Migrant workers or ATMs? How Iran war put Manila’s money machine under stress
The Philippines economy is overdependent on remittances; the war has shown it needs a more sustainable relationship with its migrants.
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Members of the Migrante International group stage a protest against the Philippines‘ labour export policy in front of the Department of Migrant Workers in Manila during the Iran war, on March 30.
PHOTO: MIGRANTE INTERNATIONAL
David Sanchez, a Filipino migrant worker in the United Arab Emirates, was doing the maths when I reached him via Zoom in mid-June. The sales numbers of the real estate company where he was employed had been falling since Iranian missiles put Gulf states on alert in February. His sales contract is ending by next year. He wasn’t sure it would be renewed.
The Philippine government had repatriated around 10,000 migrant workers from the Middle East since the war began, but Sanchez was not among them. Going home would mean trading a salary of 50,000 pesos (S$1,056) for a government assistance cheque that, as he put it, wouldn’t last his family a month. Every month, he sends 35 per cent of his salary home.
