(DP 2000-03) Filipino Overseas Employment─An Update

Abstract

The paper is an update of earlier papers on migration (Tan and Canlas 1989, Tan 1993). Overseas employment continued to increase though at decelerating rate. There were changes in destinations and occupations with Asia gradually replacing the Middle East. The overseas workers' occupations were destination-specific as exemplified by the preponderance of domestic workers in Singapore and Hongkong. The overseas workers were not predominantly domestic workers. They formed only 37% of the total outflow. Production workers, seamen and professionals were as important. Available data are for outflows, not stock. The paper made stock estimates and compared them with other estimates. The annual flows were about 700,000 in the 1990, the stock in 1998 is estimated at 2.0 Million. This is smaller than the 4.5 quoted by the Department of Foreign affairs. The stock estimates are used for assessing the reliability of the remittances reported by the central bank. These averaged about 6% of GNP and 20% of exports. They appear to be grsossly underestimated, the actual which include those brought in directly by returning workers and channelled through informal media could easily double the reported values.