MIGRATE OR NOT TO MIGRATE?
Many Filipinos have migrated to other countries such
as Canada, the United States of America, Australia, New Zealand and
others. Many of us would like to follow and, given any chance just
to be there, grab the opportunity to do so.
However, many Filipinos do not wish to leave as well. Why? Because
their qualifications and experience are sometimes not recognized abroad.
You may be an engineer in the Philippines but abroad you’d just
be a cable man, a warehouse man or a laborer. You may still be in
a construction or building environment, but your job is not what you
wished for.
A person that I knew was a scholar in one of the most reputable schools
in our country. He graduated with honors in accountancy and then went
to America. Did they recognize his qualifications? NO! In order to
survive, he worked as a janitor where he cleaned toilets. He studied
again just to meet the US standard.
People say life in these advanced nations is not easy. You can earn
big, but taxes are also big. Time is Money, so they often take part
time jobs. They live in nice houses, but the rent or mortgage is expensive.
This is the reason why most of them couldn’t save much money.
If you work in Japan, Italy or Saudi Arabia, within a year you can
build a house already. In other countries, the pay is not much but
the expenses are not much either. Some oil rich countries do not impose
taxes.
Some parents don’t want to live in a foreign country permanently.
The Filipino tradition will not be fully practiced anymore especially
among the children. We heard a story about a parent who was arrested
because of his child. It was said that he scolded his teenage son
and administered discipline as most Filipino parents do, which is
to spank the kid. His kid reported him to the police and had him arrested,
since it is a violation to hit a child. Laws don’t even allow
you to leave your small children at home if no adult is looking after
them. So what did the parent do? When he was released from jail, he
decided to bring his family back to Philippines.
Some of us don’t want to migrate because of the distance. If
something urgent happens to our loved ones, it’s difficult to
go back home because the airfare is expensive. One Filipino who migrated
to Canada never get the chance to see his mother before she passed
away. According to him, he had money, but just enough for the airfare.
He said that if he goes home, he would have nothing to contribute
for his mother’s burial aside from being on leave without pay
that could cause him to lose his job. Therefore, what he did is to
just send the money for his mother’s burial. It is a sad thing
that he was not there for his mother for the last time, but he had
no choice.
But some Filipinos would say that they won’t mind the hardships
as long as there's a good future waiting for their children.
So, do you still want to MIGRATE? It's up to you to think what is
best.
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(Revised October
2004-KL)
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