Despite earning higher salaries abroad, most overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) come home to the Philippines only to find themselves going back to their original economic status, said UP professor Orly Ballesteros.
Data from the National Statistics Office, now the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), in 2013 showed that only two out of every 10 OFWs managed to save at least half of all their remittances, the report said.
“Regardless of the amount of the cash remittances sent, for every 10 OFWs, six (61.7 percent) were able to save less than 25 percent of the total amount received, two (21.6 percent) were able to save from 25 percent to 49 percent of it, and about two (16.7 percent) saved 50 percent or more,” the PSA reported.
One out of every 10 OFWs is broke, according to a separate MoneyMax.ph article published in the GMA News website.
It reportedly cited a 2011 study by Social Enterprise Development Partnerships Inc., which also found out that eight out of 10 OFWs who returned to the Philippines have no savings.
“After their period as OFWs, because it’s not forever, they go back home and there’s nothing to look forward to in staying here because they have no job opportunities (where they are paid higher than what they earned abroad),” Ballesteros was quoted as saying.
He was in Cebu for the OFW and SME Business Christmas Expo in SM City Cebu last December 2 to 3. The event was organized by Ex-Link Events, where he is the chief operations officer.
Ballesteros underscored that if OFWs have savings, these tend to be temporary and unsustainable since there are no other sources of income as they come home. “Their savings go down the drain and they go back to their original economic status,” Sun Star quoted the professor as saying.
