a mismatch between motivation of highly qualified german ... · 2015). the german blue card today...

Filipinos in Germany

A Mismatch between Motivation of Highly Qualified and Qualified Filipino Workers and

German Migration Policies?

Supervised by Professor Michaela Kreyenfeld

Submitted by Paulyn May Duman

Master of Public Policy Candidate 2016

4 April 2016

HERTIE SCHOOL OF GOVERNANCE, FRIEDRICHSTRASSE 180, BERLIN | WORD COUNT: 17,389

Filipinos in Germany |

For my husband Sven

Acknowledgement: I thank my thesis supervisor, Professor Michaela Kreyenfeld for all

her support for this research. Your close guidance in this research made me appreciate

doing research more. Thank you to all the Filipino and German participants in my

interviews for saying yes to my invitation and for providing data and insights relevant

to my research. Thank you to the Filipino communities in Germany which provided

contacts for this study. Most of all, thank you, Dr. Sven Herpig for your unceasing love

and support in everything I do. Thank you for being my “second thesis supervisor”.


Table of Contents List of Abbreviations .................................................................................................... 7

Executive Summary ...................................................................................................... 9

1. Introduction, Method, and Theory ........................................................................ 11

1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 11

1.2 Theoretical Framework .................................................................................... 12

1.3 Method ............................................................................................................. 15

2. Migration Policies of Germany .............................................................................. 19

2.1 Developments on Migration to Germany ........................................................ 19

2.2 The German Green Card ................................................................................. 21

2.3 The German Blue Card and changes in the Immigration Law ....................... 23

2.4 EU Labour Migration for Third-country Nationals ........................................ 26

2.5 Germany’s employer-oriented immigration management system .................... 27

3. Labour migration in Germany ............................................................................... 30

3.1 Overview ........................................................................................................... 30

3.2 Foreign-born Doctors and Nurses in Germany ............................................... 32

3.3 Foreign-born Information and Communication Technology Professionals

(ICT) and Engineers in Germany .......................................................................... 34

3.4 Filling the skilled labour gaps ........................................................................... 35

4. Migration Policies of the Philippines ..................................................................... 36

4.1 International Migration .................................................................................... 36

4.2 Desire to migrate abroad is high but most Filipinos stay ................................. 37

4.3 Filipinos around the world................................................................................ 37

4.4 The Philippine approach to Filipino international migration .......................... 41

4.5 The role of the government and private sector ................................................. 42

4.6 Migration in the Philippines is mostly legal temporary contract work ............ 45

5. Movement of Highly Skilled Filipinos ................................................................... 46

5.1 Overview ........................................................................................................... 46

5.2 Movement of Filipino computer programmers ................................................ 48


5.3 Movement of Filipino medical doctors ............................................................ 48

5.4 Movement of Filipino nurses ............................................................................ 49

5.5 Movement of Filipino Mathematicians and Statisticians ................................ 50

5.6 Movement of Filipino engineers ...................................................................... 51

5.7 Hard-to-fill occupations in the Philippines ..................................................... 55

5.8 Enrolment and Graduation Rate in Higher Education in the Philippines ...... 56

6. Filipinos in Germany .............................................................................................. 58

6.1 Overview ........................................................................................................... 58

6.2 Permanent Filipino Immigrants in Germany ................................................... 60

6.3 Temporary Highly Qualified and Qualified Filipinos in Germany ................. 63

6.4 Reasons for migrating to Germany .................................................................. 64

6.5 Experience in Germany is generally positive .................................................... 65

6.6 Factors affecting participants’ motivation to stay in Germany ......................... 68

7. Conclusion: Recommendations for Germany ........................................................ 72

References ................................................................................................................... 76

List of Figures

Figure 1. Average number of days that a job position remains unfilled in Germany,

2015 ............................................................................................................................ 29

Figure 2. Source countries of inflows in 2014 ............................................................ 31

Figure 3. Immigration, Emigration, and Net Migration per 1000 resident in

Germany, 2013 ........................................................................................................... 32

Figure 4. Foreign-born doctors in Germany, 2014 .................................................... 33

Figure 5. Foreign-born ICT professionals in Germany, source countries up to July

2004 ............................................................................................................................ 34

Figure 6. Top 10 countries based on Stock Estimates of Filipinos, 2013 .................. 38

Figure 7. Top European destinations of Filipinos, Stock Estimates 2013 ................ 39

Figure 8. Annual number of migrant workers deployed in the Philippines, India and

Bangladesh, 2007-2014 .............................................................................................. 40

Figure 9. Annual Flow of Temporary OFWs (New Hires Only) by Science &

Technology Classification, 1998-2009 ....................................................................... 47

Figure 10. Annual deployment of Filipino computer programmers overseas, 2001-

2010 ............................................................................................................................ 48


Figure 11. Annual deployment Filipino medical doctors overseas, 2001-2010 ......... 49

Figure 12. Annual deployment of Filipino nurses overseas, 2004-2010 .................... 50

Figure 13. Annual deployment of Filipino Mathematicians, Statisticians and Related

Workers, 2001-2010 ................................................................................................... 51

Figure 14. Annual deployment of Filipino engineers, 2001-2009 ............................. 52

Figure 15. Higher Education Enrolment by Discipline in Science and Technology in

the Philippines, School Year 2003-2004 to School Year 2013-2014 ......................... 56

