Bini na Filipino

By Marifi Jara

(I have long held to the theory that practically every household in Pangasinan has a relative, immediate and not so distant, who is working or has migrated abroad. And I have a feeling that would be true as well for the Philippines as a whole. One easy evidence is the big community of Pangasinenses abroad who click on The PUNCH online edition. And my correspondence with some of our readers based abroad has proven to be one of the heartening rewards of our work. It is always enlightening to hear their thoughts, whether they agree or not with what I myself think or believe in. And again I would like to share here a piece. Mr. AG, himself a Filipino migrant in the US, writes to us about his musings on moving out of the country and what he thinks is the impact of the Filipino diaspora to our country.)

After reading your article about “The Face of Poverty”, I was reminded of the reason why I had to immigrate to a greener pasture. Like many who joined the line bound for America in the 1960s and1970s, I was an economic immigrant and I hated to leave San Carlos, my hometown, and the Philippines but the promise of adventure and opportunity to advance my career were reasons enough to overcome my strong attachment to my family and country. The lack of job opportunities and the absence of an environment to fulfill one’s dreams and ambitions were, and still remain to be, the main culprit why young, smart and hardworking professionals and skilled workers migrate to advanced and developed nations.

It’s much like the theory of diffusion in science. Diffusion is a phenomenon wherein minute particles would migrate from a region of high concentration to a region of lower concentration. For example, if you drop an amount of perfume or ammonia, the scent will eventually migrate to the entire room. This natural phenomenon which happens in minute particles like molecules or atoms could also happen in the world of human population. In the Philippines, there is an excess of professionals and skilled workers and these people are migrating to countries that need their services.

The brain drain is producing an unintended consequence to the future generations of the Filipino people. The seed of the Filipino people is shrinking (onkekebet so bini na Filipino). The country is being depleted of the good genes and DNAs of the bright and hard working Filipinos who are migrating to other countries. Most of these immigrants settle down and raise families in their host countries and their genes and DNAs are becoming part of the ôseedö of the host nations. If we would consider the intelligence quotient (I.Q.) as the basis in plotting the statistical normal curve of the Filipino population, most of the people leaving the country are on the right side of the normal curve which means that they are the bright and hard working people. These people are being depleted from the pool of potential donors where the SEED of the future generations could come from but unfortunately their good and smart genes that could have been in the Filipino pool supply of “seeds” would be forever lost to their host countries seed. The vigor and vitality of the future generations of Filipinos is being threatened by the exodus of bright Filipinos.

There are many students from all over the world who acquire post-graduate training in America and other developed countries. When a Chinese or Japanese, for example, receives such training, most of the time their next destination would be to their native country. But when a Filipino receives a post graduate degree, his or her first destination would be to an immigration lawyer to change his or her status. The Philippines is in a precarious state and with the absence of incentives, the expatriates are not motivated to go back home and share their learned knowledge from abroad.

If we consider the effect of the diffusion to the host nations, we could see that their seeds are being supplemented by very healthy genes from the bright and hard working immigrants. The USA has always been the biggest recipient of the best genes and DNAs from the immigrants so we should not be surprised why the Americans own the most number of patents in the world.

What should be done to remedy the effect of brain drain on the shrinking of the Filipino Seed? There are a lot of remedies but first of all the government should take the initiative to reverse the conditions that push the Filipinos into joining the continuing exodus.

(Readers may reach columnist at marifijara@gmail.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/roots/
For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)

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