Overseas Foreign Workers

More than ten percent of the 89.5 million Filipinos are spread out all over the world. They are collectively known as Overseas Foreign Workers (OFWs), who remit billions of dollars to the Philippines each year. In 2005, close to 75 percent of the one million Filipinos who emigrated were Filipinas. Doestic work is their primary occupation. Women, many of whom have college degrees, spend the most productive years of ther life cooking, cleaning, and taking care of other people's children.

Battery, rape, and murders are the top occupational hazards for Filipinas who go overseas, not to mention unpaid salaries, overwork, and contract malfeasance. It is an issue that needs to be continually addressed.