Immigrants and OFW

See previous post about Gloria and the Saudis.

Gloria is sucking up to the Saudis for several reasons.

One is that Asia needs oil. Know all that stuff about "no blood for oil"? Well, without oil, the economy here would collapse. And poverty would kill a lot more people than a couple dozen car bombs in Iraq, which makes the headlines.
Right now, for example, our carpenter earns 300 pesos plus a meal daily. His tricycle fee to come here is 40 pesos. If oil rises, this could increase, and he might walk, leading to the tricycle driver being out of work. Or go back to Saudi Arabia for a couple years to earn better money. For farmers who use handplows it's worse. They don't have skills to immigrate. And don't forget industry and shipping costs to the provinces. The cost of everything will go up.

Second reason Gloria is sucking up the Saudis is that there are so many Philippinos there, and they lack basic human rights.

They lack freedom of religion, and people have been arrested for holding bible studies.
The sexual exploitation of Filippina maids is notorious but not well documented. There also are many reports of employers confiscating passports so people can't leave, changing contracts so the pay is much less than originally agreed, and requiring long hours of work.

But the Philippine economy would collapse without these paychecks, so one doubts Gloria will lean on them too hard.

The third reason I posted the article was to highlight that immigration is NOT an American problem.

The main difference between Filippine OFW and those coming to America to work with or without papers is that Americans welcome these people as equal, and if they play their cards right, they can become full blown citizens.

A Filippino can work 30 years in Saudi Arabia and never be a citizen. They could become a French or German citizen, but never be considered a real Frenchman or German, merely second class citizens. But in the US, you can integrate.

So remember: When they talk about illegal immigration, they are not only talking about Mexicans.
LINK report is old, but is a good analysis of immigration issues.

White house report HERE.