Sunday, July 20, 2008

Why are young Filipinos going abroad to find work?



Young Filipinos go abroad to find jobs because many think there's more money to make out there. Aside from that you also get the following perks:
  • Adventure - you get to live somewhere else FAR away from parents and relatives who just love to tell you what to do with you life. It's the ultimate adventure
  • Independence - along with the feeling of getting away from it all, there's also the reverberating exuberance of making and spending your own hard-earned money. And it's not just any money - it's foreign currency!
  • Compensation - of course the last bet, everybody else is paid higher. Let's make an example of Call center agents since there are so many of them floating around these days.
    • Call center agents get a starting salary of P15,000, but many are being recruited in Singapore to receive at least three times their salaries here.
    • A separate study by IT publication ZDNet Asia says the average annual salary of senior IT professionals in the Philippines is $12,425 year. That is the equivalent of P521,850 at the exchange rate of 42 pesos to the dollar, but it’s still lower than $44,858 in Singapore, $57,303 in Hong Kong, and $76,851 in Australia.
    • Even coffee shop workers earn as much as $2,500 Singaporean out there, which beats a decent hard-working IT professional in the Philippines these days. That's tough, specially with prices rising as they are
Of course, the problem isn't the same for us simple folk who already have families and responsibilities here. It's more difficult to move abroad - for me specifically. I respect those who choose to go elsewhere for opportunity, but mine is here... with my daughter. I just hope I don't end up leaving her for money soon too.





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