Garpo Posted August 30, 2011 Posted August 30, 2011 I was just really bored today and started to wonder just how much the Philippines rely on money brought into their country economy by us expats who live here or spend a considerable amount of time here? How bad would it hurt their economy if expats started to join together in a mass exit to greener pastures? I am not really thinking about trying to get such a thing started or would even agree to go if others thought it was a good idea. My thoughts are more on the lines of how much "suck" we would have as a orgainized group that could put pressure on the Philippine Government to change a few things that are B.S. and only us expats have to put up with. All of us are aware of some or most of these things that really piss us off at times. The days of the Philippines being the only cheap and decent option and destination have past and we are now seeing large numbers of expats moving to different countries such as Costa Rica, Panama, etc. etc. etc. If you had to, or even if you just wanted to try somwhere else, where would you go? Just thinking and wondering outload here. Might just make for an interesting discussion thread? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ekimswish Posted August 30, 2011 Posted August 30, 2011 Question is, who loses more: Philippines and expat dollars; or expats and Filipinas? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garpo Posted August 30, 2011 Author Posted August 30, 2011 (edited) Question is, who loses more: Philippines and expat dollars; or expats and Filipinas? Not sure what you mean by this question. What would the expat or his filipina wife or girlfriend lose if they decided that a different country would be a better place to live? Edited August 30, 2011 by Garpo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jollygoodfellow Posted August 30, 2011 Posted August 30, 2011 In my opinion the expat dollars are a small drop in the ocean compared to OFW remittances and tourists.Most expats live on a pension so really how much do they put into the economy? Yes there are visa fees but also it cost money to run the BI so its not all profit.Tourists are a different situation as most tourist spend more on a month trip to what maybe equal to about 4 months of expat spending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Lee Posted August 30, 2011 Posted August 30, 2011 I personally feel they would lose a lot of money if we all left, or did not spend time in country. How many expats are there? Multiply that number by say $1000 or its equivalent in other currencies a month on average because some spend many times that, whereas some live for much less, so I just picked that as a number and it might actually be a higher amount. And then there would be the issue, how many would visit if none of us lived there. I feel many less would visit because they would not feel as comfortable doing so with less of us there. Then comes home and condo prices because of ownership and rentals sitting empty. Now with that said, Boss Man is correct and I think OFW do contribute the most to the economy, yet I often wonder if Filipinos and Filipinas married to foreigners money sent home is included in what they count as OFW money sent home. :no: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garpo Posted August 30, 2011 Author Posted August 30, 2011 I know that my wifes father is and has been an OFW for the past 18 years and only sent back home about a total of 150K peso in that 18 years. Now that his daughter is married to a foreigner he now says he is coming home to stay and wants us to give him 250k so that he can start his own business. He is a real piece, but that is for a different conversation. How many OFW really send that much money back home compared to what us foreigners bring in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Hounddriver Posted August 30, 2011 Posted August 30, 2011 From the people I have met who have OFW family members I have noticed 2 different kinds of OFW. First are the ones who are away on short contracts like 6 months to 2 years and send all their pay home for things like building a house or looking after the spouse and kids. Then the other kind seem to have permanent jobs with overseas residences. These ones seem to send about $100 a month or so back to the family members to help out but often express no interest in moving back to the Philippines. When you add them all together it seems to me that it would average between 5 and 10 OFWs to get the same economic boost to the country as 1 average expat. Then, as Boss Man said, it would take 4 average expats to get the same boost as 1 foreign single male tourist who is just here to blow his wad in a short time. My conclusion is that all are important sources of currency to this country. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jollygoodfellow Posted August 30, 2011 Posted August 30, 2011 From the people I have met who have OFW family members I have noticed 2 different kinds of OFW. First are the ones who are away on short contracts like 6 months to 2 years and send all their pay home for things like building a house or looking after the spouse and kids. Then the other kind seem to have permanent jobs with overseas residences. These ones seem to send about $100 a month or so back to the family members to help out but often express no interest in moving back to the Philippines. When you add them all together it seems to me that it would average between 5 and 10 OFWs to get the same economic boost to the country as 1 average expat. Then, as Boss Man said, it would take 4 average expats to get the same boost as 1 foreign single male tourist who is just here to blow his wad in a short time. My conclusion is that all are important sources of currency to this country. Its not just the sex tourist that spend money,there are the Korean and Japanese family's on annual vacation. Family's from all over the world come to visit things like the Singulog or that other thing at Easter that I cant remember the name off.Places like Boracay are full year round from my understanding so sex tourist is only part of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyAway Posted August 30, 2011 Posted August 30, 2011 A lot of money flows through remittance. I usually would not use Wikipedia for reference. The chart 3/4ths of the way down is accurately quoted with information from World Bank data estimates. I will list the top 4 of 2010.http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Remittance 1. India ($55 billion)2. China ($51 billion)3. Mexico ($22.6 billion)4. Philippines ($21.3 billion) Expat contribution to the overall economy? Most likely they could care less. Exception would be those whose businesses rely on expat customers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Posted August 30, 2011 Posted August 30, 2011 As for the govenrment caring if 'we' stopped living there.... In the past year the government has tried to get off the human trafficing list as it effects toursim and other areas, all related to money. If you look at Philippine Air and the number of passenges they fly between the US and Manila and the same of Korean Air, it would be a HUGE dent in their bottom lines if they only had their citizens as passengers. If they did not care, they would not care if they were on the trafficing list or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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