OFWs in Hong Kong spend less for investment–study

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

FILIPINO migrant workers in Hong Kong spend more of their remittances for social and religious obligations and ceremonies than investing in businesses or availing insurance, according to a new study.

A 5-year comparative study regarding the remittances from Filipino and Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong showed how migrant workers use the remittances they send back home.

The research titled “Lives of Migrant Remittances” was conducted by the University of Alberta, KABAR BUMI Indonesia, PILAR HK, Indonesian Migrant Workers Union HK at Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) and Migrante Philippines with the aim of “highlighting” the “invisible labor” of sending and managing remittances.

The study showed that 16.4 percent of remittances sent by Filipino and Indonesian migrant workers were used for social and religious obligations and ceremonies.

The study did not provide any con -

NGO to sell rice worth

₧38

Per Kilo

By Raadee S. Sausa @raadeeboy

AS part of support to the government’s affordable rice program in the market, a non-government organization (NGO) will start selling rice worth P38 per kilo, a convenor said over the weekend.

The Philippine Rice Industry Stakeholders’ Movement (Prism) said the “Tulong sa Bayan, Bigas para sa Mamamayan,” will start on July 10.

Prism Lead Convenor Rowena text or explanation behind the figure. But the study’s data showed that the amount of remittances being spent for social and religious obligations and ceremonies were higher than the amount that migrant workers use for business investment and insurance.

D. Sadicon said the program will be implemented nationwide to help consumers have access to affordable and quality rice.

As of now, prices of rice in the market start at P40 per kilo, Prism said.

The rice that will be sold by the NGO will be of good quality as it is classified as well-milled rice, according to Sadicon.

“The price of rice in the market is really high, so we are giving a way now, we have discussed a solution with our stakeholders, how can we cross it so that somehow there is still P38 to buy,” Sadicon said.

For his part, Orlando C. Manuntag, national spokesman of the Grains Retailers’ Confederation (Grecon) said the program will run only until the end of the lean season which will be in October as the harvest season for the first rice cropping begins.

“At P38, this is our subsidy, and we want to extend it until we have harvest time in October,” he said.

“So this is not sustainable throughout the season, we will provide that, it depends on supply and demand and how much we price rice in each province as per harvest season,” Manuntag added.

Meanwhile, Sadicon said, the group is still finalizing the areas where they will sell rice starting Monday.

She said, they would partner with the Department of Agriculture’s Kadiwa program and other selling channels like rice mills, rice traders, barangays, and the local government units chosen by the participating stakeholders.

In Bulacan, the group is planning to implement the program through a rice caravan to reach depressed areas which is the main target of the program.

Prism is composed of various stakeholders including seed growers, farmers, millers, traders, importers and retailers.

The group was officially formed in 2019 and part of their advocacy is to ensure an affordable supply of rice during the lean season when prices of rice usually increase.

The study indicated that only 5.8 percent of the surveyed Filipino and Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong sent remittances for business investment while 8.3 percent said they sent money back home to avail insurance.

“Although fostering business investment is purported by the proponents of the migration and development paradigm as among the benefits of remittances, only 5.8 percent of our survey takers indicated that they send remittances for this purpose,” the study read.

Worse, the study showed that business investment is not among the top 10 reported first, second, and third priority expenses of both Hongkongbased Filipino and Indonesian migrant workers.

The study also indicated that about

23.7 percent of the respondents sent remittances to pay their loans. The top identified use of financial remittances were food at 81.3 percent, tuition and school fees at 70.9 percent and housing and repair at 40.6 percent, according to the study.

In terms of priority uses, the payment of school fees and tuition was identified as the top of most important uses, the study added.

“In several of our conversations with civil society and government representatives, we repeatedly heard that migrant parents’ motivation to work abroad is to send their children to a good school,” it said.

“Supporting attainment of literacy as a pathway to a better life is the same explanation we heard from unmarried and migrants without children who have taken up or were given the responsibility of financing their siblings’ education,” it added.

The study surveyed 1,020 Filipino and Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong complemented by focus group discussions and key informant interviews with 192 migrant workers, returned migrant workers, migrant family members, industry personnel, and policy makers in Hong Kong as well as three communities in the Philippines and Indonesia.

The study disclosed that the median amount of monthly remittances sent by the survey respondents was at HK$2,500 (roughly P17,700) or about US$322 (about P17,800).

“Our results revealed that the production of migrant remittances requires immense physical, affective, and emotional work and often additional input from family and friends. Additionally, it requires sophisticated knowledge to navigate the remittance landscape,” it said.

“Decisions about where and how to send remittances are not individual but involve employers, recipients, the private sector who support various modalities of remittance channels and set exchange rates and fees, and home countries who may invest in infrastructure required to support remittance and banking options, and who regulate recruitment agencies, among other issues,” it added.