NewPhilippines faces growing nightmare as overseas jobs dry up, especially with depressed Saudi economy
Crash in oil prices depress Middle East economies, forcing companies to lay off and send thousands of Filipinos home
After two years working in Saudi Arabia, Arman Abelarde packed his bags in September and went home to the Philippines, joining an exodus of foreign workers who have been a major source of labour in the Arab Gulf for half a century.
Abelarde made panel boards in Riyadh, but his company, like many in the kingdom, is firing staff as government contracts dry up, victims of the oil slump.
“I never imagined this would happen -- that Saudi would just collapse,” said Abelarde, 47, taking a break from painting a two-story house in Manila, one of many odd jobs he’s taken to feed his family of five since he returned. “There were no more projects. Companies were closing left and right.”
For generations of Filipinos, Saudi Arabia was a land of golden opportunity, awash with oil revenue that funded massive subsidies and construction projects. As the world economy boomed and oil soared above US$140 a barrel, so did Saudi largesse. The party ended as crude crashed to less than $30, forcing the government to embark on big spending cuts.
“The Philippines became a little too dependent on jobs from the Middle East”
The reaction in Saudi Arabia reflects a shift against imported labour that is rippling across the world, from anti-immigrant Brexit supporters in the UK to the build-a-wall rhetoric of Donald Trump in the US and a clampdown on migrant labour in countries like Singapore, Thailand and South Korea.