Overseas Workers

The Philippines are known for their overseas workers. For those of you who have spent some time in the Middle East or even within Southeast Asia, you’ve almost certainly come across a Filipino band, a nanny pushing her small charge down Singapore’s Orchard Road in a stroller, or a Filipino cabbie in the UAE. The Los Angles Times online edition recently ran a story called The Overseas Class about the exodus from the Phillipines in search of employment at a decent wage. The article noted that almost 12% of the GDP in the Phillipines is accounted for by workers abroad.

Those of us who follow the local Indonesian news have become used to reading stories about young Indonesian women being beaten or sexually abused by their employers whether in Singapore, Hong Kong or Saudi Arabia. Most of us know at least one Indonesia who has spent at least part of their life working overseas. In my small kampung in north Bali, there are three men who have worked overseas in one capacity or another – most of them in manual labor positions. I know of two expat men in Sumbawa who met their wives (from the same village, but apparently not known to each other) while they were working overseas.

A brother and sister-in-law of mine have worked in Saudi: the brother-in-law as a driver and the sister-in-law as a seamstress. The money that they made enabled them to open a small business when they came back to Bali. While they were working in Saudi, their children’s grandparents and my wife and I raised their children. A fairly common scenario. I spent four years working in Pakistan while my wife and children stayed behind in Indonesia living on the money that I sent each month. So where is this going? Check back on Monday for the conclusion.