The 6 Truths About Being An OFW And The OFW Life

For most Filipinos, being an OFW is a promise of good life. You get to earn more than what you can earn here and you are now able to provide a better future for your family. On the other hand, not everyone is aware of the hard work and sacrifices you need to make to be able to give your family a comfortable life. In fact, below are some of the truths behind the OFW life:

1) No, OFWs are not rich.

There will always be success stories and former OFWs who made it big either in the Philippines or abroad. Believe it or not, most OFWs are still not living the good life despite earning more and in dollars. Some even have an existing home or auto loan with banks that they are unable to pay.

Blame it on the lack of financial knowledge, poor money management, and never-ending family issues that keep majority of OFWs from becoming millionaires.

2) Setting aside money for savings is never easy.

Did you know that only 35.8 percent of OFWs have savings? The number is increasing over the years, but it only shows that not everyone are setting aside enough money for the rainy days.

With the bills that need to be paid, a balikbayan box waiting to be filled, and everyday expenses abroad, there is little left for savings. This could be the reason why OFWs continuously work overseas to be able to finance the family’s everyday living.

3) Income is not as big as you imagined.

You might think that since OFWs earn in dollars, it means they earn more than what you earn. That is true. Unfortunately, they get to spend in dollars too. The cost of living varies per country, but one thing is for sure: it is more expensive to live in other countries than to live in the Philippines.

Yes, OFWs earn bigger income, but the cost of living is higher, which explains why they take more than one job to make ends meet.

4) It takes time to fill up a balikbayan box.

Contrary to popular belief, OFWs don’t spend an entire day shopping to send a box full of goodies back home (they would rather work since a no work day equates to money lost). Believe it or not, it will take time for them to complete their family’s bilin, to the point of scrimping or foregoing basic necessities for their family’s sake.

5) Multiple debts is the new normal.

Many OFWs are swimming in a pool of debt, even to the point of borrowing money to pay for placement and documentation fees. To pay-off existing loans. some even borrow money, thereby adding another loan in the list. This is normal for most OFWs.

6) Life overseas is not as easy as it seems.

Filipinos working overseas are not living the carefree life. Most of them have more than one job to make end meets and be able to send a bigger amount in their family back home. Many are letting go of their basic needs just to cover the expenses of their family. Even if you see them posting travel pictures on Facebook, most likely they availed of budget travel package or saved up for their much-deserved vacation for months.

In other words, being an OFW is not as easy as you think it looks. It entails a lo of hard work and sacrifice, which we all need to acknowledge.

5 Reason it is Wrong To Be An OFW

5 Reasons it is Wrong to be an Overseas Filipino Worker

Making a decision to become an overseas Filipino worker likely points to the right direction. Bigger salary, secured future, it’s all in the plan. But wait, it’s also wrong to be an OFW in many ways.

1. We leave our families behind
As OFWs, the first biggest decision to make is to leave our family as we head somewhere faraway in exchange for something better in the future. Although we call it sacrifice, others may call our exodus as abandonment as our decision prompts the disintegration of the family, a basic unit of the society, and puts it at risk of breaking up.🤗🤗🤗

2. We spoil our children
Showing off with expensive shoes that sometimes can’t even be found in stores in the Philippines puts gratitude in the faces of our children in school. But for others, such material blessings can become instruments for bragging rights and attitude of materialism. Our intention of showing our love and compromising for the extended period of our absence by their side can be misconstrued as spoiling them. Worse, our children could find other sources of influence and guidance in our absence, which may not align with our principles as parents.😘😘😘

3. We fuel brain drain
Our presence in our work places benefits the host country. As laborers, architects or nurses, our services are geared towards the people and places where were are located. Many of us may have availed of government scholarships and grants only to use it for our own benefit, instead of returning back the favor by serving the country. Our well-documented life abroad could also inspire others to join us in forming the chronic problem of brain drain, leaving the Philippines bereft of qualified professionals supposed to build the nation from its present state.😊😊😊

4. Our views change
Having left the Philippines and exposed to new society and new culture, we have suddenly changed our ways. Although this is mostly for the better, some of us could give up old values taught as children as we embrace “openmindedness.” Our views on contraception or same-sex marriage might clash with our longstanding views of the family. It becomes easy to judge that policies we see abroad that work should work if applied in the Philippines.😮😮😮

5. We contribute to progress of our host country more than the Philippines
In many countries, OFWs are required to pay taxes. The more skilled you are, the higher your wage is, the higher the tax you pay. Since you do not work in the Philippines, you don’t pay tax there anymore. Although we always take pride of our dollar remittances that sustain the economy of the Philippines, pay random fees at the airport and government transactions, the fact that we don’t pay tax deprives the country of funds used for social services and infrastructure. The government’s inability to effectively collect taxes and apparent misuse of government fund is another story.😐😐😐

Life Being An OFW

The day I left to work overseas was one of the saddest days in my life. I was never used to being far away from my family; I would miss the holidays with them, the not so frequent out of town trips, and I was quite worried because I have no idea how it is like working abroad and the fact that I don’t know anybody from where I was going.😦😦😦

