The Two Sides of the Buck

/ Greg Jabal

When you are living and working abroad, for most Filipinos, you are affluent. A common mindset which do not consider the underlying factors to validate such assertion. In spite of countless documentaries regarding migrants’ plight and glory, news, social media posts and the likes, it is an unalterable viewpoint of our compatriots that overseas migrants are financially wealthy.

“To live and work abroad”, in itself, is merely an opportunity. A journey of every single migrant that entails diverse stories of sacrifices and successes, failures and learning, joys and pains, struggles and triumphs among other things. Generally, it is the same old story of skirmishes and hard works alike in the battlefield of the so called “life”. Nevertheless, only few understand this plight of overseas migrants.

With high hopes of having a better life, compared to what they had in the Philippines, they are now in a journey to stand on and to be spiritually strong to face challenges, to live out of comfort zone and to work painstakingly every day to ensure both ends meet.

Leaving one’s comfort zone and living out from it is a great challenge to accept. The comforts of having a house helper to do household chores and having ample time for the family and friends after work and so forth, need abrupt adjustments. Living out from comfort zone embraces doing home errands and duties independently, and having two or more jobs in different time shifts sacrificing family time are ordinary daily routine. Engagement to multi jobs keeps them busy to escape from and overcome homesickness. Work here and there, to earn for the family’s daily provisions, to pay taxes, mortgages, utility bills, insurances, credit cards and other financial liabilities. At this juncture, significant amount of cash is allotted for remittance homeward to their families and relatives.

On the other hand, countless opportunities await for those who dare, for those who are adeptly equipped, for those who knew how to leverage themselves, for those who are aware and responsive to the realities, and for those who have willingness to learn new things. Migrants must accept and skillfully adapt to the challenges of their new social and physical environment. One’s character, optimistic attitude, hard work, and their practice of humility to name a few are catalysts for this life-changing move towards successful international migration.

Control of the situations and factual decisions are in the migrants’ hands. Too much expectations, by their love ones left behind, would lead to letdowns and opposing circumstances. To be straightforward to them is essential. Keeping track of one’s goal needs awareness of one’s capability and a vivid grounding of personal limitations and boundaries.  Even though, they would not believe instantaneously, at least you have been honest to yourself. Disregard their retorts and keep your self-esteem intact. In doing so, emotional pressure and psychological stress will be lessened and at the same time elating your spirit.

One of the spoken expectations from the family is to help them alleviate from paucity. Such basic expectation is obligatory in nature, seems like to be the migrant’s sole responsibility. The epitome of success like huge house, a new car, modern appliances and newest gadgets, serve as status symbols in the community. In this scenario, packages of imported goods, allowances, festive gatherings, donations among other things define your strong relationship, telling that you have not changed to them.

Sending siblings or relatives to college, profligate family fetes, traditional celebrations like Christmas, fiesta, wedding, and the like, financial support is highly anticipated. Those expectations pressure migrants to maintain their good image and connections to them, at the expense of putting the burdens upon their shoulders.

The flow of assistance, big or small, from relatives abroad must be valued. This support must augment basic necessities, not to satisfy wants. Too, financial help must be spent prudently and efficiently to serve its purpose which is to live a decent life. In the contrary, dependency becomes the outcome of incoming support from abroad. Reliance of family members and close relatives instigate nonproductive and lavish lifestyle.

Overwhelmingly, family expectations turn out to be demands not just hope. Their family members, siblings, relatives, friends and former workmates have different expectations, too. Yet, to them, the phrase: “living or working abroad” implies material abundance. No account could make them believe that life abroad is not easy, that everything is earned through hardship and lots of patience and sacrifices. Neither objection nor rationality would position them to become judgmental. You had changed a lot and you become selfish and arrogant because of your reformed perspectives and outlook in life.

In this life course, never be dragged in the race towards climbing the social ladder nor follow what social trends dictate and what people expect, you will never win. Establish a standard of your own to follow because you alone would be standing in the battleground. No one else would be on your side during that quest, they would just willingly join to rejoice your victory.

Profound understanding of this social phenomenon would basically base on lived-experiences, an unfolding process, giving way to its lucidity. Given the chance to live overseas, I withstand and am witnessing on my very own eyes, the realities of living away from one’s homeland and becoming a stranger.

Our loved ones, relatives, friends and fellow countrymen see these things from afar, depicting life in a faraway land as a haven of free-flowing milk and honey. I do respect their views. As you do, I am seeing this prevalence in the similar angle before I migrate. However, I am now one of the actors of the Filipino diaspora who lives in such reality, not in the realm of thoughts.

2,164 thoughts on “The Two Sides of the Buck”

  16. Fantastic goods from you, man. I have understand your
    stuff previous to and you’re just extremely
    great. I actually like what you have acquired here, certainly like what you’re
    stating and the way in which you say it. You make it entertaining and you
    still care for to keep it sensible. I can’t wait to read far more from
    you. This is actually a terrific web site.

    Here is my web page :: mega888apk download (Keeley)

    Like

    Reply

  18. I do not know if it’s just me or if everyone else encountering issues with your blog.

    It appears as though some of the text within your posts are running
    off the screen. Can someone else please provide feedback and let me know
    if this is happening to them as well? This could be a problem with my browser because I’ve had this happen before.
    Kudos

    Also visit my page 918kaya agent

    Like

    Reply

  24. Just desire to say your article is as astonishing.
    The clarity in your post is just nice and i could
    assume you’re an expert on this subject. Fine with your
    permission let me to grab your RSS feed to keep updated with forthcoming post.
    Thanks a million and please keep up the rewarding work.

    My web site – Mega888 Id test

    Like

    Reply

  30. The other day, while I was at work, my sister stole my iphone and
    tested to see if it can survive a forty foot drop, just so she can be a
    youtube sensation. My iPad is now destroyed and she has 83 views.
    I know this is totally off topic but I had to share it with someone!

    Feel free to visit my webpage 918kaya online

    Like

    Reply

  31. Can I just say what a relief to uncover someone who truly knows what they are
    discussing online. You definitely know how to bring a problem to light and make it important.
    More people ought to read this and understand this side of the story.

    I was surprised you are not more popular since you most
    certainly have the gift.

    Have a look at my site Ex888 Game

    Like

    Reply

  32. Hi there! I could have sworn I’ve visited your blog before but
    after going through a few of the articles I
    realized it’s new to me. Anyways, I’m definitely pleased
    I stumbled upon it and I’ll be book-marking it and
    checking back regularly!

    My web site: xe88 apk

    Like

    Reply

  41. My developer is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP.
    I have always disliked the idea because of the costs.
    But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using Movable-type on a
    variety of websites for about a year and am nervous about switching to another platform.
    I have heard good things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can transfer all my wordpress posts into it?
    Any help would be greatly appreciated!

    Review my homepage – pusyy888

    Like

    Reply

  44. It is the best time to make some plans for the longer term and it is time to be happy.
    I have read this put up and if I may just I want to counsel you some attention-grabbing things or advice.
    Maybe you could write next articles referring to this article.
    I want to read more issues about it!

    My homepage :: scr mega888

    Like

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s