how to find Filipino workers in Dubai ? To work abroad being an OFW (overseas Filipino worker) could be the dream of several Filipinos. Although there are already near 12 million Filipinos working overseas, about a million more leave the Philippines each year to work in a few 200 countries across the world. In fact, according to some reports, at any one time, significantly more than 10% of the Philippines’total population are hard at the job – abroad.
Why? Well, the principal reason is money. Given the sluggish state of the Philippine economy, there are not just enough jobs at home. And the few which are available do not pay enough to enable the poor worker to support a family of four, aside from the extended families that the majority of us Filipinos have. A public school teacher with more than five years’experience, as an example, is paid typically Php15,000 a month or Php180,000 (US$4,000) a year. In contrast, a school in Maryland, USA was reported just many years back as offering Filipino teachers a starting annual salary of $43,500. This is equal to over P2.0 million per year – over 10 times bigger than exactly what a teacher could possibly get at home!
Unfortunately, such high-paying overseas jobs may also be becoming fewer. Even yet in the Middle East, where in actuality the hiring of Filipino labor really began in earnest in the 1970s, salaries have plummeted sharply. The global recession is one big basis for the decline; growing competition is another. Workers from other Third World countries may not be as skilled as their Filipino counterparts, but their willingness to work abroad for reduced wages has driven salary scales downward quite sharply.
However, the low wages nothwithstanding, Filipinos continue to consider work abroad. Working being an OFW still remains a cherished Pinoy dream. We just have to be a tad bit more careful and discriminating when it comes to offers for work abroad – especially after hearing the numerous horror stories about OFWs getting their pay withheld and their travel documents confiscated or hidden. Right?
Right, but however, perhaps, it’s time for us Filipinos to take into account what could be an even wiser – and definitely safer – option.