Figure 16. Higher Education Graduates by Discipline in Science and Technology in

the Philippines, School Year 2002-2003 to School Year 2012-2013 ......................... 57

List of Boxes

Box 1. EU Blue Card at a Glance .............................................................................. 26

List of Tables

Table 1. Summary of Filipino participants’ profession in Germany .......................... 18

Table 2. Summary of residence titles of Filipino participants in Germany ................ 18

Table 3: The EU States which issued, at least, one Blue Card .................................. 27

Table 4. Top Ten Countries for Filipino S&T by average number of S&T OFWs

deployed abroad for the period of 1998-2009 ............................................................ 47

Table 5. Median salary in specific occupations in the Philippines in 2010 ................ 54

Table 6. Average Monthly Income of S&T by Specific Occupations abroad, 2009 . 54

Table 7. Statistics on Filipinos in Germany based on different sources ..................... 59

Table 8. Annual departure of Filipinos for permanent immigration in Germany,

2004-2015 ................................................................................................................... 61

Table 9. Origin Regions in the Philippines of permanent Filipino immigrants in

Germany, 2005-2014 .................................................................................................. 61

Table 10. Summary of the permanent Filipino immigrants in Germany, 2005-201462

Table 11. Gender of Filipino permanent immigrants in Germany, 2005-2014 ........ 62

Table 12. Cross-tabulation of educational attainment and gender of permanent

Filipino immigrants in Germany, 2005-2014 ............................................................ 62

Table 13. Age of departure of Filipino permanent immigrants in Germany, 2005-

2014 ............................................................................................................................ 63

Table 14. Summary of factors which motivated participants to move to Germany

(Departure Period: 2005-2014) .................................................................................. 64


List of Appendix

Appendix A: Summary of Participants

Appendix B: Compilation of EU Blue Card rules among EU Member States

Appendix C: Table of Examinees and Passers in Board Examination, 2006-2008

Appendix D: Cross-tabulation of Regions in the Philippines and Educational

Attainment, 2005-2014

Appendix E: Factors which motivated participants to move to Germany

Appendix F: Participants Experience in Germany

Appendix G: Factors affecting participants’ motivation to stay in Germany

Appendix H: Perception of participants as to what German can do better to attract

highly qualified individuals

Appendix I: Table of suggestions from German experts

Appendix J: Interview questions for highly qualified and qualified Filipinos in

Germany

Appendix K: Consent Form

Appendix L: Interview outline for Philippine expert

Appendix M: Interview outline for German expert

Appendix N: Bottlenecks and Shortage Occupations in Germany


List of Abbreviations

ADMU Ateneo de Manila University

BA Bundesagentur für Arbeit

BAMF Federal Office for Migration and Refugees

BLA Bilateral Labor Agreement

BLE Bureau of Labor and Employment

BMBF Federal Ministry of Education and Research

CFO Commission on Filipinos Overseas

CHED Commission on Higher Education

DOLE Department of Labor and Employment

DOST Department of Science and Technology

ESCAP Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

EU European Union

FRG Federal Republic of Germany

FSAAG Filipino Students, Alumni and Academics in Germany

IOM International Organization for Migration

IT Information Technology

IZA Institute for the Study of Labor

OEC Overseas Employment Certificate

OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

OFW Overseas Filipino Workers

PDOS Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar

PEOS Pre-Employment Orientation Seminar

POEA Philippine Overseas Employment Administration

POLO Philippine Overseas Labour Offices


S&T Science and Technology

SEI-DOST Science Education Institute-Department of Science and Technology

SY School Year

UN United Nations

UP University of the Philippines

UPAA University of the Philippines Alumni Association

VDR Association of German Ship-owners

VHS Adult Education Center

ZAV Federal Employment Agency’s International Placement Services


Executive Summary

According to the OECD, Germany has the most open migration policies

among OECD countries for highly skilled third-country nationals. The German Blue

Card is an effective way of attracting highly qualified individuals to Germany. Various

policies of attracting highly qualified and qualified third-country nationals have been

put in place in the German Residence Act. With the implementation of the new

migration policies, this paper studies how these policies match the motivations of

highly skilled and skilled Filipinos to move to Germany, and those who are in

Germany, to stay. The research aims to provide policy recommendations to the

German government on improving migration and integration policies.

A total of nineteen (19) expert interviews were conducted for this research using

semi-structured interviews and general interview guide, in person, via Skype or through

phone. 10-year data from 2005 to 2014 on permanent Filipino immigrants in Germany

was requested from the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) and data on annual

outflows of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) with work contracts from 1998 to

2010 were downloaded from the website of Philippine Overseas Employment

Administration (POEA). The data was used to analyse the characteristics of Filipino

migrants.

Estimates show that more than 10 million Filipinos are abroad, with 4.8 million

permanently living overseas, 4.2 million have a temporary residence, and 1.2 million

are irregular migrants. More females leave the Philippines each year than males, both

for temporary work or for permanent settlement. Permanent Filipino immigrants in

Germany are largely highly skilled or skilled as a result of Germany’s migration policy

focusing on attracting highly qualified individuals, with 90% of Filipinos residing

permanently in Germany being female.


