Manila ready to absorb Filipinos if Trump deports them

The Philippines is not afraid that a high number of Filipinos in the United States would be deported once Washington enforces tightened rules on immigration, officials say.

Labour Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the impending policy of President-elect Donald Trump on immigration is expected to have minimal effect on Filipinos working in the United States, since most are legally employed.

During his campaign for the US presidency, Trump said he would give priority to Americans in getting jobs.

He also said he would curb “uncontrolled foreign worker admissions”.

Bello said in the event that some Filipinos were deported by the US, the Philippines was ready to absorb them

Clarifying Bello’s statement, Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella, during a palace press briefing on Wednesday, said the Philippine government has established mechanisms on absorbing Filipinos working abroad back into the country and to its workforce.

“The interesting point here is that should the undocumented OFWs [Overseas Filipino Workers] decide to come home, Bello noted that the government is ready to provide them assistance and in his words, the end programme of President Rodrigo Duterte is to bring back our OFWs,” he said.

“In the same vein, the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) sector needs to level up by expanding the non-voice component of the industry should US President-elect Donald Trump stick to his campaign promise of bringing back jobs from — back to America according to the (Philippines’) National Economic and Development Authority or NEDA,” he said.

NEDA Deputy Director General Rosemarie Edillon for her part, said, the most likely BPO jobs that would be hit would be those that provide voice-based services such as call centres.

“Once we lose the US market for jobs that require English speakers, we could move to other services that area less language-based such as, for example, creatives,” she said, adding that the Philippines has a considerable talent pool of graphic artists

source : gulfnews