Anywhere we go

While looking up some information related to the farewell call of the Finnish ambassador to the Philippines early this week, I came across a statistic that said there are over 12,000 Filipinos in Finland. It made me wonder if Filipinos are really “everywhere,” as we sometimes like to joke whenever something major or climactic happens somewhere in the world.

Are Filipinos everywhere?

There are currently “195 countries in the world today,” according to Worldometer, of which 193 are “member states of the United Nations and two countries that are non-member observer states: the Holy See and the State of Palestine.”

An infographic that came out in Rappler in 2014 states what we all know, but maybe not in terms of numbers: “The Philippines is a major supplier of labor migrants to over 100 countries.” This is perhaps why, as the writer behind the article said, “Just about anywhere, you’re bound to meet a Filipino.”

I bet if you shouted “Kabayan!” in a public square in some random city in the world, you would get a reply. Filipinos are everywhere, indeed, for migrants have been moving across countries seeking greener pastures for innumerable decades now.

However, a fairly recent study revealed that such movement has been concentrated more within our country. Some 46 percent of Filipinos, according to the 2018 National Migration Survey by the Philippine Statistics Authority, move from one city or municipality to another “in search of employment.”

There are times when the thought of leaving does cross our minds. And for many “probinsiyanos,” the occasional visits back to their old hometown ceased when they decided to move back to their provinces for a new source of income when the pandemic happened.

Perhaps, those presidents in our history who urged people to seek jobs in the provinces did so to decongest the national capital region, but they failed to make that idea work by not having employment or livelihood opportunities in those provinces.

It was President Rodrigo Duterte who made an outright call for people to move to the regions in a program called “Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-Asa.” Covid-19 forced people to actually do it as many industries were severely affected by the restrictions during the pandemic.

Somehow, the change stuck. People found that they really could make a living and raise families outside of Metro Manila, and stayed. “New developments in the regional economy,” as the study said, caused a “change in migrant-sending and migrant-receiving regions.” The “migrant-losing regions” were NCR and Central Luzon.

A positive development is that there has been an increase in the net migration rate in 2024, reported at “-0.597 per 1000 population, a 0.67 percent increase from 2023.” The previous three years registered decreases, so this rise in net migration means people are moving around more within the country, indeed.

So, kudos to those who uprooted themselves and became modern-day farmers, for example, or turned old properties into new businesses. The younger generations now see the beauty of living at a less frenetic pace, and they can find it in many places around the country – though not all provinces are as progressive as others.

Our regions do hold many opportunities for those seeking a change, a chance at a better life and so on. If international migrants can adjust to the new environment they find themselves in, I am quite confident that those who decide to move to the regions can endure the challenges or drawbacks they will encounter. That’s just the way we Filipinos are. Anywhere we go, we can survive, we thrive.