The experience of Filipinos in Germany is positive based on the interviews,

although participants had negative experiences in finding accommodation, recognition

of qualifications, language barrier, the attitude of the German society towards

foreigners, transactions in government offices for marriage and visa processes, and

finding a school for the child. Although the experiences are good, all of the participants

in this study do not have a clear intention of staying in Germany. Eleven (11) out of

thirteen (13) intend to either go back to the Philippines or move to another country.

This study proposes recommendations to the German government to adopt

policies which aim to lower transaction costs, improve perception and communication

in source and host country, strive toward a more international academia, and avoid de-

skilling of highly skilled and skilled workers.


1. Introduction, Method, and Theory

1.1 Introduction

Today, Germany is the most open country in its migration policies particularly

attracting skilled labour. Germany’s political decision to become an immigration

country did not happen overnight. It started from a position of strong reluctance during

the post-war period, only allowing temporary migrant workers in Germany through

guest workers who, as suggested by its name, are expected to leave at some point. It

slowly opened up to other countries, particularly from Eastern Europe in the 90s, but

still with much hesitation. From 2000 until today, Germany took small steps to

opening up its labour migration policy, but employing a consistent determination of

selective migration based on economic needs of Germany. The Federal Employment

Agency, in its latest report, enumerated shortage occupations and potential bottlenecks

resulting in labour gaps. Medical doctors, nurses, IT, and engineers are highly

demanded across Germany of varying degrees, and the situation indicates a higher

future demand based on the lower unemployment rate in these professions, increasing

number of days that a position for these occupations remains vacant, and the changing

demographic situation in Germany. Qualified migration is one of its strategies in filling

in these labour gaps which is now reflected in its current migration policies.

Germany attracts highly qualified individuals through different approaches

which can largely be classified into three broad policy areas: general labour migration,

highly skilled labour migration, and self-employed migrants (Ette, Heß, & Sauer,

2015). The German Blue Card today has attracted some highly qualified individuals

from third countries. Among all EU countries, Germany is the only country which can

be said to be communicating and using the Blue Card policy. Germany has issued

almost 220,000 residence permits to international students and around 4,500 residence

permits to graduates of German universities to look for a job in Germany. It also allows

self-employment through establishing business or working as a freelancer. With all


these existing policies, I was curious to find out how many highly qualified Filipinos

are in Germany and their experiences.

The Philippines ranked 6th among the origin countries of new immigrants in

OECD countries between 2007-2014 (OECD, 2015b; 33), although in Germany, it

is not part of its list. Germany, on the other hand, is one of the top 5 destinations of

Filipinos in Europe according to the 2013 Filipino Stock Estimates (CFO, 2013).

With the bilateral labour agreement between the Philippines and Germany in 2013,

and the new agreement in February 2016 allowing the participation of private

recruitment agencies in hiring Filipino nurses in Germany, we expect an increase in the

number of Filipinos moving to Germany in the next years.

This paper investigates the factors which influenced the motivation of highly

qualified Filipinos to move to Germany, and whether it is influenced by economic

reasons or through social networks. It also studies whether, after overcoming the

barriers of migration to Germany and living in Germany for some years, they will stay

and what factors influence their decisions. The research asks improvements in

migration and integration policies from the participants based on their experience and

probes into their perception of how Germany is doing in attracting highly qualified

individuals as opposed to other countries, particularly in the Middle East.

A strong motivation for this study is to investigate what makes highly qualified

Filipino overseas workers move to less democratic states and what makes it attractive

to Filipinos as well as what Europe, particularly Germany, can do to attract skilled

Filipinos to move, and perhaps stay, in Germany.

1.2 Theoretical Framework

The interest in the study of migration has grown in the recent years which

produced several theoretical frameworks and broader approaches to understanding the

movement of people (Castles, Miller, & Ammendola, 2005). Various reasons are given


as to why people migrate, where they migrate, and the size of the flow but no single

theory provides a single explanation for these questions. Neoclassical economic theory

maintains its dominance in the literature although some theories promote alternative

approaches to the economic theory (Castles et al., 2005). Macro-imbalances in the

supply and demand of labour produce wage differences that result in migration (Bean

& Brown, 2014). On the micro-level, individuals weigh the economic benefits of

moving and contrast that to the costs. Migration is considered an investment to

maximize returns on labour where migrants calculate income and cost of living in

destination countries (Bean & Brown, 2014). Neoclassical theory assumes that

potential individual migrants have perfect information about employment

opportunities and wage levels at destination countries that migrants’ decisions to move

are based on such economic factors (Castles et al., 2005).

The new economics of labour migration, on the other hand, amends

microeconomic theories of labour migration by zooming in on the role of family and

household in deciding whether to migrate or not and that the household engages in

risk-minimizing behaviour and maximizing earnings (Bean & Brown, 2014). This

group decides whether one or more members of the family migrate to diversify income

and minimize risk, but economic factors remain central in this theory (Castles et al.,

2005).

Network theory provides an explanation to how connections influence decisions

to migrate, and often, it is closely linked to family ties and jobs, before and after arrival

(Bean & Brown, 2014). “The exchange of information and the formation of

relationships of trust are the building blocks of migration networks” (Bean & Brown,

2014). Migrants rely on informal networks to minimize the risks associated with

moving to a foreign country where etablished networks function as an accumulation of

social capital which reduces risks (Bean & Brown, 2014). In some cases, immigration

networks function as the recruiting and training arrangement for friends and family of


the current workers which reduces costs for recruitment and training for employer

(Martin, 2014).

