Filipinos going abroad

A mother is working as a Domestic Helper in Hong Kong; she sends money to her family every month. After a few years of working overseas, she decides to come home. She comes home expecting to see a welcoming family; but instead, she is met with a 6 year-old son who barely knows her and a cheating husband. This my friends, is but one of many situations that are happening to the many Filipino families. If you were in that situation, what would you do? For the past years, the number of Filipinos working overseas has been continually increasing. Today, more or less 10 million Filipinos are scattered around the world doing various jobs - from construction workers to nurses. But is this really an advantage? With the increase in the number of overseas workers is also the increasing number of broken families. Many Filipino children suffer from abuse and negligence because either or both parents are working abroad. In some cases, parents use money to compensate for their absence, spoiling their children and not thinking of its effects. Their children grow and become rebellious, drop-outs and some end up becoming criminals which is a big disappointment not only to the parents but to the nation as well. Marriages are broken because of adultery and infidelity. To make things worse, more and more overseas workers suffer from many kinds of abuses in the hands of employers, co-workers and others, and being strangers in a new place, they have no way of protecting themselves. Lastly, we have medical schools attempting to close down because the youth prefer to take nursing. We are lacking doctors because our doctors are becoming nurses in their likings to work abroad. What message does that bring to the youth? Many Filipinos agree to work abroad with the promise of “greener pastures and bigger opportunities”, but what do they get? Expecting “greener pastures”, they get abusive employers. Expecting bigger opportunities, they experience discrimination. Yes, it is true that a part of the Philippine Economic Growth comes from OFW’s. They say that it is a big help to the country and a big opportunity, but for whom? Why is it that instead of news about our country’s said development we get news headlines such as: Filipino domestic raped by 3 Kuwaiti cops, Maltreatment, unpaid salaries, rape, extended stay, Sexual abuse and maltreatment and hanging of a Filipina DH. What is the government doing about these cases? How many of them have been solved? The government focuses too much on the economic development that they seem to ignore the well-being of those that help in this development. What good is that doing to the Filipino people? What good do we get from sending millions of Filipinos away from their families? Are you not bothered that the government is using its own people for its own selfish reasons...Putting at risk not only millions of people but the country itself? What is the use of being a brilliant nurse if you can’t even cure your own son’s fever just because you’re too far away? What’s the use of being a good domestic helper if you can’t even stay home to look for your old parents? Is it worth your pay to be able to take care of other people but you don’t have the chance to watch your own children grow? What would it feel coming home to a broken family? People, think about it…