Ian Paolo B. Llapitan I-St.

Angela

CLE PETA #1 FILIPINO DIASPORA

The Filipino Diaspora is about the people who works very hard in abroad to seek a better life. The people who works abroad is called Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW). Most overseas Filipinos migrate to other nations to find employment or support their families in the Philippines . It begins where Former President Marcos declared martial law in 1972. In Rome, Paris, Tokyo, Singapore, Bahrain, Dubai, Hong Kong, and other cities in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Middle East and they have a Filipino Community there. Around 8.6 million to 11 million overseas Filipinos are the estimated count worldwide or about 11% of the total population of the Philippines. More than a million Filipinos try their luck each year to work abroad through overseas employment agencies and other programs, including government-sponsored initiatives. A majority of them are women applying as domestic helpers and personal service workers. Others emigrated and become permanent residents of other countries. Overseas Filipinos often work as doctors, physical therapists, nurses, accountants, IT professionals, engineers, architects, entertainers, technicians, teachers, military servicemen, seafarers, students, caregivers, domestic helpers and maids. Thousands of Filipinos desperately seeking better lives for themselves and their families took risks and bravely went to strange lands and cultures taking on whatever jobs were available. Some overseas Filipinos, because of their global experience of living, working and interacting with non-Filipinos have also come to realize that their concern for others should not be limited and restricted by tribal, geo-political, racial or national boundaries - that they should not limit their concerns to Filipinos only but include all human beings as we are all part of one human family. Such individuals have become true global citizens when they have arrived at this profound realization.