EDITORIAL - Migrants’ Day

International Migrants Day is observed on Dec. 18 with the world focused on the refugee crisis currently engulfing much of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The United Nations’ International Organization for Migration estimates that one in every seven persons on the planet is a migrant in search of a better life – with the effort costing thousands of lives each year. For 2016, the IOM expects the global death toll from migration to top 5,000 for the third straight year.

Extreme poverty, armed conflict, corrupt and broken economies and now climate change are driving migration. Advances in transportation and telecommunications have facilitated the movement of migrants around the world, but have also raised the risks of creating a refugee crisis in many countries. The IOM is urging people to embrace the inevitability of migration and recognize that there are enough opportunities for all that can and must be shared.

In the Philippines, the bigger concern on International Migrants Day is the welfare of over 10 million Filipinos working in almost every country and commercial ship. Lacking decent jobs and sustainable livelihoods in their own land, Filipinos continue to seek greener pastures abroad, risking abuse, loneliness and possible marriage breakups due to the long separations. Children are growing up with one or both parents away for many years. While the billions remitted annually by overseas Filipino workers have been a boon to the economy, migration has steep social costs, as even Pope Francis pointed out when he visited the Philippines.

There will always be Filipino migrants in a globalized economy. The challenge for any administration is to create the environment that will make it unnecessary for the majority of Filipinos to seek meaningful employment in another country. If Filipinos want to work abroad, it should be because they want to, and not because the lack of opportunities in their homeland leaves them with no choice.