Foreign Filipinos
A foreign Filipino is a person of Filipino origin who lives and works overseas. Due to the US occupation, many Filipinos have a good command of English, which makes them attractive for the global market.
As a result, numerous states are home to Filipino communities.
Diaspora
Globally, there are more than 10 million Filipinos living overseas, approximately 11 percent of the total population of the Philippines. However, due to the large number of illegal Filipinos, the number can be increased to a good 12 million.
Each year the Philippines send over a million of its citizens to work abroad temporarily. For 2015, the number was estimated at around 2.4 million. A good half of them work in countries in the Middle East, as the barriers to taking up a job there are comparatively low, followed by neighboring countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Europe, North and South America and Australia, with a share of around 13%, play only a minor role in the temporary posting of foreign workers, as the criteria for taking up work in these countries are very restrictive. Others emigrate to their destination countries forever in order to escape the sometimes great poverty in their homeland.
Attracted by wages abroad that far exceed those in the Philippines, millions of Filipinos emigrate every year to work as doctors, accountants, engineers, sailors, construction workers, or nurses. Most Filipinos send part of their wages home and thus form an important economic factor in their country.
Target countries
- Germany , Austria , Switzerland
- According to the German Embassy in Manila, around 19,000 Filipino workers were living in Germany at the end of 2009. The proportion of women was 82%. The largest Filipino community is in Hamburg with almost 2000 Filipino citizens. There are also around 20,000 Filippinos in Austria and almost 4,000 in Switzerland.
- United States
- By far the largest proportion of foreign Filipinos live in the United States, at around 2,807,731. They currently form the second largest immigrant group in the United States.
- Canada
- With around 350,000 Filipino immigrants, only a small Filipino community lives in Canada. They belong to the third largest Asian immigrant group.
- Italy
- There are more than 500,000 "registered" Filipinos living in Italy. The actual number is larger, however, as numerous illegal Filipino immigrants also live in the agglomerations of major Italian cities.
- United Kingdom
- Close to 200,000 Filipino guest workers and immigrants live in the UK, mostly as nurses, entertainers and in other service sectors. According to the Philippine Embassy in London, tens of thousands of Filipinos take on British citizenship every year after having lived in the country for years.
- Greece
- With around 65,000 migrants, Greece was a popular destination for Filipino guest workers in the 1980s and 1990s, but the number has fallen sharply since then, largely for economic reasons.
- Spain
- With around 55,000 immigrants, the Filipinos form the second largest group of Asian immigrants behind the Chinese in Spain. Most live in the metropolitan area of Barcelona , Madrid and Seville .
- Ireland
- With currently 16,000 immigrants, the number of Filipino workers in Ireland is growing steadily.
- Japan
- An estimated 500,000 Filipinos are registered as workers in Japan. Due to Japan's restrictive immigration policy, Filipinos are rarely integrated.
- Kuwait
- According to estimates by the Philippine Foreign Ministry (as of April 2018), approximately 262,000 Filipinos live in Kuwait, most of whom work as domestic servants. In January 2018, President Rodrigo Duterte temporarily stopped sending migrant workers to Kuwait in the face of sexual abuse cases. Hundreds of Filipinos have been flown home at the expense of the Philippine government as part of a return program , with Kuwait amnesty for those who were illegally in the country. On April 29, 2018, after a murder became known, Duterte extended the stop indefinitely. With regard to the financing of the repatriation and the prospects for a renewed labor migration, he referred to close contacts with China. In May, the Philippine and Kuwaiti governments signed an agreement to protect Filipino workers in Kuwait. It provides, among other things, to counteract abuse through a hotline and a specially established police department.
- Lebanon
- An estimated 40,000 Filipino workers live in Lebanon. During the Israeli bombing of Hamas positions in Lebanon in summer 2006, the majority of the Filipinos living in Lebanon were evacuated to Cyprus .
- Saudi Arabia
- Around 2 million Filipinos live in the strictly Islamic country.
- Malaysia
- Due to their geographical proximity, around 450,000 Filipinos or people of Filipino origin live in the predominantly Islamic neighboring country. A good half of these people are mostly descendants of Filipino settlers, whose ancestors settled in the northern states of Borneo many generations before Malaysia's independence . Most of the newcomers are migrant workers and refugees who have lived in the industrial and service sectors since the economic boom of the 1980s and 1990s, on the Malay main island in the greater Kuala Lumpurs area and its neighboring cities.
- Singapore
- Around 150,000 Filipino migrant workers work in the service sector of the small Asian tiger country.
- Taiwan
- Around 160,000 Filipinos work in the industrial and service sectors of the controversial island state.
- South Korea
- Almost 65,000 Filipino immigrants live and work in the southern part of the Korean peninsula.
supporting documents
- ↑ Philippine Statistics Authority: Total SAW estimated at 2.4 million , accessed March 19, 2017
- ↑ Filipinos in Germany ( Memento of the original from April 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Philippines' Duterte says Kuwait work ban 'permanent'. In: Agence France Presse. April 29, 2018, accessed April 29, 2018 .
- ↑ a b Report 250 thousand Filiponis in Kuwait work mostly in domestic service. In: kuwaitpage.online. January 19, 2018, accessed April 29, 2018 .
- ↑ Over 2,200 Filipinos want to leave - Kuwait firmly denies 'push'; 400 fly home. In: worldaffairsjournal.org. February 11, 2018, accessed April 29, 2018 .
- ^ Philippines, Kuwait ink deal on OFW protection. In: ABC-CBN News. May 11, 2018, accessed on August 23, 2018 .