In the life of a typical Filipino family, this situation is very common because parents would like to give better future to their loved ones especially for their children. Good opportunities in the Philippines are not abundant to achieve most of their dreams. Working abroad is one way of fulfilling these dreams.🤑🤑🤑

But working abroad does not always give full beneficial returns for each of the Overseas Filipino Workers. Some may be very lucky to have a very kind employer but some may not. Some can get the perfect job that they really wanted, others cannot. Some even get high paying jobs, some do not. Some Overseas Filipino Workers have the opportunity to bring their families with them but some do not.😑😑😑

Along with financial gains from working as an OFW come sad ending stories, disadvantages or sometimes a permanent damage. Take for example the cases of abuse against Filipina domestic helpers or those battling illness alone in a foreign land without any member of the family to attend to your needs and homesickness.😥😥😥

The foundation of the family relationship becomes weak because of the physical distance that is built when one leaves home for another country. Usual contractual jobs would last for two or more years. There are cases that an OFW who left his wife and children in the Philippines would be weak enough to give in to philandering. But this does not happen only abroad, it could also happen with the spouse who was left behind.🙄🙄🙄

Children who are left are usually not guided properly. Sometimes, both parents are working abroad and children would only be left under the guidance of one of their relatives. Sometimes the guardian cannot fully discipline them that can cause children to be stubborn and hard-headed in the long run. Long separation also creates gap between the parents and children; closeness with each other is not that firm or strong anymore.☺☺☺

For the Overseas Filipino Worker, working abroad without saving extra income for the retirement years is one of the biggest mistakes that should be avoided. This is the reason why many Overseas Filipino Workers are coming back to the country for retirement but are not successful. Finding local jobs after working abroad is also a problem for the Ex-Overseas Filipino Workers. Some companies are choosy and don’t want to accept applicants whose job experience is outside Philippines. You can be accepted in a local job sometimes, but the salary would not be the same anymore. That is why, although they would like to stay at home, they are forced to leave the country again and bear the hardships of being alone and far from their loved ones….and so the cycle goes on.😚😚😚

The sacrifices of Overseas Filipino Workers cannot be avoided, as they need to struggle to fulfill their dreams and to achieve success in life. Those hardships and sacrifices should bear good fruits rather than withered tree.😐😐😐

Learn While Working Abroad

5 LESSON IN LIFE(OFWs)

The thought of working overseas is a sign that one is opening up to new horizons by leaving his or her comfort zone and welcoming new challenges in life.

But that’s just the first of many steps that must be followed; there are no short cuts. Along the way, there are plenty of stumbling blocks that present themselves before an aspiring overseas Filipino worker. The lack of employment qualification, financial burden, emotional attachment to family and risk of falling into the trap of human trafficking, illegal recruitment and other forms of crime that prey on unsuspecting applicants are some of the most common predicaments OFWs face.

But once an OFW overcomes these obstacles, life as a migrant worker itself teaches a number of lessons in life.

Being an overseas Filipino worker teaches us to:

1. Be independent.

A young OFW may be used to be well-pampered by his or her mom, who does the laundry, prepares meals, provides care during sickness, and other privileges young people experience back home in the Philippines. But as a worker abroad — even if he lands a job as top executive — the OFW becomes more independent and learns skills he or she would have never learned had he or she chose to be close to home. He or she learns to cook, maintain order and sanity at home or be more aware of fiscal discipline.

2. Value self more.

OFWs are expected to send home money remittances, balikbayan box goods or or even buy tickets for family to travel abroad even if to some of them (especially unmarried ones) such actions are, in essence, not an obligation. Maybe influence by those around them, Filipinos abroad have the tendency to give more to others than self; those who try to treat themselves sometimes face derision. In fact, it’s not unusual to hear someone send her entire salary to finance a house renovation or business venture. Helping others is a great gesture, but if it’s at the expense of one’s basic needs, it’s onerous and unfair. Peppered with seminars such as PDOS, PAOS, and lessons in life heard from other OFWs, they become more aware of caring for themselves such as funding their retirement and learning that treating self to luxury once in a while is not a mortal sin.

3. Be conscious of others.

Filipinos abroad not only deal with other OFWs who come from other regions in the Philippines. They also interact people of other races, cultural orientation and beliefs. Such experience hopefully helps us understand people with various backgrounds. There are friends who stick with you through thick and thin; there are fair-weather friends. There are those who consciously go out of their way to make themselves useful to others and there are those “parasites” who live off of other people’s time, money and effort. With our exposure to such diverse types of personalities we become more aware of how to position ourselves on various occasions.

4. Be more flexible.

As a corollary to the previous item, a person who is exposed to an environment that blends multiple cultures, personalities and beliefs is primed for more mature thinking. Rather than read through gossip, we learn by experience how to adopt to different attitudes, be more compassionate but now armed with calculated moves. For instance, a friend we wish to help and seeks to borrow money may be granted a compromise: the amount you grant is less than half of what he or she asks but there’s no need to pay it back. Such acquired skill could also help read people’s behaviour and easily detect scammers and two-faced people so it’s easier to avoid them.

