Is that your amo (grasp)? A middle-aged Filipina on the bus in Rome casually requested me about my companion. That day in 1992, I used to be with the late Bruno Amoroso, my Italian-Danish professor in Welfare and Environmental Economics.
By 1992, the Soviet Union had collapsed, the Berlin Wall had fallen, and Europe was on the verge of uniting. So, a journalist from Thailand, a lawyer from the Philippines, and I had been there to study what occurs subsequent from Professor Amoroso (1936-2017) at Roskilde University in Denmark. In Italy, we stayed at his flat close to Roma Termini.
Unbeknownst to me, Filipina maids labored in households round this central practice station in Rome. Every morning I caught a glimpse a Filipino nanny via the home windows of an condo throughout the road. And I all the time noticed one or two Filipinos, not among the many hordes of vacationers, however on the bus rides we took.
Being mistaken for a home employee was not new. Too preoccupied to clarify, I bear in mind saying, sure, to my inquisitive seatmate. Back then, I didn’t hassle to ask her what number of extra Filipino girls toiled in Rome as live-in helpers, caregivers, or cleaners. Now, I’m wondering what number of of them labored legally with some extent of safety. And what number of got here via underground placement, on vacationer visas, or underneath the pretext of non secular pilgrimage.
Willing, Able and Invisible
That day on the bus, I didn’t interact as a result of I intuitively knew that staying mum had advantages. Invisibility elevated a migrant staff probabilities of survival. Often, the success of a Filipino Overseas Worker (OFW) meant deliberate self-erasure. Triumph was measured not when it comes to social recognition, equitable wages, and even truthful remedy however by remittances or the cash despatched to assist households again dwelling.
Now absorbed by the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) didn’t publish a precise tally of Filipino girls OFWs. Local estimates, nevertheless, famous that tens of hundreds of Filipino girls had been current in Italy. In 1992, Filipino migrant staff in Europe represented a small fraction (round 3%) of all OFWs.
Through state-sponsored deployment, Hong Kong and Singapore employed no less than 65,000 home staff every. Around 40,000 to 100,000 had been in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, or the Middle East as an entire. The official depend of the government-sanctioned girls labor export was 275,000.
Gender-disaggregated remittance monitoring was restricted in 1992. But within the early Nineties the whole remittances that the Philippine Central Bank may hint hovered between $1 to 2 billion USD yearly. The 12 months 1992 marked POEAs preliminary document of the Feminization Wave. Newly employed land-based, non-seafaring, girls migrants (131,213) outnumbered males (128,380) for the primary time.
The Philippine governments financial technique of Labor Export Program, a coverage that started within the Nineteen Seventies underneath the then-dictator Ferdinand Marcos, met the demand for affordable home care staff in booming economies. Formal bilateral agreements between the Philippines and better-off host international locations made that attainable.
Happening on the Village
Hard-pressed financial circumstances compelled Filipino single girls and moms to go away for greener pastures. They are usually not destitute, nor unskilled, a previous authorities designation of their labor class. But ask why a college-educated OFW would search elementary occupations, the present classification for family service staff, and her response is predictable: to present dad and mom, siblings, or her partner and kids a greater life or a transparent path forward.
Para sa kinabukasan mo ito, anak (that is in your future, son), mentioned a stoic mom flashing a courageous smile on a TV sport present aired in 2018. She repeatedly advised her son, who was 6 or 7, that he was the rationale why she needed to work overseas. The son, who mentioned he joined the televised contest to win cash so his mother would give up, begged her to remain and deal with him as an alternative of someone elses kids.
In each group, the necessity to construct a typhoon-resilient concrete home is actual. And so is the demonstration impact of a neighbors means to complete development on a home. Everyone is aware of that the month-to-month padala (remittance) made the distinction. Still, an OFWs resolve goes past merely maintaining with the Joneses. It is about closing the aspiration gap-what a household desires to attain and what the native financial system permits them to earn.
Hopeful OFWs might not essentially be impoverished. But they inhabit an financial system that’s in a state of monetary stagnation, the place native wages may feed however not purchase them the dream home or increased schooling that secures gainful employment for the following era. The solely method for the household to maneuver up is for one in every of them to maneuver out.
