a contribution from SS

Diaspora-Dispersion of the Jews after the Babylonian exile (from Webster's unabridged Dictionary )

PHILIPPINES: "BRAIN DRAIN" THEN, "DIASPORA" NOW

The seeds of "brain drain" (aka ‘human capital flight’ --- an emigration of ‘trained and talented individuals’ to other nations or jurisdictions, due to…..lack of opportunity,…..where they are living) took roots right after the Philippines gained its independence in 1946.

Sowed on a rich top soil of smooth processing of post-Independence visa applications and later to be abundantly watered and fertilized by rhetoric of a foreign land of ‘milk and honey’, continuous showing of excellently produced Hollywood movies, yearly singing of Christmas songs like "Dashing through the snow….." and "I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…..", the seedling grew into a robust plant which today is now called "diaspora" (scattering abroad of all types of Filipinos).

Most recently, a story has it that when two Filipino explorers reached the summit of Mt. Everest earlier this year, they were given a warm reception by Katmandu’s Filipino community consisting of two Filipinas married to Nepalese.

On board a ship which used to transport logs from Coos Bay, Oregon to Japan in 1970s, a Norwegian ship officer had experienced loading in one settlement in the area with a population of only 200 people: 199 native Americans and one Filipino.

In late 1970s, groups of Filipino ‘beach-combers’, mostly ‘jump shippers’, alternated monthly between Hamburg, then W. Germany and Amsterdam, Netherlands. They took advantage of these cities’ lenient immigration laws which allowed foreigners to remain on land for up to one month without any visa.

While on board a ship which docked to load frozen lamb’s meat at the port of Bluff (near Invercargill, southernmost tip of South Island, New Zealand) in mid-1977, we were surprised to find a Filipino ashore. Discharging the same cargo a month later at Khorramshar (at the confluence of the Karun River and the Shatt al Arab at the top of the Persian Gulf), Iran, we were equally surprised to learn that a number of overseas Filipino contract workers, some with their families, have been living in the city and have even invited us to visit their small Catholic chapel.

While discharging iron ore in Mizushima, Japan one evening in 1976, I went ashore with some shipmates to go shopping. Lined on the sidewalk of one thorough-fare were Filipina ‘japayukis’ inviting us to be entertained in their respective clubs.

Beginning this year, a new breed of Filipinos is poised to ‘invade’ Japan. Because of declining number of entrants to the profession, the Japanese government has changed its laws to allow the employment of Filipino nurses.

If we consider today the phenomenon of hordes of Filipino doctors re-enrolling to take nursing course in order to increase their chances to go abroad, their desire to scatter themselves outside the Philippines is, indeed, so intense.

Based on my experience, the type of Filipinos making up the diaspora run the breadth of the "holy" and the "unholy". The "holy" applies to the least known of Filipino "human exports" --- the Catholic priests. On board a bulk ship in mid-1970s, we used to load gypsum in Barahona, Dominican Republic, in the island called Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea. There was a Filipino priest there, an Ilocano, who taught the poor people in that city how to eat ‘malunggay’ leaves and ‘camote’ tops, which grew abundantly in the locality. Previously, they didn’t know that these plants were edible.

I learned of the "unholy" type in mid-1980s while loading LPG in Cartagena, Colombia after a failed cocaine smuggling attempt to Puerto Rico. During the meeting at a secluded place ashore involving one ship member and a small time drug trafficking syndicate to thresh out what went wrong, one member of the syndicate was a Filipino.

Today, the "brain drain" seedling has grown into a sturdy "diaspora" tree.

In Europe, Italy topped all the other countries with an estimated 200,000 Filipinos, followed by Britain 80,000, Spain 50,000, Greece 40,000, Germany 40,000, Austria 20,000, France 18,000 and Netherlands 18,000. If the presence of Filipinos in the other 8 European countries is considered, the total number of Filipinos in Europe would be about 500,000.

In the United States, the number of Filipino expatriates is estimated to be between 2.3 and 2.5 million.

One may ask: Is this Filipino ‘diaspora’ good or bad? Economy-wise, it is good. According to Rolando B. Tolentino, a Visiting UP Professor at the National University of Singapore, "so massive is the export of subcontractual human or Filipino/s labor that eight million OCWs accounted for some US$9 billion remittances in 2005. The amount is roughly 52 percent of the 2005 Philippine national budget of Php957.56 billion, and could have covered three-fold the Philippine government’s national deficit of US$3.2 billion for the same year,"

With Filipino cooks, singers, entertainers, seafarers, fishermen, domestics, technicians, teachers, nurses, etc, scattered all over the globe, no less than F. Sionil Jose, a world-renowned Pangasinense writer, was moved to say: "We have become the proletariat of the world." ---#