THE pool of overseas Filipino workers is expected to be dominated by ‘Family lifelines’ and ‘Long-haul guardians’-the archetypes which are less about exploring and more about being able to consistently send money back home, according to one of the authors of Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) ‘The Filipino Abroad’ report.
While BCG noted that the number of ‘self-builders’-the archetype of OFWs that aim to explore and develop their careers-has been growing, the consulting firm pointed out it expects duty-driven Gen X OFWs and millennial breadwinners to dominate the pool of Filipinos working abroad.
The Long-haul Guardian, as described in the report, is the ’emotionally depleted duty-driven Gen X OFW who stays abroad to prevent disrupting lives in the Philippines.’
Meanwhile, the Family Lifeline is the ‘self-sacrificing millennial breadwinner whose life abroad exists to keep the family back home afloat.’
‘We met a lot of self-builders, which are the archetype of the OFWs that aim to really explore, see the world and develop their careers, they’re not sure about returning. But we do know and we do expect that actually most of the OFWs will actually belong more to the family lifeline type clusters or the long-haul guardian type clusters,’ Jaimie Bawalan-Lim, a co-author of ‘The Filipino Abroad’ told the BusinessMirror in an interview.
Bawalan-Lim said these archetypes are coming from specialist industries such as the construction and agriculture sectors.
She said these are areas where Filipino workers are looking ‘to really just have a good amount of money come back home monthly.’
‘We expect those archetypes to be the most represented across the board and I think this is supported by the fact that these archetypes are also the ones that dominate the U.S. as well as the Middle East corridors which we know are also making up a lot of our OFWs,’ she added.
Long-Haul Guardian
THE top three industries where the long-haul guardians are employed are: Construction, Domestic care services and Healthcare.
The report also noted that over 60 percent of their income is being remitted to their families back home.
The core driver of this Gen X OFW is ‘legacy building’ while the ultimate concern of this archetype is the health of family members in the Philippines.
‘For Long-Haul Guardians, migration has become a life structure rather than a phase,’ the report noted.
The BCG study pointed out that these Gen X workers are ‘older, more settled, and shaped far more by duty than by any lingering curiosity about what the world might offer.’
Moreover, many have already spent years doing the hard work of providing. Thus, the question they sit with is no longer simply ‘how do I send enough home?’
‘It is beginning to shift into something harder: what does all of this add up to, and what comes after?’ the report said.
Family Lifelines
THE top three industries where family lifelines work are: Construction work, Agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and Transportation and logistics.
Similar to the chunk of money sent home by long-haul guardians, Family lifelines part ways with 60 percent of their income.
It is worth noting that this type of Filipino worker is being fueled by sacrifice for family.
Family lifelines fret over being far away if something serious happens to their family back home.
‘Family Lifelines sit closest to the emotional center of what the OFW story is actually about,’ the report noted.
The study of BCG explained that their migration is about provision and not just exploration.
‘Nearly all are married with children, and life abroad is organized entirely around the family in the Philippines,’ the report stressed.
The cost of that arrangement, the study said, is ‘measured in missed moments, in tiredness, in a kind of permanent low-frequency worry, is the highest of any group.’
Self-builders
THE report said this archetype is the ‘autonomy-seeking’ younger millennials who prioritize building their own life abroad. As such, self-discovery and independence are their core drivers.
‘Self-builders are the youngest cluster in orientation, pulled abroad more by possibility than pressure.International work experience, personal independence, a life that feels larger than what was available at home-these are the gravitational forces shaping their migration,’ the report noted.
According to BCG, while family still matters for this type of Filipino worker, it is not the sole reason they left and it does not carry the same urgency as it does for other groups.