The BSP has said it expects remittance payments made through banks to hit $11.87 billion this year, a rise of $170 million over its earlier estimate as more higher-paid professionals work overseas.

The revision also took into account a campaign by Philippine banks to persuade Filipino workers to use official money transfer routes.

Filipinos working abroad sent $1.047 billion through formal channels in July compared with a year-earlier $884 million, central bank data shows.

This brought remittances for the first seven months of 2006 to $7 billion, or 15.81 percent higher than a year earlier.

The country is one of the top three recipients of remittances from overseas workers globally.

Preliminary data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration showed that the number of Filipinos working overseas between January and July this year grew 5 percent to 661,360 from the same period of 2005.

Remittances, which fuel domestic spending, reached a record $10.7 billion in 2005, up 25 percent from 2004 and equal to about 10 percent of gross domestic product.

Due to poverty and a lack of job opportunities, around 10 percent of the country’s estimated 86 million people seek work abroad in such jobs as nurses, nannies, caregivers, seafarers, musicians, IT professionals, accountants and laborers.

Official figures were likely to underestimate total remittances by at least 20 percent because cash is frequently sent home with friends and relatives, the central bank has previously said.

According to the State of World Population Report 2006 of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), while migrant workers are “energizers” of the economies of both sender and receiver countries, they are exposed to unfair human rights and labor conditions in countries where they work. They also face less job opportunities and the problem of reintegration when they come home.

UNFPA representative Suneeta Mukherjee said remittances from migrant workers  are “not used for productivity investments” so they could find better job opportunities here and would not have to leave the country again.  Mukherjee urged the government to provide OFWs, especially women, with opportunities when they come home.  Mukherjee said that while the government is “making some efforts,” there are still not many opportunities here in the country.

 The report said women migrant workers are “more serious” about sending money to their country of origin.  “Money sent home by female migrants can raise families and even entire communities out of poverty... In the Philippines, women contributed one-third of roughly $6 billion total annual remittances,” Mukherjee said.  The UNFPA report said migration to find work abroad traces its roots to “unequal opportunities.” “Growing interdependence between countries, coupled with widening inequalities, will probably lead to the further intensification of international movements,” the report said.

The report said 94.5 million or nearly half of international migrants are women. In the Philippines, more than 65 percent of the nearly 3,000 workers who leave everyday are women. “Women are more likely to occupy traditionally ‘female’ occupations - domestic work, service sector work, sex work,” said Mukherjee.

For host countries, these migrant workers “quietly support a quality of life that many take for granted.” They work in the households of working families, take care of the sick and comfort the elderly, contribute their technical and professional expertise and pay taxes.