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Why do some foreigners like to come and stay in the Philippines, but many Filipinos want to leave?
germantown
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I’ll answer for myself here. I like the change of pace. Life in the Philippines is slower paced than America. Especially, the traffic. I like the food. Adobo is the ambrosia the Greeks were looking for. I also like that many American restaurants are in the Philippines so that if I really wanted a cheeseburger (McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s), pizza (Shakey’s, Pizza Hut, Dominos), or something vaguely like Mexican food (Chili’s, Taco Bell), I can find it easy. Well. easy in Manila. I like the beaches. This is actually surprising for me. I hate beaches. I am as white as Frosty the Snowman. I am so white that children in rural villages thought that I was the white lady. When, I am at the beach I burn. I also wear glasses so I am blind. There is nothing worse than being sunburnt and blind. However, I can adapt. I can wear a longsleeve shirt, swimming trunks with legs below the knee, and swimming shoes. I can wear a good pair of goggles and contacts to counteract the blindness. I only have to put sunblock on my neck, face and lower legs. Do I look ridiculous? Yep. I really like the green. My childhood was spent in the American South. Everything from late spring to early fall was a vibrant green. I like how the Philippines is even more green. I like the people. Yeah, there are somethings here that drive me crazy, but otherwise, the people are kind. I thank God often for sending me on a two year mission to the Eastern Visayas from 2011 to 2013 and letting me know them. Heck, my fondness of the Philippines lead me to meeting my girlfriend through her brother. However, I could never live there. The government is more corrupt than mine and I could never be a citizen due to how citizenship laws are set up. So I would want to complain all the time, but wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. No thanks. I’ll stick to visiting. Edit: Why do Filipinos want to leave? From the many thousands of Filipinos I talked to over my two years as missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, they want to leave because they see America as a land of opportunity. They would tell me that the only way to get ahead in the Philippines is to become an Artista, have a once in a generation talent, be born into a powerful and rich family, or marry into a powerful and rich family. There are many, many artista in the Philippines that have rags to riches stories, but I rarely follow American celebrities, much less foreign ones (cough…cough Twice is awesome…cough…cough). Though I do have Parokya ni Edgar and Glock 9 in my playlist. However, I know nothing about their backstories. In regards to the talent, I am referring to people like Manny Pacquiao. Man grew up in the slums. However, due to his absurdly talented fists, he was able to literally fight his way to the top of Filipino society. There is a reason so many Filipinos hold him in such high regard. And as far as the rich and powerful, in Tolosa, Leyte, I noticed that the Marcos family still had a lot of power there and I was told by many of the poor that they pretty much controlled the town and had for a long time. Heck, the mayor of Tacloban is the wife of the former mayor of Tacloban who is the nephew of Imelda Marcos. I am told this is not unusual. If I remember right, one of the reasons Duterte gained so much popularity is because he was not part of the Tagalog elite that pretty much ruled the country. Although, I also remember reading somewhere that his family has a similar dynastic situation back in Davao city and is closely related to the ‘Cebuano dynasties’ of the Durano and Almendras. I also know that due to the protective economic laws that prevent foreign companies from fully entering the Philippine economy, the Oligarchs are able to hold onto power. If foreign companies came in and stirred up the competition then they might lose their money then their influence and then their political positions that they earned through power and influence. Also, when I was in Borongan city, Samar, I remember a group of political advocates coming to my door and offering me money if a signed some list and promised to vote for so and so. I had to point out to them, that as a white man, I was not likely to be a Filipino citizen with the ability to vote. So anyway, due to a couple dozen or so families refusal to give up power, the whole nation suffers. However, I do hope Duterte is able to get a federal system in place. That would help to break up the power of the Oligarchs. To what extent I am not sure. America is a little different. There are so many stories in my country of poor people making it out of poverty into the middle class or higher. My family is one. My paternal grandparents grew up in rural West Virgina and Pennsylvania. The family did not have plumbing or electricity. Education was substandard. Poverty was every where. However, one day my grandpa got drafted by the Army to fight in Korea, joined the Air Force instead, and gained skills that brought his family right smack into the middle class. All our relatives in West Virginia? Most of them struggle to get by, but then that’s West Virginia. At least they all have electricity and plumbing now. My mom’s grandma grew up in a one-room shack on a crick in rural Georgia. One of her daughter’s developed a series of businesses with another Georgian who used the organizational skills and drive he gained in the Navy to develop a carpeting manufacturing business that made him a millionaire. That daughter developed a side business that supplemented her husband’s and made a lot of money too. One of her brother’s owns a successful construction company. It almost died in 2008, but it made it through. He’s not rich, but he’s good. One of her other daughter’s, my grandma, was a successful Gas Station manager and due to her frugality has been able to put away a pretty penny. She is not rich, but she is definitely not poor. She goes on vacations all the time now that she is semi-retired and has the time. My step-mom’s family is pretty similiar, my step-grandad grew up on a rural farm in the middle of nowhere Idaho. He hated it. He worked hard to make sure he never would have to do so. He retired a decade ago after spending decades working as a highly-paid economist. He came from a very poor, farm family and now has a very comfortable retirement. This dream is not limited to native-born Americans. Elon Musk made it big in America with the invention of Paypal and acquistion of Tesla among many business enterprises. Michelle Malkin is Filipino and is a very successful writer, TV personality, etc and she is Filipina. Here is a list of a bunch of foreigners who moved to America made it big here: 13 People Who Came To America With Nothing And Made A Fortune We also allow foreign companies into America. Our economy has not collapsed. If done carefully, the Philippines could make it work too. China was much more closed and had a limited-opening up to foreigners and look what happened there. America is also less, politically corrupt. Yes, there is some corruption, but much less than many countries. Also, family dynasties are much more rare or have much less influence compared to similar families in the Philippines due to the sheer size of America. Also, no one buys votes here. At least, not directly. They offer social services instead. Which have mostly been a force for good here. Also, politicians commonly rise from nothing. Barack Obama, Abraham Lincoln, Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley are all Americans that rose from nothing and gained high-level political power. Three of those four have parents from overseas. Heck, the main reason my girlfriend, a Filipina, wants to move to America, besides me, is that she could easily make double or triple with her computer science degree here in the States then she could in the Philippines. That ramble above is my opinion why many Filipinos want to move to America. More opportunities to become middle-class or rich, more access to political power, less corruption in the government, etc. You might get fat though.
