KazPost

Kazakhstan News
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Philippines’ Army of Migrant Workers Retrains for Life Back Home

Philippines’ Army of Migrant Workers Retrains for Life Back Home

The Philippine government is trying to retrain hundreds of thousands of Filipino workers who are returning jobless from overseas as the pandemic batters economies around the globe.

Already struggling with unemployment that spiked to record levels when the pandemic hit, the Southeast Asian nation is bracing for nearly 300,000 overseas Filipino workers -- like caretakers, maids and seamen -- to return home this year. The government is offering free programs to reskill these workers for jobs such as call-center agents, teachers and contact tracers.

More than 5,000 returnees have already applied for the training, with health care, technology and tourism courses the top choices.

Among the returning workers is Marlon Gabitano, 51, a history teacher who was placed on unpaid leave from a school in Qatar. Back in the Philippines, where he has a wife and three sons to support in Pampanga province north of Manila, Gabitano has been attending government-backed online seminars to look for a temporary job or the means to set up a business.

“I’m looking for anything that can help tide us over, because life here in the Philippines is hard,” he said.

Teachers, Tracers


For decades, waves of college-educated Filipinos have left the country in search of better-paying work abroad. The money sent home by this diaspora of about 10 million people has helped fuel what until this year was one of the world’s fastest-growing economies -- headed this year for a sharp contraction.

“Returning workers will have to compete with local job seekers, but many sectors want to prioritize them,” Labor Assistant Secretary Dominique Tutay said in an interview. “It’s perhaps because of the difficult experience of leaving the country, then having to return after losing their jobs.”

Retraining these workers will likely be a “bumpy process,” said Jessie Lu, an economist at Continuum Economics in Singapore. So far, government support for displaced workers is “insufficient to offset the loss of income,” she said.



Some of them can be tapped as teachers, while seafarers can be hired for construction work, Tutay said. Returning migrants will be prioritized in hiring 50,000 contract tracers to help control Covid-19 infections, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said at a briefing last week.

Business-process outsourcing, one of the few parts of the Philippine economy to escape the downturn, could be promising as a landing pad, with call centers willing to absorb returning workers with no background in the field, the Labor Department’s Tutay said. Jobs in telehealth -- where agents answer customers’ health-related queries -- are particularly in demand, she said.

Short-term Fix


Still, the reskilling effort may be only a short-term fix.

“At least it’s helping them stay productive,” said Nicholas Mapa, senior economist at ING Groep NV in Manila. But many are likely to head back overseas when better-paying work becomes available again.

While helping repatriated workers find jobs at home, officials aren’t abandoning the decades-long labor export policy. The government is seeking alternative labor markets for Filipino workers, including China and eastern Europe, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello said in a recent online forum.

Gabitano, for his part, hopes to be part of that exodus again -- despite the hardship of being separated from his loved ones.

“I will leave the Philippines again the first chance I have,” he said. “It’s hard to see my family suffering here every day.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

KazPost
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
Europe is boiling: Extreme Weather Conditions Prevail Across the Continent
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
Historic Moment: Edgars Rinkevics, EU's First Openly Gay Head of State, Takes Office as Latvia's President
An Ominous Shift in Warfare: Western Powers Risk War Crimes and Violate International Norms with Cluster Bomb Supply to Ukraine
Bye bye democracy, human rights, freedom: French Cops Can Now Secretly Activate Phone Cameras, Microphones And GPS To Spy On Citizens
The Poor Man With Money, Mark Zuckerberg, Unveils Twitter Replica with Heavy-Handed Censorship: A New Low in Innovation?
The Double-Edged Sword of AI: AI is linked to layoffs in industry that created it
US Sanctions on China's Chip Industry Backfire, Prompting Self-Inflicted Blowback
Meta Copy Twitter with New App, Threads
The New French Revolution
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner
Corruption in the European Parliament - Business as usual
UK Crypto and Stablecoin Regulations Become Law as Royal Assent is Granted
Paris Suburb Grapples with Violence as Curfew Imposed: Saint-Denis Residents Express Dismay and Anger
A Delaware city wants to let businesses vote in its elections
Alef Aeronautics Achieves Historic Milestone with Flight Certification for World's First Flying Car
Google Blocked Access to Canadian News in Response to New Legislation
French Politicians Advocate for Pan-European Regulation on Social Media Influencers
×