UNLAD KABAYAN MIGRANT SERVICES FOUNDATION INC.
Mag-Impok at Mamuhunan!
Itatag ang Kabuhayan!
Migration: Solution? or Problem?
There are about 6 million overseas Filipino workers (OFW) employed
or seeking employment in 137 countries all over the world. They include
overseas contract workers (16.6%), undocumented workers (16.6%) and
emigrants (66%).
Six million represents about 8.1% of our present population. Since
most of them would be primary breadwinners, they would directly support
about 49% of our total population, not to mention the industries that
depend on providing services to migrant workers.
Migration is a boon to the economy in other ways. On average, OFWs
remit US$ 2-4 billion annually to their families. This larger than
foreign direct investment flows for any single year. Foreign currency
reserves enable the country to soften the impact of the current financial
crisis.
Migration hides real problems
Migration hides the huge unemployment problem of the country. Most
Filipinos are literate in English, a skill that is demanded by the
labor market that is rapidly globalizing. English speaking maids,
singers, entertainers, teachers, nurses and seafarers are in demand
worldwide. Employable Filipino workers continue to respond to the
global labor market demand as long as there are no viable jobs at
home. And unemployment is merely a reflection of structural problems.
Many migrants discover, however, that working overseas may not be
the solution to their poverty. Many migrants die overseas due to work-related
causes. Many are physically, emotionally and psychologically abused
by their employers. Long separations may also cause broken families,
infidelity of one or both spouses and delinquent behaviour among migrant's
children.
The central problem remains. The Philippine economy is increasingly
being shaped by global market demands rather than by the needs of
the country. Even educational institutions are geared towards curricular
offerings that meet international labor demands, risking a severe
shortage of a skilled labor pool for the country's industries. When
the international economy suffers periodic crises, as it has in the
current currency crisi, Filipino workers are sent home to joblessness,
poverty and worsening social order.
Responses to the problem
The Philippine government has responded to the problems of migrant
workers in a reactive way while pursuing a more agressive labor export
policy. Philippine Overseas and Labor Offices (POLO) exist only in
some 22 countries and are inadequately staffed as the government itself
admits. Services offered by government agencies in general are slow
at best. Non-government organizations (NGOs) or Filipino overseas
workers associations themselves are providing better services in many
countries through crisis intervention, paralegal assistance, counseling,
providing refuge, educating towards self-organization, human rights
and towards savings mobilization.
Reintegration is the key
Overseas work is unstable being menial, gender specific, low skilled
and highly temporary. Foreign countries precisely hire overseas workers
because they are not compelled to provide more than token protection
to foreign workers. They are accorded no union rights, no legal protection
from gross exploitation and little accident compensation.
While it is near impossible to prevent Filipinos from seeking overseas
jobs as long as there is a demand for them, the only immediate viable
solution to the problems of overseas work is "re-integration"
of workers. This is the planned return of migrant workers, after a
conscious effort to accumulate savings and an equal effort to invest
in micro enterprises at home.
Because government agricultural and industrial policies are "liberal"
and promote globalization at the expense of Filipino producers, Filipinos
themselves must struggle to build up their own capital and to promote
alternative investments and alternative jobs. This is the goal of
Unlad Kabayan.
What is Unlad Kabayan?
Unlad Kabayan was established in 1994 as a program of the Asian Migrant
Center (AMC), a non-government organization based in HongKong. After
years of organizing migrant workers and providing various services
to help them cope with their problems, the AMC decided that the long
term solution to migration is savings mobilization, building of savings
associations among migrant workers and alternative investments at
home.
This "re-integration" scheme was seen as a means to prepare
migrant workers for their eventual return to their countries and at
the same time to help create small enterprises at home. With the projected
establishment of enterprises at home, the migrant workers help create
new jobs for their families and communities and even for themselves
in case overseas employment is terminated suddenly.
The program was set up in the Philippines in 1996 and has become
a model for other labor sending countries in Asia to bring home their
migrants with dignity, and as early as possible, so as to reduce the
hazards they may be exposed to overseas.
Vision Mission and Goals
- Unlad Kabayan seeks to help build a society that is self-reliant,
that mobilizes local resources in order that the fullest potentials
of the country and her people are realized.
Unlad Kabayan understands a viable economic system as one that promotes
the use of local products and reduces the demand for imported goods.
This is the best way to support local workers and their jobs.
- Unlad Kabayan seeks to build the savings consciousness of migrant
workers and their families as the essential component of a capital
build up program in the country.
Unlad Kabayan seeks to empower migrant workers and their families
so they themselves are able to analyze economic data, make wise business
decisions and develop skills in enterprise development and management.
- It is the goal of Unlad Kabayan to help migrant workers savings
associations wherever migrant workers are located and to offer services
to them and towards the setting up of small-scale enterprises.
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How can Unlad Kabayan Help you?
Programs and Services
By Motivating You to Save
Unlad Kabayan can help motivate you to save through education and
training seminars for migrant workers and their families. This is
done through various partners throughout the world who are also motivating
migrant workers to save and to invest savings in enterprises in the
Philippines.
Unlad Kabayan promotes such values as savings awareness, doing productive
work, patronizing local products, generating jobs in the spirit of
cooperation and mutual help for sustainable local economies.
By Training You in Enterprise Management
Unlad Kabayan trains you on how to start and eventually how to manage
a small enterprise. Unlad Kabayan conducts various training modules
for aspiring enterpreneurs. Basic skills in feasibility study making,
financial planning, bookkeeping, market networking as well as cash
flow projection and organizing and managing an enterprise. These courses
assist you in making decisions as to whether and when to start a grocery
store, an agrivet supply store, a piggery or poultry, etc.
Unlad Kabayan also provides business counseling to returning migrant
workers or to the members of their family. This will help you make
a choice about the business enterprise you want to start or fund.
This will help you plan your business.
By Helping You to Access Credit
Unlad Kabayan has set up relationships with local cooperative and
rural banks to enable migrant workers to access funds for their enterprises.
The local banks also contribute their expertise in the management
of funds.
By Sustaining Community Enterprises
Unlad Kabayan is involved in giving credit assistance to migrant
workers and their families for agricultural production, for micro
level agro-industries, organic farming and for rice trading as in
Bansud in Mindoro, Davao City, Metro Manila and other locations. You
are welcome to visit these project areas.
Unlad Kabayan also provides business counseling and assistance in
market networking.
By Providing Information
Unlad Kabayan continues to provide general information on investment
opportunities and the economic situation of the Philippines for migrant
workers and their families. Unlad Kabayan publishes regular Economic
Updates and Migrant Workers News.
Unlad Kabayan Migrant Services Foundation Inc.
#1 Maamo St., Sikatuna Village, 1101 Quezon City
Philippines
Tel/Fax: (63)(2) 433 1292
E-mail: unladka@csi.com.ph
More info on this page: More info on this page: http://www.philsol.nl/org/unladka/brochure1.htm
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