Transnational theory emphasises that those who move to another region cannot

be definitively called immigrants or emigrants, but people whose lives span across

borders and that understanding the person moving cannot be made within the

destination country only (FitzGerald, 2014). FitzGerald (2014) argues that a third

space is created beyond national borders which can be considered a reproduction of

communities and rather than emphasizing on people who move. It also considers how

people who do not move are affected by migration. Transnational theory highlights the

importance of transnational business communities, whether large-scale or small ethnic

entrepreneurs and also political and cultural communities (Portes, 1999). Distinction

is made between transnationalism from above or those done by powerful institutional

actors including multinational corporations and states and transnationalism from below

or those which refer to grassroots activities by immigrants and their counterparts in

home countries (Portes, 1999).

This study explores the reasons why highly qualified Filipinos migrate to

Germany. It posits that neoclassical economic theory and social networks play a

substantial role in attracting highly qualified individuals and asserts that based on these

theories, there is a mismatch between highly qualified Filipinos motivations to move

to Germany. This research hypothesizes that highly skilled Filipinos are more likely to

choose a country for labour migration if there are existing personal networks in the

immigration country. It also hypothesizes that highly skilled Filipinos are more likely

to choose a country for labour migration if there are fewer restrictions in getting a job

at the country of destination. The same hypotheses are considered in their decision to

stay in the host country, with the idea that an improvement in both human and social

capital would also increase the likelihood of staying.


1.3 Method

Thirteen (13) highly qualified Filipinos in Germany were interviewed using a

semi-structured interview in person, via phone or Skype, to determine the factors which

motivated them to move to Germany and their intention to stay. Their personal

experiences in Germany, their encounters with the procedures, and their perceptions

on how Germany can improve its migration and integration policies were analysed.

Two (2) Filipino experts were interviewed on Philippine migration policies, the

possible explanations from the government’s perspective as to why Filipinos move to

certain countries, the government’s short-term and long-term programs relating to

overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Finally, four (4) German experts were interviewed

on the pillars of German migration policies, areas of improvement, and perspectives on

Germany’s future steps on migration. A total of nineteen (19) expert interviews were

conducted for this research.

The participants were chosen based on the definition of highly qualified and

qualified third-country nationals based on the EU Blue Card, as transposed in the

German Residence Act. A supplementary definition is used based on the national laws

of Germany particularly referring to the qualification levels set by the Federal

Employment Agency to determine whether a labour market test is required before

hiring a third-country national.

There are various ways to connect with the Filipinos in Germany for this

research. One is through the Philippine Embassy in Berlin which gathers information

on all Filipinos going to Germany. Another is through the Filipino organizations

established in Germany which one can find through searching on the Internet. Third

are the Facebook groups created by Filipinos, whether organized as a group or not,

which are managed by Filipinos who are in Germany. Two of such Facebook groups

are the University of the Philippines Alumni-Germany (UPAA-Germany)1 and

1 Facebook group found at https://www.facebook.com/groups/143002449451/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/143002449451/


Filipino Students, Alumni and Academics in Germany (FSAAG)2, both of which the

author is a member. Lastly, there are informal groups which are established based on

commonalities such as similar scholarships or fellowships, Filipino groups in German

universities, cohort groups such as nurses who arrived in Germany, and communities

formed based on locations and church groups.

The participants in this research are first screened through an Excel file list of

members in the FSAAG Facebook group where members are encouraged to include

their contact information in a voluntary manner and also to circulate the same message

to other Filipinos in Germany to do the same. An initial examination of highly

qualified and qualified Filipinos was made based on whether they have completed a

university degree and whether they are in Germany based on the information they

provided on the list. This methodological approach means that those individuals who

did not disclose their educational attainment were excluded and those who were out of

Germany for a long time were also not included3. Filipinos whose professional

backgrounds fall under the shortage occupations based on the whitelist provided by the

BA and those who will not fall under the requirement of a salary threshold under the

German Blue Card were then selected. The rationale is these individuals should

experience a fairly expeditious process of obtaining a residence title and should

experience fewer barriers to movement and finding a job. The author searched for their

contact information online if it was not included in the Excel list and invitations were

sent for an interview. Lastly, when the responses for certain groups such as IT and

engineering professionals were not forthcoming, snowballing was used where the

author requested the members of the FSAAG Facebook group to connect her to

individuals in this profession.

2 Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/443987912332843/ 3 This is a potential further research to compare the experiences of those who were in Germany before

2005 with the respondents in this study who arrived in Germany from 2005 onwards.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/443987912332843/


All the participants reside in Germany during the period of 2005 to 2016 except

one who left Germany but still visits Germany for research purposes. He was included

as it provides insights on reasons for leaving. The participants arrived in Germany

between 2005 and 2014, with an average duration of stay of 5 years. The mean age of

the participants when they left the Philippines (or another country) for Germany is

27.69 (SD=4.06). A summary of respondents’ characteristics, occupation and relevant

information for this research are presented in Appendix A. For an overview of the

professions and residence titles held, see Tables 1 and 2.

An important consideration of this group of participants is their common

characteristics which make it homogeneous. Ten out of thirteen participants studied at

the University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University, which are the top

two universities in the Philippines with highly competitive entrance examinations for

admission to the university. Moreover, eleven out of the thirteen participants lived in

Metro Manila, or in the capital area of the country, for a substantial period of their

residence in the Philippines. Hence, a caveat is made that for this section of the paper,

the results of the interviews are relevant to this specific group of individuals.

The interview responses are arranged according to four broad categories: 1.

factors which motivated participants to move to Germany; 2. participants’ experiences

in Germany (related to integration and bureaucratic procedures); 3. factors affecting

participants’ motivation to stay in Germany; and 4. perception as to whether Germany

is doing enough to attract highly qualified individuals and what it can do better.


Table 1. Summary of Filipino participants’ profession in Germany

Occupation Frequency

Scientist 5

IT 3

Social Science 1

Engineer 1

Mathematician 1

Nurse 1

Medical doctor 1

Total 13

Table 2. Summary of residence titles of Filipino participants in Germany

Residence Title Frequency

Employment 4

Student, Training,

Research

3

Settlement permit 1

German’s spouse 1

Foreigner’s spouse 1

German university

graduate looking for a job

1

Miscellaneous (IO

passport)

1

Naturalized German

citizen

1

Total 13


Also, a 10-year data from 2005 to 2014 on permanent Filipino immigrants in

Germany was requested from the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) and data

on annual outflows of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) with work contracts from

1998 to 2010 were downloaded from the website of Philippine Overseas Employment

Administration (POEA). The data was used to analyse the characteristics of Filipino

migrants.

2. Migration Policies of Germany

2.1 Developments on Migration to Germany

There are four primary sources of post-war migration to Germany. The first is

the Aussiedler migration or ethnic German immigrants from formerly communist

Eastern Europe (Wingens, Windzio, Valk, & Aybek, 2011) from 1945 to 1955. The

number reached around 12 million people fleeing prosecution in the Soviet bloc

countries such that by 1950, 16% of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) are

refugees and expellees (Geddes, 2003). The second source is the guest workers, where

Germany signed the first formal agreement of allowing temporary workers with Italy

in 1955. By 1960, Germany recruited around 280,000 guest workers where 45% are

Italians. Agreement with Greece and Spain in 1960 followed, and then with Turkey in

1961. In 1965, a new Foreigner’s Law was introduced to replace the 1938 Aliens

Regulations which focused migration policies on economic interest of the FRG.

Residence permits were linked to work permits, and both have to align with FRG’s

economic interests. One can argue that an idea that Germany is creating a ‘community

of belonging’ had been replaced by ‘a community of contributors to the GNP,’ which

considered guest workers and descendants as contributors albeit not significant, and

excluding asylum-seekers, refugees, contract labourers and Spaetaussiedler. (Geddes,

2003).

A third source of migration is the family members of the guest workers.

Interestingly, family reunification was not in legislation before 1981 and Germany even


had implemented an immigration stop, and yet, the number of the foreign population

increased. Finally, asylum seekers are Germany’s fourth source of migration.

Previously, Germany was more liberal in recognizing the rights of an asylum applicant

to make a claim rather than the obligation of the state to consider a claim made. But

Germany reduced the actual ability to exercise this right in the 1990s (Geddes, 2003).

West Germany was not the only one recruiting foreign workers. East Germany

also received many immigrants. This was largely determined by foreign policy interests

of the DDR, which was to hire mainly male contract workers between 18 to 35 from

other socialist states such as Poland, Hungary, Angola, Mozambique, North Korea and

Vietnam. (Geddes, 2003). In 1998, the Social Democrat/Green coalition implemented

a system for regulation of immigration or integration of migrant newcomers (Geddes,

2003). Attempts have been made to promote short-term migration to function as a

‘safety valve’ in the labour market to supply labour shortages. Such was the example in

the late 1990s when trade associations lobbied to fill labour shortages in the IT sector.

The SPD/Green coalition proposed the issuance of ‘green cards’, or a five-year work

visa, to IT professionals with a target of 20,000 cards (Geddes, 2003). This policy was

perceived as an attempt to attract Indian IT workers to Germany and was attacked by

the right-wing parties as the wrong way to address this issue. Instead, German children

should be trained and recruiting foreign workers is counterproductive since Germany’s

unemployment during this time was also high (Geddes, 2003). Application for a

German Green Card was underwhelming since Germany is competing globally for

skilled migrant workers while, at the same time, some regions in Germany were

unrelenting in their hostile attitude towards foreign workers. One thing that emerged

with the implementation of the German Green Card is that Germany has recognized

that it is an immigration country and that it needs foreign workers to fill its labour

shortages. Germany has stepped out of its long-time stance of being kein

Einwanderungsland (not an immigration country).


2.2 The German Green Card

The German Green Card was introduced in August 2000 and aimed to provide

a non-bureaucratic means of bringing third-country national experts in the information

and communication technology (ICT) fields to Germany (Kolb, 2005). Trade

associations such as BITKOM actively lobbied and complained to the government

about the lack of ICT specialists which was detrimental to the competitiveness of a

rapidly growing sector (Kolb, 2005).

The German Green Card is different from the American Green Card, where

the latter allows for the possibility of naturalization and permits indefinite work and

residence permit. The German Green Card on the other hand only grants work permit

for five years, and certain requirements must be first fulfilled, such as a job offer from

a company in Germany, a university degree, or a guaranteed gross annual salary of at

least 51,000 Euros at that time (Kolb, 2005). Those who studied in Germany are also

allowed to sign labour contracts after graduation without having to go through the long

process of getting a residence permit. A German Green Card is usually issued in less

than week (Kolb, 2005). After setting a 20,000-target of Green Card issuance, it

remained unmet in 2003 until it was stopped in 2005 (Kolb, 2005).

If one is to evaluate the success of the German Green Card by looking only at

the sheer number of cards issued since 2000, it invites an easy conclusion that it was a

failure because it did not meet its target. However, evaluating the impact of the Green

Card based only on a myopic standard of hitting targets underestimates the actual

contribution of the Green Card in Germany. It has stirred public debates regarding the

issues surrounding labour migration and promoted public awareness and examination

of the country’s policy of targeting specific skills while allowing them a limited stay in

Germany. Through this public discourse, a new immigration was born in 2004 which

took effect in 2005. It provided unlimited residence permit for highly qualified


individuals and their families and allowed international students graduating from

German universities a limited stay after graduation to find a job (Kolb, 2005).

Perhaps, the biggest contribution of the Green Card is its impact on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in attracting highly qualified individuals. The Green Card provided an equal opportunity to compete with big multinational, and transnational corporations which have existing mechanisms for hiring and moving highly skilled individuals (H. K. personal communication, March 11,

2016).

In fact, data on IT work permits until July 2004 showed that 75% of all work

permits were from the SMEs i.e. companies with fewer than 500 employees (Kolb,

2005). A majority of the ICT recruits were from Eastern Europe followed by India.

(Kolb, 2005). Moreover, Kolb (2005) argued that it is inaccurate to say that the

German Green Card failed because the top 20 largest ICT firms, where a large part of

the revenues in this sector come from, did not utilize it because the legislative

framework for intra-corporate labour markets was already in place in 1998. These

regulations made work permits possible for international personnel within a

corporation without going through long bureaucratic processes.

It is noteworthy that Germany, through the Federal Ministry of Education and

Research (BMBF), launched an initiative in 2001 named iMove (International

Marketing of Vocational Education), a programme with emerging industrialized

countries to promote German vocational training, with the first memorandum of

agreement signed with India. iMove’s services include a multilingual database that

contains information about German training providers, conducting seminars and

training and leading trade missions abroad. Its tagline ‘Training – Made in Germany’

puts great emphasis on training for employability (German Missions in India, 2011).


2.3 The German Blue Card and changes in the Immigration Law

The Immigration Act, which took effect in January 2005 (Aufenthaltsgesetz),

provided the rules on the entry of foreigners into Germany, their residence permits

based on various purposes, termination of residence, and asylum procedures (Federal

Foreign Office, 2012). The Residence Act stipulates that a visa is in itself a kind of

residence permit, a change from the old Foreigners Act where residence permits were

only acquired after entry into Germany (Federal Foreign Office, 2012). The

amendments in the Act implemented EU directives on residence and asylum rules,

prevent sham or forced marriages, enhancement of internal security. It also implements

decisions of the German Conference of Interior Ministers on nationality law, facilitates

the immigration of company founders, and fosters the integration of legal immigrants

(Federal Foreign Office, 2012).

In 2012, Germany introduced the EU Blue Card, following the EU Directive

2009/50/EC, which does not only implement the EU Directive but functions as an

instrument to attract highly qualified individuals (Gereke, 2013). The EU Blue Card

has been authoritative in defining highly qualified third-country nationals. It is defined

as individuals with a university degree (a degree from a German university, a recognized

degree from a foreign university or a degree from a foreign university that is comparable

to a German degree) drawing an annual income that corresponds to at least two-thirds

of the annual threshold for the general pension insurance (49,600 Euros in 2016)

(Mayer, 2013). In professions where there exists a shortage of workers—engineers,

technicians, IT and software development, nurses and caretakers, physicians, medical

technicians as of 20154—the minimum annual income is 52 % of the annual income

threshold for general pension insurance (38,688 Euros in 2016). Germany attracts not

4 Based on the ‘whitelist’ of 18 occupation groups where shortages and bottlenecks exist as assessed by

the German Federal Employment Agency in December 2015. Accessed at

https://statistik.arbeitsagentur.de/Navigation/Footer/Top-Produkte/Fachkraefteengpassanalyse-

Nav.html on 12 March 2016.

https://statistik.arbeitsagentur.de/Navigation/Footer/Top-Produkte/Fachkraefteengpassanalyse-Nav.html



only highly qualified workers with university degrees with salary thresholds. Scientists

with special technical expertise or prominent instructors and research associates are

considered as highly qualified workers, but there is also no income threshold for these

occupations (Mayer, 2013).

Important changes were also made in the German Blue Card. The changes

include granting labour market access to the Blue Card holders’ family without

requiring any proof of German language proficiency (Mayer, 2013). Another is the

exemption of most applicants from a labour market test5 (OECD, 2013a). Although

the German Federal Employment Agency continues to review whether filling the

position would be a responsible decision based on a labour market and integration

policy perspective, in addition to the examination if the foreigner’s working conditions

are equal to those of comparable German workers (Mayer, 2013). One important rule

in the German EU Blue Card is that in cases where the Federal Employment Agency

fails to respond within two weeks from the application for a German Blue Card,

approval is granted automatically (OECD, 2013a). According to the OECD, 21,000

foreigners in Germany held an EU Blue Card by the end of December 2014; 10,000

of those worked in shortage occupations (OECD, 2015b).

