of compared to previous years. It is noteworthy that there were relatively few affected workers who returned home. Majority stayed abroad hoping for better opportunites in their affected host countries rather than returning home. The families-left-behind also adjusted to the crisis by implementing coping strategies such as cuts in spending (primarily in recreation, food and utilities), seeking extra jobs/sideline and decreasing their allocation for savings. The findings of the study also suggest factors such as demographic characteristics of the OFW, the household profile and perceptions were also important in explaining the odds of the OFWs to return to the home country for good. The income generated by HH members (0.9631) was significant at .05. Age of the OFW (1.0691), the number of members of the HH (1.3730), and the number of years the OFW has been working (0.9026) wre all significant at 0.1. The odds estimates of OFWs returning home for good based on perception about job opportunities in PHL (3.0084) and based on perception of GFC affecting the OFWs host country (2.7975) were also significant at 0.10. This implied that despite retrenchment and unemployment, most migrant workers avoided returning to the Philippines just yet. Those who returned trie to leave again as soon as possible. Many were planning to work overseas for up to 10 years more before setting back, while some intended to leave the country and establish life (be citizens) in their host countries. This calls for refreshed attention to assessments on the sectoral level and the reintegration (mechanisms and programs) of returning workers to the industries in the Philippines.