OFW Efects to Their Children

Every parent dreamt of giving their family a better life, especially their children. But how can they achieve their dream if our own country can’t provide a more jobs with decent wages? Migration/working abroad could then be just one of the options. An OFW is also called migrants because they work and live outside the Philippines. Their living abroad is also called migration. This research aims to find out the actual experiences of children who have parents that work abroad. The researcher also wants to understand what they go through and what the things that affect them are. This study intends to discover and find out more about the experiences of OFWs or Overseas Filipino Workers’ adolescent children. This study also seeks to find out what the effects to the children having OFW parent(s) and how do they characterize their relationship with their parents, and how do they cope with the situation of not having a physically present parent.

An Overseas Filipino Workers, also known as OFW is a person of Philippine origin who temporarily lives outside of the Philippines. Parents work abroad to earn a big income for their family. They work abroad so that they will be able to support the basic needs of their family.“It is emotionally and physically challenging for the children to accept that their family set-up is not the same with other families”. (ARIES RUFO). .A parent greatly affects their children’s behavior if they will go work abroad. Children grow in the care and guide of their parents. They grow healthy because of their parents. But without their parents, what would be their children become? Growing without their parent on their side has a great effect on their children’s character and behaviour.

The children may grow violent and rude because no one can teach them and correct them and explain to them the right thing that they should do. Some common negative effects of having OFW (Overseas Filipino Workers) parents are dropping out of school, taking prohibited medicine, and getting into early pregnancy. These negative effects sometimes occur when children don’t get too much attention from their parent or either guardian who is left behind. Children who don’t have their parents’ guidance can easily be influenced by peers. This is also a reason why “abandoned” children can change their attitudes easily. But besides having negative effects, children having OFW parents also change for good especially those who are in their adolescent age. Their OFW parents serve as their inspiration to do better in their endeavor.

Families with OFW parent ascribe higher value to money while families with no OFW parent ascribe higher value to adult attention inputs. ”A father, a mother and a child constitute a family. The father and the mother provide all the love, support and assurance for a better future for the children.” (www.childmigration.net) This is how a little child views the concept of a family. By this belief and the OFW phenomenon, a child becomes confused of the reality that he or she is living with. With one parent abroad or both, the children may want time, fondness and the love of a father and a mother. But he or she never gets the satisfaction because of a parent who is miles away from him or her.