"Filipinos overseas are self-exiles. We chose to leave our homeland when this became intellectually, politically, financially, artistically or philosophically limiting or oppressive. We are drawn to another country because of the vitality of its intellectual, scientific or artistic scene, its support and tolerance for innovation, progress and intellectual energy, and by its high regard for the immigrant who brings in new talent and skill, allowing him or her the freedom to achieve success, find his or her identity and express his or her ideas. Self-actualization in another land is not a crime. And Filipinos back home, who seek their own success, would be well-served to rejoice in ours. We are no different. We are just far from home."
(from "No, Winnie, Filipinos who go overseas are not traitors" by Joy Anotnelle De Marcaida M.D.)
I have come to realize, while
doing research for my lit review, that Healthcare Brain Drain is an issue in
many developing countries. I have learned, from various sources like Ruth
Groenhout who wrote “The ‘Brain Drain’ Problem: Migrating Medical Professionals
and Global Health Care,” that “countries in the global South face enormous
shortages of health-care workers” and that “the most direct solution, to train
more doctors and nurses, does not solve the problem because so many of those
who are trained move to the global North to take advantage of higher salaries
and an improved standard of living.”
It is quiet interesting that in
the Philippines this whole migration of workers business was once considered a
good thing. In fact, in the 1970’s overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) were coined
“bagong bayani” (new heroes) by the government as their efforts of
working abroad cushioned the country from falling into way too deep an economic
fall. Now, however, migration has been one of the country’s problem and OFWs are
now being thought and accused of being traitors of the country. I remember a
particular YouTube Video of the famous Professor Solita Monsod of the
University of the Philippines, Diliman, delivering a lecture for Econ 1001
where she said: “If you’re going to help this
country, you’ve got to be in this country.” She further calls out those who have ambitions of working abroad,
especially the graduates of state universities that “they are essentially
betraying the people of the Philippines who trusted them and invested their
money for their education.”
I have tried to wrap my mind
around this issue. I can see Professor Monsod’s point that going abroad doesn’t
really help the country considering this outflow of physicians and nurses (and
other healthcare workers) leave the country with a shortage thereof. But, at
the same time, I also feel for “self-exiled” Filipino workers abroad. For one,
it’s not like the government compensates them well enough to even support their
workers own basic and family needs. They don’t even have conducive enough work
places wherein they could provide services for clients. Not to mention the lack
of medical supplies that are crucial not only for providing medical service to
patients, but also for their own safety.
It is quiet unfair to bring the
“you’re betraying the country if you leave card” (especially when it comes from the mouths of rich/influential/powerful people) when the truth is the country (or those controlling the country) betrayed them first by neglecting their needs.
But two wrongs don’t make things right. And perhaps the better question isn't whether or not healthcare workers who go abroad are traitors or not, but rather whether or not there is action from the government to reduce healthcare brain drain...
Any thoughts?
I myself grew up in a "balik bayan" Filipino family here in the U.S. The term refers to those who constantly travel in between the Philippines and the U.S. after migrating to the U.S. in search of better paying jobs (e.g. secretaries, nursing assistants, maids, doctors, etc.) to be able to send back the money they earn to close and extended family members back home in the Philippines. In my experience, these people are the lucky ones who can escape the socioeconomic turmoil the Philippines faces. But these lucky ones are the burdened ones, self-motivated or pressured by remaining family to send most of what they earn back to the Philippines and spending almost nothing on themselves. You're right. This would not have to be the case if the Philippines was better equipped to incentivize these skilled or unskilled workers to remain in their home country to contribute to the Philippine economy. But so many factors come into this being nearly impractical or impossible at the current state. The government remains steeply in debt, inequality persists, government social programs are unequally distributed or nearly non-existent, informal economies (which many rural areas rely on) do not contribute to the state economy, etc.
ReplyDeleteWe cannot ostracize those people who recoginize that the state is not working for them, and who realize that the best way to provide for their families is abroad. So much needs to be done first before these hard-working people could ever be considered traitors.