Spotlight Beyond Wings and Sailships

Up aboard with the luggages every Filipino carries with them through the vastest of oceans and the mightiest winds of the sky are the wide-eyed hopes and the promise of a step further towards the fruits of success. What once was a band-aid answer to a declining economy now stands as a booming staple towards our modern Filipino culture, regardless of how well they treat our own in their land - in which even international point of views see it for themselves. Complex as it may seem, the OFW culture remains as a prevalent topic for social awareness, yet still leaves a question regarding the space for accurate truth telling and fair journalism towards the workers beyond the nation.

Media for decades have continuously fed the modern view of Overseas Filipino Workers boxed within the stories of rags-to-riches narrative as an agenda to push more Filipinos to take on the migration movement. On the opposite side, OFWs are often the hallowing muse of many grim stories of Filipino workers being fled home in a sealed coffin as a horrifying result of abuse and maltreatment of their foreign employers. Unfortunately, this is the two faces of the coin the media enjoys to spin, pushing the mass to view the labor migration landscape as either a millionaire generator or a slow roll towards doom in the hands of another country’s hands. This phenomenon lacks substance on how the OFW life is not just a this-or-that roulette, but rather a multi-dimensional and complex array of opportunities that can happen to anybody.

Not only that, the consistent media coverage of the “modern heroes” of the country blats through broadcasts towards the ear of policymakers and other officials that has the power to sculpt the community the way they see fit. The involvement of the government towards the prominent cases of OFW stories reported by the media doesn’t just stop after their financial and necessary assistance to aid the needs of the migrant workers and the families they left behind. Notable contributions of these policymakers are the additional programs and services that provide advanced knowledge and training, gearing Filipinos to become the working titans of other countries, while also ensuring consistent support and safeguarding through new agencies such as the Department of Migrant Workers and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration. With these programs and opportunities, it masks the Philippines being cemented to be a factory of migrant workers to ship abroad.

Lastly, the sector of people in question are those truly affected by the media coverage of labor migration. Though it does help that the remittances that this field bring seems like easy money with the challenge of a test for might and willfulness, it never washes away the fact that the media’s perspective of them is caged within the fact that they are either a helpless victim or a person always kneeling towards foreigners. And despite the success stories made to give light to the dull perspective of OFWs, the media will continue to contribute to the painting of our own migrant workers in colours they don’t blend in. After all, the media is a tough wall to break into, which can continue portraying OFWs unless a huge change of perspective comes into play, a perspective that can shine them brighter than the roles they are expected to portray.