The global financial crisis seem to have had a lower impact in South Asia or South East Asia where countries were growing. The Philippines have not been immune from the recession in two ways: reduced economic expansion and incomes for people at home and reduced remittances from overseas where the many Filipinos work and had their jobs threatened by the crisis.

One example is of Filipinos who work in the Middle East employed as home staff or in hotels and resorts.  These jobs have also been threatened by the recession as the number of tourists diminished. What this means is that many Filipino working in the Middle East have been made redundant and were facing therefore the prospect of having to return home.

The led their families back home to start a reverse remittance flow as they started to send money to their relatives overseas and allow them to look for a new job as the economy recovers and jobs become available again.

Many of the Filipino workers have been living overseas for long time. I remember a flight from Hong Kong to Manila sitting next to a Filipino couple with three kids and all of them talking Italian to each other. The links with families back home is the safety net against difficult times. The link serves also as safety net to be used to cope with difficult times overseas and not to loose the possibility of finding a better paid work there.