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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - More Pinoys coming to Singapore to work!</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
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</NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>May-22 10:40 pm </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 35) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>13847.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD>More Filipinos seek work abroad
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD>Thousands leave the country every day in search of jobs despite global slump </TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- Author --></TD></TR><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Alastair McIndoe, Philippines Correspondent
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Unfazed by a global recession, record numbers of Filipinos are applying for passports to work overseas. -- ST PHOTO: ALASTAIR MCINDOE
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MANILA: The queue starts before dawn at Manila's passport office behind the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) headquarters on the city's bayfront.
Undeterred by heavy job losses across the globe in the economic crisis, rising numbers of Filipinos are applying for passports to seek work overseas.
Applications reached a record high in the first four months of this year: 823,378 compared to 785,050 in the same period last year, according to latest data from the DFA.
'This shows that Filipinos still see job opportunities overseas and are exploring those options despite the global recession,' said DFA passport division director Donna Gatmaytan.
About a tenth of the population of 90 million live or work abroad. The money that they send home - a record US$16 billion (S$23.3 billion) last year - is crucial to this developing economy.
These inflows remain strong, helping the Philippines emerge as one of the region's more resilient economies, despite sinking exports and foreign investments.
With the local job situation tight - and no signs that the country's overseas workers are being laid off in large numbers - more Filipinos than ever before are setting their sights on working abroad.
Like most of those queueing at the passport office, Ms Geraldine Castro, 26, is applying for her first passport. She is looking for a job as a waitress in Dubai.
Asked if she is worried that her chances of finding one may be hurt by the severe economic downturn, she replied: 'I am hoping that the worst is over.'
Around 3,000 Filipinos leave the country daily on new or renewed contracts to work as nurses, seafarers, maids and in a variety of skilled and professional jobs.
Those in manufacturing have been hit the hardest by the global slump.
In the Middle East, where two million Filipinos work, recruitment agencies say demand for skilled workers in some countries, most notably Dubai, has virtually dried up. But it remains buoyant in others. Across the region, there has been no drop in demand for domestic helpers.
'It seems that they are being viewed as a basic necessity,' said Ms Thelma Uanang, who runs Philquest, an agency specialising in hires for the Middle East.
An estimated 150,000 Filipinos work in Singapore. Many are maids, although that profile is rapidly changing as more skilled and professional Filipinos work there. Ms Uanang said manpower orders from Singapore had fallen only slightly.
DFA spokesman Eduardo Malaya said: 'Overall, the demand from overseas for Filipino workers remains strong.'
That seems to be reflected in the central bank's latest remittance data. Inflows rose 3.1 per cent in March to US$1.47 billion from the same month in 2007.
The growth is less than last year's average of 14 per cent. But importantly, remittances show no signs of contracting.
Even so, concern is rising among the authorities and groups helping migrant workers that more Filipinos, determined in these uncertain times to work overseas at any cost, could fall prey to unlicensed recruiters and traffickers.
This week, Philippine Vice-President Noli de Castro ordered the government's Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment, which he heads, to comb through 29,000 arrest warrants issued since 1995 against suspected illegal recruiters to check whether any are still operating.
'We are already seeing the impact of the non-renewal of orders for workers,' said the International Labour Organisation's chief adviser for Asia-Pacific Thetis Mangahas. 'With legal channels narrowing, they will increasingly look to the illegal and irregular ones.'
[email protected]
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</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD>Thousands leave the country every day in search of jobs despite global slump </TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- Author --></TD></TR><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Alastair McIndoe, Philippines Correspondent
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- show image if available --></TD></TR><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
Unfazed by a global recession, record numbers of Filipinos are applying for passports to work overseas. -- ST PHOTO: ALASTAIR MCINDOE
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->
MANILA: The queue starts before dawn at Manila's passport office behind the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) headquarters on the city's bayfront.
Undeterred by heavy job losses across the globe in the economic crisis, rising numbers of Filipinos are applying for passports to seek work overseas.
Applications reached a record high in the first four months of this year: 823,378 compared to 785,050 in the same period last year, according to latest data from the DFA.
'This shows that Filipinos still see job opportunities overseas and are exploring those options despite the global recession,' said DFA passport division director Donna Gatmaytan.
About a tenth of the population of 90 million live or work abroad. The money that they send home - a record US$16 billion (S$23.3 billion) last year - is crucial to this developing economy.
These inflows remain strong, helping the Philippines emerge as one of the region's more resilient economies, despite sinking exports and foreign investments.
With the local job situation tight - and no signs that the country's overseas workers are being laid off in large numbers - more Filipinos than ever before are setting their sights on working abroad.
Like most of those queueing at the passport office, Ms Geraldine Castro, 26, is applying for her first passport. She is looking for a job as a waitress in Dubai.
Asked if she is worried that her chances of finding one may be hurt by the severe economic downturn, she replied: 'I am hoping that the worst is over.'
Around 3,000 Filipinos leave the country daily on new or renewed contracts to work as nurses, seafarers, maids and in a variety of skilled and professional jobs.
Those in manufacturing have been hit the hardest by the global slump.
In the Middle East, where two million Filipinos work, recruitment agencies say demand for skilled workers in some countries, most notably Dubai, has virtually dried up. But it remains buoyant in others. Across the region, there has been no drop in demand for domestic helpers.
'It seems that they are being viewed as a basic necessity,' said Ms Thelma Uanang, who runs Philquest, an agency specialising in hires for the Middle East.
An estimated 150,000 Filipinos work in Singapore. Many are maids, although that profile is rapidly changing as more skilled and professional Filipinos work there. Ms Uanang said manpower orders from Singapore had fallen only slightly.
DFA spokesman Eduardo Malaya said: 'Overall, the demand from overseas for Filipino workers remains strong.'
That seems to be reflected in the central bank's latest remittance data. Inflows rose 3.1 per cent in March to US$1.47 billion from the same month in 2007.
The growth is less than last year's average of 14 per cent. But importantly, remittances show no signs of contracting.
Even so, concern is rising among the authorities and groups helping migrant workers that more Filipinos, determined in these uncertain times to work overseas at any cost, could fall prey to unlicensed recruiters and traffickers.
This week, Philippine Vice-President Noli de Castro ordered the government's Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment, which he heads, to comb through 29,000 arrest warrants issued since 1995 against suspected illegal recruiters to check whether any are still operating.
'We are already seeing the impact of the non-renewal of orders for workers,' said the International Labour Organisation's chief adviser for Asia-Pacific Thetis Mangahas. 'With legal channels narrowing, they will increasingly look to the illegal and irregular ones.'
[email protected]
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