Text: Katharine Tengtio
Photography: Eric Aguirre and Cleeyo Hamby
“Asian invasion” is a term often used in a discriminatory manner, usually referring to a wave of Asian immigrants or Asians dominating an area or place. Asians have been emigrating from the Eastern world for decades, mainly in search for new jobs and better opportunities abroad.
The largest group of Asians that have immigrated or work abroad are the Filipinos. Filipinos are actually the most dominant nationality working abroad to date. The Filipino: highly underrated, undermined, and underpublicized nationality that has - over time - become the backbone of the working world. “Overseas Filipino Workers” (OFW) as they have been called, make up for more than 11% of the Filipino population, equating to over 11 million Filipinos who work abroad. OFW’s work in the Western world but also in dangerous places where work is needed such as the Middle East and Africa. Overall there are Filipinos working in over 140 countries (out of 195 in the world). There are over 4 million Filipinos in the US, where most OFW’s reside, but second is Saudi Arabia where there are over 2 million OFW’s. Other countries where many Filipinos work include Malaysia, Canada, UAE, Spain, Japan, Italy, Mexico, Qatar, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Kuwait, South Korea, Germany, India, France, Guam, Greece, Bahrain, Israel, Lebanon, Norway, Macau, Netherlands, and the list goes on. These OFW’s, though stereotypically thought to work as domestic help or blue collar jobs, also work as doctors, nurses, accountants, sailors, IT professionals, engineers, architects, entertainers, technicians, teachers, and military servicemen. 23% of the world’s nurses are Filipinos. 30% of the world’s seamen are Filipinos. Filipinos are now raising the world’s children as nannies, are teaching the future generation as teachers in schools, are importing foods and goods as sailors, and are fighting in the Western worlds’ wars. As the number of OFW’s increase, the Filipino ability to influence the world economy is increasing as well. In 2008 it was recorded that about USD$16billion was sent back to the Philippines from OFW’s. Filipinos are known for their good work ethic, and are especially favoured because they are fluent in English. Today, a world without OFW’s would crumble.
The problem is that while Filipinos are starting to overflow in other countries (where they are either welcomed or discriminated), these countries do little to discover exactly why so many Filipinos are working abroad. The Philippines has been a country that has been plagued by economic sabotage, foreign intervention and political corruption that has pushed Filipinos to leave their homes in search for more prosperous opportunities. However these more ‘prosperous opportunities’ sometimes do not turn out for the better. Thousands of families have been torn apart. In the Philippines family is considered the most important social unit. Parents abandon their children and sometimes only come home every few years just to see their families for a short time just to return abroad again. Those who leave to work abroad also face many obstacles such as illegal recruitment, racial discrimination, kidnapping, and sometimes even mysterious disappearances or death. Some employers confiscate their passports and legal documents. OFW’s who work as domestic help are sometimes physically and sexually abused. Some women are tricked into working as sex slaves. Many who go abroad also face emotional turmoil, forced to assimilate into a culture that is not their own. There are some Filipinos (especially in the U.S.A.) who accustom their selves to the new culture, but after working away from home so long they tend to lose sight of their own heritage and no longer feel connected to their home in the Philippines. Many Filipino children who were born of Filipino immigrants in different countries lack a sense of self-identity, as they are Filipino by birth but not by culture.
Katharine Tengtio is half-American and half-Filipina. She is currently studying International Relations and Spanish at the University of St Andrews, in Scotland.