Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

the Philippines support “Reintegration Programs”, (3)
to understand the situation of Thai migrants in Japan
before their return, and (4) to study the needs for the
return and reintegration of Thai migrants in Japan,
and what should a “Reintegration Program” for Thai
returnees look like?
METHODOLOGY
The study focused on a group of both documented
and undocumented labor migrants, conducted in 2
countries: Philippines and Japan. The period of the
study was 1 year, September 15, 2004 to September 30,
2005.
Philippines
The period of study in the Philippines was two months
from September 15, 2004 to November 14, 2004.
The main objective was to study the experiences of
“Reintegration Programs” in the Philippines. Qualitative
research was obtained through interviews with returned
OFWs and key informants, various groups such as the
Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA),
academics, the Scalabrini Migration Center, and five
NGOs. Returned OFWs were also interviewed.
Japan
The period of study was nine and a half months,
from December 15, 2004 to September 30, 2005.
The objective was to study the situation of Thai labor
migrants before they returned to Thailand—their
skills and experiences in Japan, remittances, processes
of return such as planning, problems and needs for
their return, and reintegration in Thailand. Qualitative
research was based on in-depth interviews, focus groups
with Thai migrants in Japan and key informants.
Quantitative research was done using a questionnaire
for Thai migrants, and was analyzed through a statistical
computer package- Statistic Program for Social Science
(SPSS).
This study was based on interviews with 67 Thai
immigrant workers in Japan. Snowball sampling was
used in most of the studies to reach target groups,
by sex, age, legal status, occupation, period of stay,
prefecture and problems. The interviews took place
in ten prefectures: Tokyo, Kanagawa, Yamanashi,
Saitama, Gunma, Nagano, Aichi, Tochigi, Chiba and
Ibaraki. The interviews were done in residences, Thai
communities in Yamanashi and Gunma, working
places, shelters, prisons, hospitals, and the Thai Royal
Embassy. The key informants were from the Royal
THE EMPOWERING THE POOR AND VULNERABLE
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Thai Embassy, the Immigration Bureau, the Ministry
of Justice, Thai temples, volunteers of the Royal Thai
Embassy in various prefectures, Thai communities in
Gunma and Yamanashi, academics and 15 NGOs.
Table 2: Sample Sizes.
Target population Population Number
Documented Workers: 5,857 12
- Trainees
- Domestic Helpers
- etc.
Undocumented Workers: 14,334 55
- Temporary Visitor → overstay
- Trainees → overstay
- Female Trafficking
Total 20,191 67
1. REINTEGRATION PROGRAMS FOR
RETURNED OFWS IN THE PHILIPPINES
In the Philippines, the Department of Foreign Affairs
(DFA) reported that the number of OFWs rose from a
few thousands in 1970’s to about 7.76 million in 2003.
The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration
(POEA) reported that there were 867,969 new OFWs
in 2003. This was a 2.7% decrease from the 2002
statistics that accounted for 891,908 workers spread in
192 countries all over the world. The daily deployment
was 2,700 OFWs. 2
OFW remittances in 2003 accounted for 8.9% of
the country’s GDP, amounting to US$7.6 billion as
compared with the total remittance in 2002 of US$7.2
billion. Land-based OFWs in 2003 remitted US$6.3
billion, while sea-based OFWs turned in US$1.3 billion.
The main source of these remittances was from OFWs
in America totaling US$4.3 billion (56.6 %). OFWs
in Asia contributed US$0.8 billion (10.5 %). The
majority of the remittances from Asia came from Japan,
Hong Kong and Singapore 3 . Moreover, the Bank of the
Philippines reported that remittances greatly increased
in 2005 to US$10.7 billion (428 billion Thai baht). 4
1.1 Why is “the Reintegration Program” in the Philippines
interesting?
With around 10% of the population working abroad,
migrant labor has a significant impact on Philippine
society and economy. Owing to the large number of
OFWs, around 10 % of population working abroad,
impacted to social & economic of Philippine society.
There are important personal and social impacts on
migrants and their families from migration. However,
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows