Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Oct 07, 2025

Philippines’ Army of Migrant Workers Retrains for Life Back Home

Philippines’ Army of Migrant Workers Retrains for Life Back Home

The Philippine government is trying to retrain hundreds of thousands of Filipino workers who are returning jobless from overseas as the pandemic batters economies around the globe.

Already struggling with unemployment that spiked to record levels when the pandemic hit, the Southeast Asian nation is bracing for nearly 300,000 overseas Filipino workers -- like caretakers, maids and seamen -- to return home this year. The government is offering free programs to reskill these workers for jobs such as call-center agents, teachers and contact tracers.

More than 5,000 returnees have already applied for the training, with health care, technology and tourism courses the top choices.

Among the returning workers is Marlon Gabitano, 51, a history teacher who was placed on unpaid leave from a school in Qatar. Back in the Philippines, where he has a wife and three sons to support in Pampanga province north of Manila, Gabitano has been attending government-backed online seminars to look for a temporary job or the means to set up a business.

“I’m looking for anything that can help tide us over, because life here in the Philippines is hard,” he said.

Teachers, Tracers


For decades, waves of college-educated Filipinos have left the country in search of better-paying work abroad. The money sent home by this diaspora of about 10 million people has helped fuel what until this year was one of the world’s fastest-growing economies -- headed this year for a sharp contraction.

“Returning workers will have to compete with local job seekers, but many sectors want to prioritize them,” Labor Assistant Secretary Dominique Tutay said in an interview. “It’s perhaps because of the difficult experience of leaving the country, then having to return after losing their jobs.”

Retraining these workers will likely be a “bumpy process,” said Jessie Lu, an economist at Continuum Economics in Singapore. So far, government support for displaced workers is “insufficient to offset the loss of income,” she said.



Some of them can be tapped as teachers, while seafarers can be hired for construction work, Tutay said. Returning migrants will be prioritized in hiring 50,000 contract tracers to help control Covid-19 infections, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said at a briefing last week.

Business-process outsourcing, one of the few parts of the Philippine economy to escape the downturn, could be promising as a landing pad, with call centers willing to absorb returning workers with no background in the field, the Labor Department’s Tutay said. Jobs in telehealth -- where agents answer customers’ health-related queries -- are particularly in demand, she said.

Short-term Fix


Still, the reskilling effort may be only a short-term fix.

“At least it’s helping them stay productive,” said Nicholas Mapa, senior economist at ING Groep NV in Manila. But many are likely to head back overseas when better-paying work becomes available again.

While helping repatriated workers find jobs at home, officials aren’t abandoning the decades-long labor export policy. The government is seeking alternative labor markets for Filipino workers, including China and eastern Europe, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello said in a recent online forum.

Gabitano, for his part, hopes to be part of that exodus again -- despite the hardship of being separated from his loved ones.

“I will leave the Philippines again the first chance I have,” he said. “It’s hard to see my family suffering here every day.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
×