Philippine Brain Drain Beverly Arevalo12/18/15

Philippine Brain Drain A loss of trained professional personnel to another

company, nation, etc., that offers greater opportunity. The term “brain drain” has been applied to the

Philippines since the 1960s and continues to be important to their economic situation today. In particular, the term has been used to describe the Filipino nursing sector.

Philippine Brain Drain

The Philippines’ economy had been devastated by WWII, contributing to serious national health problems and uneven wealth distribution. As part of reconstruction efforts for the newly independent state, education of nurses was encouraged to contrast the low ratio of 1 nurse per 12,000 Filipinos and to help raise national health care standards. When the United States relaxed their Immigration Act laws in 1965, labor export emerged as a possible solution for the Philippines.

Philippine Brain Drain

In 1965, the United States introduced a new occupational clause to the Immigration Act. The clause encouraged migration of skilled labor into sectors experiencing a shortage, particularly nursing, as well relaxing restrictions on race and origin. Seeking access through the U.S. government-sponsored Exchange Visitors Program (EVP), workers were encouraged to go abroad to learn more skills and earn higher pay, sending remittance payments back home.

Philippine Brain Drain Once abroad, Filipino nurses have identified

discriminatory workplace practices, receiving more night and holiday shifts, as well as more mundane tasks than non-Filipino counterparts. Nurses also discuss the lack of opportunity to train and learn new skills, a perk that is advertised by the Filipino export labor migration system. Homesickness and lack of community integration can also cause great emotional duress on migrants, and with the majority of migrants female, family separation can cause negative impacts on both the migrants and their families.

Philippine Brain Drain In theory, brain drain is effectively an export of human

resources. It is also important to note that the knowledge and wealth generated is exponential, both for the country of origin and the host country, which acquires additional human capital to fill labor gaps, which increases economic development.

Philippine Brain Drain

The pros for most of the migrant workers outweigh the cons, like higher pay and better job opportunities, more skills, etc. On the whole, those that do emigrate out of the Philippines stay in the countries that they immigrated to.

Philippine Brain Drain

This topic was particularly intriguing to me because my father-in-law, who is Filipino, immigrated to the United States in the 1980s. While the Philippine brain drain predominately refers to nurses, a form of this touched their family, but in reverse. In the Philippines, he was a licensed and practicing accountant, but in the United States, his license didn’t hold the same weight, so he was forced to take low paying temp jobs, but all of this was done in order to give his children a better life.