6. Continue learning.

Learning does not end during graduation in college. Acquiring new skills as a means to equip one to be more competitive in the labor market or prepare for a business opportunity will define how an OFW’s life will be in a few years. In the Philippines, many workers whose jobs have security of tenure tend to stay in the comfort zone and choose not to exert more effort for more rewarding careers. They claim to be happy and contented in their jobs so there’s no need for further studies (which is viewed as an expense rather than opportunity to learn more), acquire new skills (it disrupts the weeklend movie and get-together schedules). But life is different abroad and so the quest to learn is out of necessity and not out of habit.

5. Think for long-term.

Knowing that life abroad has limits — expired contract not renewed, retirement, disability, death — OFWs have come to think beyond what life abroad has to offer. Blessed with financial rewards of sacrifice working in a foreign land and the mentality that ‘we cannot be OFWs and receive this salary forever’, Filipinos abroad are likely more inclined to enter into property, insurance and stock investment, finance their own business and save for retirement.

Living abroad can be both a blessing (financial rewards) and a curse (disunity in the family) as we hear from personel OFW testimonies or read in the news.

But given these two side of the coin,whatever we experience abroad should serve as a lesson in life.we may stumble in our plans along the way,but we get up stronger and more determined to succeed.

Behind The Success

"OVERSEAS FILIPINO WORKERS"

The life of "OFW" is not easy, they work to foreign country and sacrifice. They go and find a job there, so that they will be able to earn money to support the daily needs and give a better future to their family left here in the Philippines.For parents who are not able to take good care of their own children because they are away and for children who cannot enjoy the company of their parents as they grow. They adjust to almost everything like language, their way of living, culture, customs ,beliefs, foods etc.

Having relatives in abroad is such an opportunity because not everyone can go there, work there and live there. Maybe because they don't have enough money to support the needs and requirements to go abroad. Everyone wanted to work abroad although it is too far and a foreign country, because they know that they can only earn big money if they will work outside the Philippines. 

Unfortunately, there are family who have relatives  work abroad didn't know how's the life of being an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW), they didn't give value to all the sacrifices that they did just to give them a good and comfortable life here in Philippines. They just put in there mind that they can buy what they want and go where ever they go or buy those latest gadgets just to impress others, they don't know that sweat and blood flows to their relatives just to earn money. Some sacrifices that the OFW did are celebrating Christmas away from their family, celebrating their birthdays without their family, missed to see the growing up of their children and etc.

Not all OFW have good fortune in the foreign country, one of the issues of  OFW’s are being abused verbally, physically, and emotionally, there are other worker too who died. Despite of that situation, there are many people dreamed to go there and work.They need to gamble their life just to secure the future of their family here.To all Families who have relatives who work abroad, value their efforts and sacrifices that they did because they will not work for the rest of their life there and you didn't know how sad they are to be away from their family.

But, they are our hero too, why? because they give or share little to their salary or we can say they pay tax  which help our country to earn more.Each one of them should be respected and give honored because of all the things that they did is  not just only for their family but also to our country. Some of them bring honor just like being honest and loyal to their patients. Although Philippines once called " THE LAND OF SLAVE ", the Filipinos didn't care the discrimination of other country, instead they continue to work and prove to other country that even they are away from the Philippines, the Filipinos are united as one.

In foreign country, Filipino worker help each other, if someone is abuse by their employer, concerned Filipinos immediately report the incident and help as long as they can. They never let other Filipinos suffered too much because they know that it is not easy to be alone. Life is like a wheel, sometimes it is up and sometimes it is down, however, no matter where they are destined to be, they must move on as they put their trust to the Lord, but the Lord usually doesn’t show us to trust HIM.

 Helping one another and keep on smiling no matter what happen while working in the foreign country are the best attitudes that Filipinos always have. They are truly the new “HERO” of our country, we must give thanks and respect to all the Filipinos work abroad and I am proud that I am a Filipino.

Filipino Overseas

OFW are the foreign countries. They travel abroad to seek better opportunities in order to provide for needs of their family in the Philippines.

Being a OFw is not easy even they tired they work in foreign country and sacrifice the hardship and fight for the homesickness just to earn money for the better.

 Some ofw they are abused but despite of the the situation they still choose to work abroad and gamble their life just to secure their family😐😐😐😙😙😙.

SAD BUT TRUE

Not Everyone in ABROAD is Lucky.
Not Everyone in ABROAD has Money.
Not Everyone in ABROAD is Happy.

Because Everyone in ABROAD has been in the SADNESS of hiding it in LIFE.
The distance from our loved ones is very PAINFUL.
Not Everyone in ABROAD when you approached them to get them MONEY immediately to send you right away.
Sometimes say HELLO,what our life here in ABROAD.
If we eat at the right time....
If there is money left over to us....
If are we getting sick?
Not to think of others that you are rich now.

Do you know the obligation and how it holds in our/his FAMILY?

Its Hurts....when you do not give them what they want you are still bad and irritable to them.
They do not know that its really nothing.
There are so many PEOPLE like this.

YES,I am RICH in patience and sacrifice to be temporarily relieved to give my family a GOOD LIFE....☺☺☺☺☺.