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Filipinos usually want to leave to improve their lives; there are many college-graduate-level Filipinos who are overqualified for the work they do, simply because there are not enough jobs and too many people. (There is an old joke about a "for hire" sign for a gas station attendant requiring a college diploma.) Even if there are jobs, it is difficult to earn a living: the rich are really rich, the poor are really poor, and the middle class bear the heaviest taxes: income tax (collected by companies before your salary hits your bank account) is anywhere from 30-35%, and taking that out of a middle class earner who can only set aside P5,000 or less for savings, leisure, etc. is a heavier toll than on the rich, who are taxed the same, but still has thousands of pesos over their basic expenses. These taxes are not very efficiently used for government services either (which is another story altogether). It's common for many Filipinos to live paycheck-to-paycheck. In addition to the difficulties in setting aside money, there are small things that make life challenging if you're going about and trying to be productive. Transportation and road traffic is bad; I used to commute for two, 2.5 hours one-way to work. I'd get up at 5am and get home 8pm, 9pm, and five hours of that is spent getting to the bus station, waiting for the bus, waiting for the bus to go, sitting on the bus, etc. If you need government-related documentation and clearances, you need to allot practically one day for each, getting up at the crack of dawn to queue up, waiting for processing, etc (good luck to you if you need to return another day for pickup). If you work in the city, be prepared for the pollution that you will be subjected to every day and the impact it has on your health (though most Filipinos don't notice this, at this point). If you have the funds, health services are good, otherwise be prepared for long waits and even longer claims procedures. So why would foreigners choose to go to the Philippines, or retire in the Philippines? There are two types of foreigners who come to the Philippines: travelers and tourists, and retirees. I am obviously not a foreigner, but I know plenty ever since moving to another country in 2007. For travelers, Philippines can be paradise what with the 7,107 islands that makes up the Philippine archipelago. Not all of them are habitable, of course, but it is a country full of exotic things to see and experience (admittedly, for Asians coming from similar countries, probably not so exotic). There are a lot of beaches, active sports and recreational activities are on a steady rise, the food is awesome (AWESOME), and you can always head back to Manila if you miss the eclectic city life. The pace of life in the provinces are slow and leisurely, which is perfect for people wanting to relax, recharge, rejuvenate (and depending on where you come from, Manila city life itself may still be slower than your home city). The people are friendly and hospitable, and if you are visibly foreign, majority will take pains to make sure you are alright–Filipinos do have a fair amount of colonial mentality left over from our history. We are a very cheerful people; typhoons come and wreck our homes every year but you will see us smiling and "making do" a few months after. And of course–depending on where you are coming from–everything is cheap. Maybe not Manila, but in the provinces you can stretch your dollar a fair amount. For retirees, admittedly I don't know many, but many of the traveler perks remain true for those who want to retire in peace, an endless vacation in a place where the food is good (well, maybe not TOO healthy with the amount of pork in our cuisine), the people are friendly, the goods are cheap and the pace of life is slow. Foreigners can own condominium units, and there is also a Special Resident Retirement Visa available. Finally–as a Filipino working in a different country–I personally still have dreams of coming "home" to the Philippines one day. My move was not to "better my life" specifically as mine was more of an unexpected opportunity impossible to turn down–but now it is difficult for me to think about leading a "normal" salary-earner's life in the Philippines (for all the reasons I described above). But even with all that, there is nothing to compare against the warmth, the cheerfulness, and the spirit infused in the Philippines and its people, and I truly wish that one day there is no more reason to question why someone would choose to live permanently in the Pearl of the Orient Seas. 😉