Beyond Human Cost
Despite going through potential dangers and the problem of studying a brand new language or tradition, an OFW will take her possibilities and seize each alternative to enhance her familys lot. She summons braveness and bolsters religion to embark on pakikipagsapalaran, a enterprise into the unknown. She leaves issues to future in pursuit of an aspirational prize on the journeys finish. So, as soon as she is overseas working, she overcomes any emotions of isolation and homesickness to deliver dwelling the bacon.
In 2016, the late TV host of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown featured Aurora. Her final identify left unmentioned, this Filipina nanny raised one of many exhibits administrators and producers, Erik Osterholm. She labored for his household for 30 years within the U.S. Bourdain additionally admitted that his daughter was being raised by a Filipina nanny in New York.
Like the home employee I met in Rome in 1992, care staff within the U.S. are autonomous migrants. Unlike the state-sponsored migrant employee, a self-directed one enters on a non-work visa and transitions to undocumented home labor. Sadly, she stays unable to return dwelling with out giving up all the things. When an unauthorized employee voluntarily leaves the U.S. after overstaying for multiple 12 months, she is banned from returning for 10 years. Aurora didn’t see her personal kids for 3 many years.
Her Sacrifice and Macroeconomics
Regardless of how she acquired employed, an OFWs survival technique additionally doubles as a macroeconomic stabilizer for her nation. The remittance she sends house is systematically harvested to prop up Philippine overseas forex reserves, to stabilize native forex, and to repay money owed.
According to the Debt Justice web page on the Philippines, from 1970 to 1980 the governments exterior debt rose from $600 million to over $6 billion USD. The authorities needed to take out extra loans simply to maintain paying debt and curiosity, therefore the Labor Export Policy (LEP) for the reason that Nineteen Seventies. By 1992, the nationwide debt was roughly $31 billion USD.
Debt Justice wrote: Throughout the course of Marcoss dictatorship, the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and World Bank lent the regime $5.5 billion, with an additional $3.5 billion from overseas governments such because the United States. Over $9 billion was lent by the overseas non-public sector, comparable to banks. One infamous deal was US government-backed loans for the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), constructed by US firm Westinghouse.
Under his dictatorship, Marcos, in 1973, introduced the choice to construct a nuclear energy plant in response to the oil disaster. Construction started in 1976. In November 1979, he ignored the Safety Commission Report citing insufficient safeguards as a possible hazard to the well being and security of the general public; development continued. Built close to fault strains and volcanoes, BNPP was accomplished in 1984 after which mothballed in 1986. The unique challenge value of $700 million ballooned to $2.2 billion.
CoverStory.Ph in 2022 wrote: The BNPP was financed by a $1.2-billion mortgage from a syndicate led by the US Export-Import Bank, Citicorp, and Swiss and Japanese banks. Interest on the mortgage amounted to $350,000 a day or $240 million a 12 months. The debt servicing lasted for greater than 30 years and ended solely in 2007. Maintenance prices for the non-operating plant amounted to P40 million (in Philippine pesos) a 12 months.”
The Philippine Daily Inquirer in 2025 reported that Filipino taxpayers repaid a complete of $22 billion on the BNPP mortgage. Although an OFW’s foreign-sourced employment revenue is totally exempt from Philippine revenue tax, OFWs and their households contribute not directly to the nation’s tax pool via the 12% Value Added Tax (VAT) and excise taxes on shopper items purchased inside the Philippines utilizing remittance cash.
Ironically, Italy in 1992 was additionally in debt by 933.9 trillion lire (roughly $650 billion USD), estimated to be 113% of its Gross National Product (GDP). Professor Bruno Amoroso took the three of us to satisfy the MIT-educated economist who would engineer Italys method out of their fiscal bind.
While each governments in 1992 had been financially strained, Italy had inexpensive and extremely expert care for his or her households -thanks to Filipina OFWs toiling in a shadow labor market. Likewise, Auroras three many years of remittances partially paid Westinghouses $2.2 billion invoice, BNPP financial institution lenders, and kickbacks to officers and brokers. She paid dearly for selections she by no means made.
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The Author:
George Banez is a author of Filipino descent and is a retired non-profit skilled dwelling in Florida.
George Banez, Ph.D.