Diaspora is not good for us
Diaspora is not good for us
Posted 11:43pm (Mla time) Feb 23, 2005
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the February 24, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
THIS is in reaction to the column of Johnny Mercado on the Philippine diaspora. (PDI, 1/25/05) We must remember that no country has ever become strong because of diaspora. Diaspora is to a nation what hemorrhage is to an individual. Diaspora is even worse because with it, a nation loses not only blood but also brain and brawn.
The classic example is Israel. After its citizens were scattered throughout the world by the Roman Empire, Israel practically died—it ceased to exist. It was revived through Zionism—the movement advocating the return of the Jews to Israel after the end of World War II.
Mass emigration occurs when a nation is in trouble. Another classic example was the potato famine in Ireland in the 1840s that led to the mass migration to America. Unemployment in England and religious persecution in Europe led to the mass emigrations in the 18th and 19th centuries. Only when the European countries, like Germany and Italy, began industrializing did their diaspora stop and they became strong.
Hitler’s dictatorship and persecution of the Jews led to the emigration of Jewish scientists to the United States. This brain drain partly led to the defeat of Germany in World War II because the scientists who fled Hitler developed the atomic bomb for the United States instead of for Germany. As the biggest destination of immigrants, the United States developed rapidly to become the strongest country after the war.
Philippine emigration started during the Spanish colonial rule when Filipinos were conscripted by the Spanish government for slave labor in the Marianas and to fight its wars against the Portuguese. At the start of the US occupation, Filipino laborers were recruited to work in the Hawaiian cane fields and to pick pineapple in California. After World War II, our emigration to the United States consisted mostly of educated Filipinos and professionals.
In the ’70s, the Marcos dictatorship consciously adopted the policy of encouraging mass labor emigration because of growing unemployment at home, to ease social unrest against the dictatorship and earn foreign exchange to pay its debts. This Marcos policy continues to be implemented by our government up to the present. However, despite the remittances of overseas Filipino workers, our country has not prospered.
An ADB study says OFW remittances have not helped the country to progress. It is easy to see why. Remittances by OFWs are used mostly for consumption by their families. Capital does not come from consumption but from profits, but the profits are being made by multinationals whose products are being bought by the OFWs’ families. Despite the heavy sacrifices of our OFWs, our people remain pathetically impoverished.
Unless we change policy and concentrate on internal development to keep our workers, intellectuals and professionals here, our country will remain impoverished, starving and humiliated.
—MANUEL F. ALMARIO, mfalmario AT yahoo DOT com
Posted 11:43pm (Mla time) Feb 23, 2005
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the February 24, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
THIS is in reaction to the column of Johnny Mercado on the Philippine diaspora. (PDI, 1/25/05) We must remember that no country has ever become strong because of diaspora. Diaspora is to a nation what hemorrhage is to an individual. Diaspora is even worse because with it, a nation loses not only blood but also brain and brawn.
The classic example is Israel. After its citizens were scattered throughout the world by the Roman Empire, Israel practically died—it ceased to exist. It was revived through Zionism—the movement advocating the return of the Jews to Israel after the end of World War II.
Mass emigration occurs when a nation is in trouble. Another classic example was the potato famine in Ireland in the 1840s that led to the mass migration to America. Unemployment in England and religious persecution in Europe led to the mass emigrations in the 18th and 19th centuries. Only when the European countries, like Germany and Italy, began industrializing did their diaspora stop and they became strong.
Hitler’s dictatorship and persecution of the Jews led to the emigration of Jewish scientists to the United States. This brain drain partly led to the defeat of Germany in World War II because the scientists who fled Hitler developed the atomic bomb for the United States instead of for Germany. As the biggest destination of immigrants, the United States developed rapidly to become the strongest country after the war.
Philippine emigration started during the Spanish colonial rule when Filipinos were conscripted by the Spanish government for slave labor in the Marianas and to fight its wars against the Portuguese. At the start of the US occupation, Filipino laborers were recruited to work in the Hawaiian cane fields and to pick pineapple in California. After World War II, our emigration to the United States consisted mostly of educated Filipinos and professionals.
In the ’70s, the Marcos dictatorship consciously adopted the policy of encouraging mass labor emigration because of growing unemployment at home, to ease social unrest against the dictatorship and earn foreign exchange to pay its debts. This Marcos policy continues to be implemented by our government up to the present. However, despite the remittances of overseas Filipino workers, our country has not prospered.
An ADB study says OFW remittances have not helped the country to progress. It is easy to see why. Remittances by OFWs are used mostly for consumption by their families. Capital does not come from consumption but from profits, but the profits are being made by multinationals whose products are being bought by the OFWs’ families. Despite the heavy sacrifices of our OFWs, our people remain pathetically impoverished.
Unless we change policy and concentrate on internal development to keep our workers, intellectuals and professionals here, our country will remain impoverished, starving and humiliated.
—MANUEL F. ALMARIO, mfalmario AT yahoo DOT com
posted by Dante at 5:00 PM
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