What started it all?

I tried looking up exactly when and how OFW’s started, but I could not find it in one answer. I began to think about everything I learned from high school and in college because it seems that everything is interconnected. It can all go back to when Ferdinand Marcos was the president during the Martial Law. In this period, the Philippines was in lots of debt because Marcos had the country build many buildings throughout the city, trying to make a third world country look first world. The country borrowed money from international banks bringing them in a very huge debt. Even today, the country is still in that debt.

Just before the Martial Law in 1972, there was the Immigration Act of 1965, many Filipinos were able to leave the Philippines and follow their families to America. This created an opportunity for Filipinos to travel and work abroad. I can see the national connection, but I haven’t found a clear international connection. Many of those who work abroad sends a majority of their earnings back home to their families in the Philippines, not leaving much for them to use as pocket/survival money. With the Immigration Act and the Filipinos able to travel around the world, working and making money is easier than ever.

The debt that accumulated because of Marcos left the country with a very low economy, making jobs hard to find and very huge gap between the elite and lower class. From a previous blog, it said that OFWs provide about $15 million of the income of the country. That’s a lot of money and workers. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo encourages workers to go overseas. I guess I’m being politically bias, but I think she’s just trying to avoid the internal problems of the country.