Child Labor In The Philippines Essay

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Introduction

The Philippine Statistical Authority estimated that there are 2.2 million Overseas Filipino
Workers in April to September 2016, a huge percentage of the total population of the
Philippines. It may be for plenty of reasons most often for sustainability and financial stability
(Smeekens, 2010), leaving their children in the Philippines for years at a time while one or both parents work abroad. This results in potential problems for the children left behind, but research shows that the effects of parental labor migration differ based on culture, migration type, country and the type of family (Battistella & Conaco, 1998).
Impact on Children of Different Ages
The impact of parental migration varies from financial benefits to the general …show more content…

The effects are more serious for teenagers that has an OFW mother. Loneliness, anger,

fear, being unloved, or being different from others are mostly felt. (Apostleship of the Sea-
Manila, et al., 2004).

The most vulnerable to social cost in this study are adolescents that are 13-16 years of age. In a study conducted in the Asia-Pacific Policy Center involving 130 people from Ilocos
Norte, the subjects with ages 13 and below showed that material things (e.g. toys, clothes, etc) are effective substitutes to satisfy their emotional and psychological needs. However, for ages
14 and above, adolescent children of OFWs begin to demand more time from their parents as their preference shifts from material to parental attention. Furthermore, in the same study, the authors discovered that due to lack of guidance, these teenagers are more vulnerable to early pregnancies and drug abuse. Statistics reveals that “six out of ten families have an OFW parent, which translates to eight million children left behind." (R. Edillion, et. al., 2015)

Economic gains
Economic benefits may be coherent for the family left behind through the means of

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