Have you ever been away from home? It can be a wonderfully exciting experience, but it can also be a daunting and isolating one. Imagine now if you were thousands of miles away, living in an unfamiliar culture and language, struggling not just with homesickness but also with financial pressures and long workdays. This is the reality for millions of Filipinos who live and work abroad, creating a significant and expanding diaspora.
As Filipinos spread around the world, our diaspora brings many advantages: abroad-earned money helps families back home in ways that wouldn't be possible otherwise; each migrant brings back stories and experiences that enrich life at home; and there is tremendous learning potential from connecting our Filipino community across borders.
However, those who have left their homelands and families are confronted with many challenges. A website that links us together across borders would be beneficial, offering us resources, information, and support to thrive in our new environments while fostering a sense of community among Filipinos worldwide. In this article, we will look at how we can create such a site to benefit the Filipino diaspora.
Filipinos have been migrating and creating diasporas since the 1500s, with 2015 data from the Philippine Statistics Authority estimating that around 10.2 million Filipinos were living and working abroad. This group makes up as much as 10% of the Philippine population and is a vital source of foreign income for the country.
But it can be incredibly hard to be part of this diaspora, being away from your family and home country and, in many cases, struggling to make ends meet. Migrants can be subject to exploitation, discrimination, and mistreatment—something that is all too familiar among Filipino Overseas Foreign Workers (OFW). An online platform offering information, support, and community for these migrants could help empower their situation.