Reverse migration? Sorry, not because of increased GDP

Reverse migration? Sorry, not because of increased GDP

What is happening in Saudi Arabia and other Mideast countries is actually the shrinking of labor market, of which the immediate impact is job displacement. At least 120,000 Filipinos were directly affected by Saudization, including an estimated 28,000 undocumented OFWs

There are an estimated 2.3 million OFWs working in the Middle East, of which 1.5 million are in Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom has been the No. 1 destination for OFWs since the 1990s, recently averaging 25,000 newcomers every month.

The Philippines is already witnessing the early stage of reverse migration among OFWs. The dilemma is that OFWs are coming home not for good, but for worse. Reverse migration has been noted and documented among OFWs in the Middle East, specifically in Saudi Arabia, due to the implementation of the Kingdom’s Nitaqat law, which strictly requires the hiring of their own nationals over expatriate workers.

Meanwhile, OFWs in the Bahamas also face the threat of being displaced. Egypt, Libya and Syria are affected by political unrest, forcing thousands of OFWs to leave these countries.  Nearly 5,000 OFWs came home from Syria, while around 114 OFWs in Amman, Jordan are expected to be repatriated soon.

The country’s unemployed stands at 7.5 percent of the labor force, or 3 million people, as of April 2013, compared to a 6.9 percent unemployment rate in the same month last year.The nation’s employment situation may be directly affected by the reverse migration

Who doesn’t want reverse migration? Yes, migrant workers still hope for it. But this will never happen if the country has only a superficial GDP growth rate that does not benefit the people but  only local big businessmen and multinational corporations reap benefit from.

Source: http://arabnews.com/news/455106#.Ub0doBzQG8k.twitterhttp://arabnews.com/news/455106#.Ub0doBzQG8k.twitter

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