In Germany, the EU Blue Card is just one of the pillars of its migration policy

which is substantially focusing on attracting highly skilled migrants found under

Section 19 of the German Residence Act. A broader labour migration framework not

limited to highly skilled forms part of the backbone of Germany’s migration policy.

Germany also focuses on attracting qualified and skilled workers which include those

persons with professional training or comparable secondary education at a minimum

(Mayer 2013). There is also a provision attracting self-employed migrants where, for

the first time, individuals with planned business projects may apply for a residence

5 In certain occupations regulated by the Employment Regulations and Employment Procedure

Regulations, a residence permit for employment may only be issued to a third-country national if no

German, EU citizen or third-country national with permanent residence title is available for an existing

position. This prerequisite is checked by the labour market test (Mayer, 2013).


permit in Germany. Previously it was limited only to certain qualifications such as

having an investment sum of a million euros, creation of at least ten new jobs, and

assessment of the business plan by the local chamber of industry and trade (Ette et al.,

2015). In the end, these requirements for establishing a business have been dropped

and now only require a promising business idea (Ette et al., 2015). Self-employment

has also been expanded in two ways: either apply for a residence permit as a self-

employed entrepreneur with a business plan or as a freelancer (Make it in Germany,

2016). Those wanting to establish a business in Germany need to contact competent

bodies in the planned business location, while those who want to practice their

profession as a freelancer should first check whether their profession is regulated (such

as practice of law in courts, nurses, etc.) or unregulated (human resource lawyer,

interpreter, etc.). Freelancers also need to have their qualifications recognized in

Germany through the Central Office for Foreign Education (Make it in Germany,

2016; A.H. of BAMF, personal communication, March 29, 2016).

Germany also expanded its policy of attracting newly graduates from abroad.

Visa for tertiary-educated job-seekers has been extended up to six months, provided

that they can secure their livelihood during that period while graduates of German

universities are granted an extension from 12 to 18 months to find employment.

International students who are still studying at a university in Germany are now

allowed to work the equivalent of 120 full-time days annually instead of only 90 full-

time days in the previous provision. New regulations were also implemented to attract

vocational degree holders (Mayers, 2013 citing OECD International Migration

Outlook 2013).

“Before 2000, Germany hardly had any skilled selective labour migration at all. Since then, Germany has seen regular reforms in its migration law in 2005, and every two or three years after that—2007, 2009, 2012, 2013, and 2015. On paper, the changes have been substantial. But on the actual numbers, Germany has not fulfilled the previous


expectations although one cannot say that it failed. Migration is not a tap that you can turn on and off. What Germany needs is to acquire a certain reputation internationally and people around the world need to know that Germany is an attractive place for people with certain skills. It just takes time for these reforms to produce the intended outcome” (A.E. personal communication, March 23, 2016).

In 2013, Germany has increased the budget for language training of foreign

apprentices to 24 million euros (OECD, 2013). With all these regular reforms in the

past 15 years, Germany has been reported by the OECD as the country with the most

open policy for highly skilled individuals (OECD, 2013b).

2.4 EU Labour Migration for Third-country Nationals

“The central feature of the EU Blue Card is that it is supplementing national immigration law and not replacing national regulations. There is a mixture between the EU Blue Card on the one hand and national labour immigration legislation on the other. All countries have adopted the EU Blue Card because it is a directive, except Denmark, Ireland, and UK. In a sense, EU Blue Card is both a success and a failure. A success for Germany because it now uses Article 19a which is a transposition of the EU Blue Card into national law quite intensively and the immigration lawyers tell us that it works quite well. But it is a failure because Germany is the only country in the EU actively using the

Box 1. EU Blue Card at a Glance

EU Directive 2009/50/EC in 2009 provided the basis for the adoption of an EU Blue Card.

This has been adopted by all EU countries except Denmark, UK, and Ireland.

Aims to attract skilled workers from third-country nationals.

Salary should be 1.5 times higher than the average salary in the country of

immigration, but it varies from country to country.

Pay threshold may be lowered in shortage occupations.

Member States are not prevented to make own legal provisions regarding entry

of non-European nationals (OECD, 2015).


Blue Card, which means that actual motivation to create something European in terms of labour migration failed. It is only Germany, Luxembourg, and, to a certain degree, France, which uses the Blue Card. Other countries more or less ignore it and not make it visible by not communicating and informing people about the Blue Card” (H. K., personal communication, March 11, 2016).

A glance at the number of EU Blue Cards issued will make one agree with that

conclusion. A compilation of data on the issuance of the EU Blue Card among EU

member states is made in Appendix B where it shows only a number of countries which

have issued at least one Blue Card in the past three years, namely Germany,

Luxembourg, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovenia, with Germany and Luxembourg, being

the only countries showing active use of the EU Blue Card (Table 3). The total period

for the application process for a Blue Card until its issuance range between 6-20 weeks.

Countries which do not require registration in the national labour office of the job

positions open to third-country nations are Finland, France, Latvia, the Netherlands,

and Portugal, which allows employers to provide directly a work contract to third-

country nationals who in turn applies for an EU Blue Card in that country.

Table 3: The EU States which issued, at least, one Blue Card

Total Blue Card issued (as of 2015):

Germany 21, 000

Lithuania 94

Luxembourg 300

Poland 4

Slovenia 13

* Other EU countries either do not issue an EU Blue Card or have no data.

