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>Filipinos Take 'Going Places' Literally > >(Lack of Economic Opportunity Fuels Exodus of Some of >the Brightest Prospects) >By Ellen Nakashima and Edward Cody >Washington Post Foreign Service > >MANILA -- Born to teachers in a small town in the >southern Philippines, Elmer Jacinto wrote poetry in >high school, graduated magna cum laude from medical >school and then, in February, bested 1,824 other >aspiring doctors who took the national medical exam. > >This young man wants to go places -- specifically, the >United States, where he said he intends to work as a >nurse. > >Lack of economic opportunity and a sense of being in a >nation adrift are driving talented Filipinos abroad in >search of their dreams -- and dollars, pounds and yen, >according to sociologists and researchers. Many, like >Jacinto, accept jobs well beneath their skill level, >because the earning power abroad is so tantalizing. > >The diaspora is growing, and some lament that the >Philippines, a country of more than 84 million people, >is being drained of talent. Each year, more than >800,000 people leave, some temporarily, and officially >7 million Filipinos live overseas. What makes the >Philippine migration remarkable is its scope. >According to experts, no other Asian country has so >many types of workers -- from nanny to engineer to >circus performer -- in so many different places, from >Hong Kong to Italy, Chad to Kazakhstan. > >Jacinto's story typifies a perplexing trend in this >growing Third World nation: Filipinos harbor a deep >desire to rise socially and economically, but many of >the country's brightest prospects are finding they can >do so only by departing. > >The exodus is layered. At the top are people such as >Jacinto: doctors, nurses, teachers, lecturers and >accountants, all heirs to what sociologists call the >revolution of rising expectations. Below them are >singers and performers, whose skills earn them far >more in Dubai or Beijing than they would in the >Philippines. Domestic workers are by far the single >largest group. Some have college degrees, but they >toil below their station in Italy or Hong Kong, often >to support an extended family at home. > >Jacinto has become a minor celebrity. His picture is >on the front page of a national newspaper, his face is >on television. "Sellout," one newspaper editorial >branded him. Others said they did not blame him -- not >in a country where a doctor earns $400 a month, while >a nurse in the United States can earn $4,000 a month >on top of a $7,000 signing bonus. > >On a recent afternoon, Jacinto, who teaches third-year >nursing at Fatima University outside Manila, picked up >a syringe and showed several students how to properly >draw fluids. Most of his students said they, too, want >to go overseas one day. > >"I sacrificed a lot to become a doctor," said Jacinto, >28 and single, who studied nursing and medicine on >scholarships, borrowing books, photocopying lectures >and tutoring Taiwanese students in biochemistry to get >by. His parents and brother scrimped to help him. > >Jacinto said he wanted to go to the United States >because he hoped that he could eventually pass the >medical board exam there and become a >neuropsychiatrist, treating mental disorders linked to >diseases of the nervous system. "The greatest factor >that pushed me to go abroad is to help my parents and >to establish myself," he said. > >Last year, 25,000 nurses left the country -- three >times as many as graduated from nursing school, said >Jaime Z. Galvez Tan, vice chancellor for research at >the University of the Philippines and executive >director of the National Institutes of Health >Philippines. "This is a brain hemorrhage," he said. > >In addition, Galvez Tan said, 2,000 doctors left to >become nurses. This year, 4,000 doctors are taking up >nursing. The United States will have a shortage of >800,000 nurses by 2020, according to one estimate. >Such is the demand that in the Philippines there are >now almost 300 nursing schools, up from 127 nine years >ago, according to the Philippine Nurses Association. > >"It looks to me like we're nursing the whole world," >said Joven Cuanang, medical director of the private >St. Luke's Medical Center. > >Hospitals hire nurses, train them, and then they go to >the United States or Canada, making it hard to deliver >quality care, Cuanang said. > >---------- > > >Special postings in the Regine Velasquez forum board >sponsored by the Music Inside Buzz web site. > >http://insidebuzz.tripod.com

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