Review of Kale Bantigue Fajardo, 'Filipino Crosscurrents: Oceanographies of Seafaring, Masculinities and Globalization', Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011, xii+251 pp., $25 (paper)

Abstract

The ever increasing transfer of money or remittances from millions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) worldwide has been touted as one of the brightest success stories of the Philippines. The Philippine Central Bank stated that in 2011, OFWs remitted $20 billion dollars, which is almost 9% of the entire nation's gross domestic product... It is apparent that for the last decade the Philippines' most bankable export is its human resource. The Commission on Filipinos Overseas estimated that at the end of 2010, around 9.5 million Filipinos, or a little over nine per cent of the entire population, are out of the country and are classified as overseas Filipinos... The Philippine Government, local banks and financial institutions, media, multilateral agencies such as the Asian Development Bank and World Bank and millions of Filipinos wishing to 'go abroad' and escape the hardships of a developing country have all contributed to the creation of the OFW myth as an economic savior.