PARIS, FRANCE—TERESA winced as if the camera flash hit her – just like she did when two men mauled her in her room here early morning three years ago.
“It just feels like it happened yesterday, you know, because I’m still illegal, undocumented, irregular, whatever,” she said, waving her arms as if the bad memories could be waved off like fruit flies.
THE song about stopping the world and melting with somebody kept playing in my head while working on this magazine, especially on the cover story “Free Movement.”
The song’s lyrics may be about this thing called love but Mr. Jeremaiah Opiniano’s story sums up the level that Filipino migration achieved since the early 80s, the so-called second wave.
MANILA – Month-on-month remittance data reflecting downward spikes may reveal the impact of world oil and commodities prices adjustment to economies like the Philippines that are dependent on cash flow from abroad, economist Alvin Ang said.
“While it is too early to see the effect, we should be on guard of the monthly growth rates of remittance inflows and understand the ‘Philippine cycle’ of these flows,” the University of Santo Tomas economics professor said.
MANILA – A US-generated financial crisis is testing overseas Filipino workers’ ability to send cash home, an economist said using government data on remittances.
“If OFWs persist in sending more money, it will not be physically sustainable for them,” Alvin Ang told the OFW Journalism Consortium before monetary authorities reported on August 15 that OFWs sent home a record $1.5 billion in June.
MANILA — Fifteen down, 15 organizations more to go, and the global conference on migration and development (GFMD) organizers remain optimistic these advocates can use the conference to lobby for greater protection for migrant workers.
“We’re aiming to come up with recommendations na mapipilitan ang gobyerno na ma-consider [to pressure the government to consider] such recommendations”, Second Global Forum on Migration and Development organizer Ildefonso Bagasao told the OFW Journalism Consortium.