The stormy political situation here in the Philippines may have, in an extent, shielded us from the storms of war and uncertainty overseas.
But despite the rosy assurances of the government and business experts that the increasingly volatile situation abroad will have minimal effect on our economy, the truth is that in our "globalized" world, events that happen far, far away will have a big impact on our economic situation back home.
An increasingly brutal crackdowns on illegal (and even legal) immigration to the United States, have had many overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) concerned, even alarmed. It's becoming clear that even legal paths to immigration are being cut off due to the protectionist, nationalist and nativist stance of the U.S. and other countries.
Added to this is the brutal fact of wars, wars everywhere. The Ukraine conflict has no foreseeable solution and no foreseeable end. Israel and Iran are determined to finish each other off. Not to mention that there are concerns that these pockets of conflict could escalate into a full-blown World War Three if superpowers will not control themselves.
Among all these storms of geopolitical instabilities, the main question that we should ask our government it this: how are we going to handle a possible drain on our economy should our OFWs are finally forced to come home?
We're not just talking of the millions of dollars in OFW remittances, long the lifeblood of our economy, being cut off.
We're also talking about the serious drain the expected flood of returning overseas workers will have on our national economy - a primary reason, ironically, why these workers decided to seek greener pastures elsewhere.
This is a full-scale problem waiting to happen, an issue that can also upend our already unstable political situation.
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