What are the things that Filipino overseas can do?

What Filipinos also need to consider too is the possibilities in working in the comfort of their own home and be near their families. To me that is more important than going away overseas and leaving their loved ones behind. Now I do give out my respects to couples and families that can tolerate the distance, but I am always in favor of being together and making most of the time out of it. Now I had the option of going away to work for the sake of the family that I'm building as it may seem the only way, but with the several opportunies that I found on the Internet, I can now start my own business online, generate a good income for my family and at the same time help others attain their goals and stay at home too. The Filipinos are being more connected to the online world with the support of PayPal in Philippine banks and possibly AlertPay - a payment processor that used to be US exclusive. I can see a number of people diving into PPC sites and earning them some money. And let's not forget us myLotters here earning from this wonderful website. Being in the foreign land is good, but working smart online can reduce the sacrifices and increase the rewards in the long run.

right, i understand your point. filipino overseas are working hard their. sweat and tears..and their family members are thinking that they have a lot of money to burn. i got a cousin who keeps on complaining about what his daddy will send for him and whenever i listen him whine, makes me want to tell him that you should be thankful rather than whine about it.. but that was when he was younger though, now that he is already working on his own, he realized that working is not easy. money is not something that you pick up from the ground..you have to work hard for it.

Hi! In my experience as an OFW sending some money to my family, the money I send is well-spent. Times are hard these days. My family back home prioritizes on food and health. I think nowadays, money will never be enough for basic needs. I just got back from a vacation in the Philippines and I was surprised at how the prices of commodities have gone up so high (doubled, actually). The people in the mall were less compared to when I was working in the Philippines. Life here in the US is not so easy either, what with the gas price hike and all. I just hope, as you said, that families think of priorities first so that hard-earned money won't go to waste. Welcome to myLot! Happy myLotting!

I'm sorry. I think I missed your point. Are you saying that, since most OFW money are spent on malls, that they should just return? Or are you warning the OFWs that they're money is being wasted on trivial things? Also, the fact that more and more people go to shopping malls don't really give a false impression of prosperity. Actually, considering how rampant malls are here in the country and the ever-growing number of people who go there, it's more that people have learned escapist tendencies to forget how hard their current lives are. It's like how the Cinema boomed during Martial Law. People are looking for a distraction. Regardless, the money sent by OFWs DO affect the economy, and not just because their relatives spend it on malls. There's a whole explanation to it that I'm not smart enough to summarize, but it does affect the economy, especially in currency exchange rates, so it's not something that should be taken away. Yes, OFWs suffer because they're lonely and tired and not often lucky enough to get a caring employer but that's what poverty does to people: it makes them desperate. Because the government is messed-up, people are unable to rely on the country for enough jobs for the number of unemployed. This is a serious problem but not something that ranting can solve. A family member CAN help though, specifically, by not acting like having an OFW relative gives them a credit card with an unlimited spending fee. It depends on an OFW's luck if they'll land a nice employer, but if the family stops being too dependent on the OFW family member, then they can share the spending of their household instead of relying on just one person to sustain a whole expanded family. If they save enough, then invest in something or build an extra-income business. Any help will go a long way to making sure the OFW can finally return home and stay.

Our OFWs' concerns should be heard by the government. There should be an organization of OFWs around the globe. And this should be recognized by the government such that whatever problems (esp. with regards to their safety in another land) an OFW may encounter, measures can be done at once to protect our new heroes. I don't have OFW parents but I salute all OFWs. It is never easy to leave one's family.

OFWs really sacrifices a lot. to be away from their loved ones is really hard. I know a few who after leaving the Philippines immediately come back because they are homesick. leaving the country for work is more advantage to single persons. they can make savings and after that they can settle down and start their own business.

Hello Joe, I am not sure that part about your post where you said that remittances sent home mostly end up at shopping malls. I hope I interpreted that statement right and I also hope that is not the case in reality. I am an employer of an OFW from your country. She is a maid working in my household, and currently on her 2nd 2-year contract. During her past two years, she has sent remittances home at least a dozen times already. What I do know is that usually the money is needed to support the family. She has two school-going children of her own. What I recall from speaking to her is that she has sent money home for a variety of reasons: to pay for her children's school fees, to help her family financially because the farm run by her grandmother wasn't doing so well with the poorer harvest and bad climate, to pay for hospitalisation when her children came down with dengue fever, and when her father was hospitalised, and also once when she and her late husband wanted to buy over a school van to start a transport business to help augment the family's income. I respect that she has to make the sacrifice to work overseas away from her home and family in order to provide the means to pay for all these needs. I certainly hope that the money she had remitted in previous months had actually gone to genuine and good use as they were intended, and not wasted by her family back home in some shopping malls somewhere.

I think it is up to the person to let his/her family know how hard it is to work abroad. So they will spend the money wisely and save some in cases of emergency. The problem with some filipinos is they love to say good things towards there family. They want them to believe they live in a good life and that finding money abroad is not hard for them. So there family started to feel like it is ok to asked or buy something that is expensive coz it is easy to earn that amount abroad. It is just a matter of how you will tell to your family the situation so they will be aware of it. So they will be concern over the things they spend and will also help by saving the money they received.

I think that the family of on OFW should be responsible to spend the money. They should know the hardship of their father or mother or any member of the family who works overseas. NOt only the job they have but also the sacrifices they had like being homesick, sad and sometimes lost their sane mind being alone away from home...