Editorial: Family economics

THAT heartbreaking New York Times article about the so-called Little Italy in Mabini, Batangas, a village of “Mediterranean-inspired, pastel-colored houses” built on the blood, sweat and tears of the town’s migrant workers toiling for decades in Italy, tells us a lot that we already know.

One, that when migrant workers reinvest their savings back home, they could, indeed, work dramatic changes, not just in their families’ lifestyles, but also in their village or town. Two, that many overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are forced to keep coming back to their workplaces around the globe—in the Batangueños’ case, as domestic help in Italian homes—because the more they build homes and buy things for families back home, the more they’re forced to sign new contracts to maintain certain lifestyles; or worse, repay  new debts. Three, the saddest of all, that the steady inflow of remittances has unleashed the most undesirable of consequences: a culture of dependence among the OFWs’ families, and among those institutions that have benefited from their generosity through the years. At the national level, the government has failed to build the economy enough to produce the local jobs to reduce the need for migration, and it’s an open secret that far from just being a stopgap measure when it was first proposed by Blas F. Ople to the Marcos administration in the ’70s, the labor-export policy has become an indispensable cog in the economic wheel.

This year the central bank forecasts remittances to grow at least 8 percent, from the $17.3 billion in 2009, already accounting for over 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

This is not to say that the government should not cash in on good opportunities in the global labor market where they are found. But the problem is that the government has not quite dealt with the more vital measures for sustainable development, i.e., widening the base for economic growth, and caring precisely for the OFWs and their families so they aren’t doomed to toiling abroad until they’re much too old to enjoy the fruits of their labor back home.

These realities surface at a most timely, albeit ironic, time: this week, from September 20 to 26, is the National Family Week celebration, spearheaded by the National Committee on the Filipino Family, chaired by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). Observance of the week is meant to “strengthen family unity and relationships through promotion of Filipino family values,” according to the DSWD. Of all days, the theme of this year’s celebration is “the impact of migration on families around the world.”

The impact of migration, if Little Italy were to be a model, is obviously two-faced: the material upkeep of the OFW families is definitely boosted by migrant work, and, as the NYT story puts it, the larger houses built with remittances “dwarf their traditional counterparts made of unpainted concrete blocks under roofs of corrugated zinc.” There’s a catch, however: many of these big houses are barely inhabited, though well-furnished, as the OFWs who have brought family members to Italy only come home for vacations once or every two years, with hopes to retiring in their hometown  one day.

“Despite their absence,” said the NYT story, “the workers have contributed money to help build roads, schools, water grids and other infrastructure usually handled by local governments. They pay for annual fiestas that were traditionally financed by municipalities, churches and local businesses. Thanks to their help, Mabini became a “first class” municipality last year in a government ranking of towns nationwide, leaping from “third class.”

Those in Little Italy are credited with financing the construction of their town hall.

But beyond the impressive town hall, their names on tarpaulins and streamers during town fiestas, and prayers from their parish priests, many of these OFWs are saddled with the ineffable pain of alienation: apart from the physical separation from families, the sense of alienation whenever they come home for a few precious weeks, to children who barely know them and who would often simply outrace other relatives in presenting the latest wish list—often, flashy gadgets, clothing and similar stuff—to the overburdened breadwinner.

The stories of OFWs could fill volumes, and keep cultural anthropologists, sociologists, family counselors and family economics experts busy for years. One hopes this week, they’ll be busy enough knocking some sense into the heads of those who can and should influence policy and those who comprise the OFW families’ support systems—enough to, as the poignant Meryl Streep-starrer a few years back showed us, make people appreciate in this Family Week, “the One True Thing” that matters most in life. –Businessmirror