Source: Ad-hoc query on issuing European Union Blue Cards to third-country nationals

requested by Lithuania on March 21, 2013, OECD International Migration Outlook 2013 and

2015, EU-Blue Card website and EU Blue Card Network website (See Appendix B for full table).

2.5 Germany’s employer-oriented immigration management system

The focus of the German Federal Government in attracting skilled

workers is based on labour market policy in fulfilling shortages of skilled workers in


some occupations and regions. The shortage is also likely to increase in the future due

to demographic developments (Mayer, 2013). In a way, the German immigration

management system is employer-oriented where a third-country national may only

reside in Germany after a firm job offer from a company or a research agreement with

a recognized research institution. It was only recently that Germany has included a

human capital-based approach in its migration policy where individuals are allowed to

get a residence permit to look for employment in Germany or to implement a viable

business idea (Mayer, 2013). It may still not be called a hybrid system of human capital

oriented (e.g. based on a point system) and employer-oriented (Mayer, 2013) since the

residence title for the former is only limited to six months in cases of non-German

university graduates and 12-18 months for Germany university graduates.

In December 2015, the Federal Employment Agency (BA) published a report

on shortage and bottleneck occupations and the regions where shortages are

experienced based on the average number of days per year that these vacancies remain

unfilled (Bundesagentur für Arbeit, 2015). Figure 1 shows the shortage occupations on

a national level on average, but it is important to note that the shortages and bottlenecks

are distributed asymmetrically regionally (see Appendix N). For example, eastern

German states (except Saxony-Anhalt) do not suffer from shortages of IT and software

development experts, but the rest of Germany does. The same report shows that there

are shortages on the national level, but they are asymmetrical regionally. Even though

the labour market situation improved in 2014 to 2015, the average vacancy for skilled

workers (qualification level 2 and 3)6 extended from 80 to 86 days on average, and the

average vacancy for the expert-level job (qualification level 4) increased from 82 to 84.

6 Qualification 2 are skilled labourers, Qualification 3 are specialists while Qualification 4 are experts. For

more information about the level of qualifications, please go to the Federal Employment Agency report

at https://statistik.arbeitsagentur.de/Navigation/Footer/Top-Produkte/Fachkraefteengpassanalyse-

Nav.html.




Moreover, the unemployment rate in Germany for skilled and highly skilled

workers decreased (qualification level 2 by 6.7% and qualification 3 by 4.3% and

qualification level 4, by 1.1% decrease). The decreasing unemployment rate and

increasing number of days that a position remains vacant for the same period reflect

that the problem is more extensive, showing a rather increasing demand for these

workers in Germany (Bundesagentur für Arbeit, 2015; 6).

Figure 1. Average number of days that a job position remains unfilled in Germany, 2015

*Qualification Level 4 (Experts) **Qualification Level 2 und 3 (Qualified Employees and

Specialists)

Source: Shortage and Bottleneck Occupations, Federal Employment Agency, 2015

Note: Only the positions requiring a university degree are included in this table and nurses or

health associate professionals because they are the focus of this paper.

110

114

120

130

130

139

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

Health Associate Professionals**

Automotive and Machine Engineers*

Mechatronics, Automation, Electrical

Engineering*

IT and Software Engineering*

Caregiver for the Elderly**

Medical Doctors (except Dentists)*


3. Labour migration in Germany

3.1 Overview

Although Germany is presently the most open of all countries to highly skilled

workers, it was only since 2011 that it relaxed restrictions on labour mobility of

immigrants from accession countries in Eastern Europe. One can say that Germany

has intentionally avoided being an immigration country during the EU enlargement

process, yet the number of immigrants from Eastern Europe has increased (Constant

& Rinne, 2013). In 2014, Poland and Romania have been the major source of inflows

in Germany, although Poland has always ranked first since 1996 on source country of

immigration in Germany (BAMF & BMI, 2014). The Migration Report 2014 also

shows that 60% of all inflows to Germany are still coming from the EU. Noteworthy

is that from the period of 2013-2014, there has been a 42.5% increase in the number

of immigrants coming from the former Yugoslavia, particularly asylum-seekers from

Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BAMF & BMI, 2014; 18). This has

not yet captured the number of asylum-seekers between 2014-2015 which has reached

1 million and mostly coming from Syria (IOM, 2009)7.

7 The continuous flow of immigrants to Germany registered more than 16 million people having a

migration background in 2014. In total, 34% of the population in Germany are from the EU-28 while

35% are coming from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russian Federation, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine. Those

coming from Asia are largely from Near and Middle East and Kazakhstan comprising 2.6 million and

those coming from South and Southeast Asia are less than a million (Federal Statistical Office website,

https://www.destatis.de/EN/FactsFigures/SocietyState/Population/MigrationIntegration/PersonsMigratio

nBackground/Tables/MigrantStatusFormerCitizenhip.html)

https://www.destatis.de/EN/FactsFigures/SocietyState/Population/MigrationIntegration/PersonsMigrationBackground/Tables/MigrantStatusFormerCitizenhip.html

https://www.destatis.de/EN/FactsFigures/SocietyState/Population/MigrationIntegration/PersonsMigrationBackground/Tables/MigrantStatusFormerCitizenhip.html


Figure 2. Source countries of inflows in 2014

Note: Total inflow in 2014 was 1,464,724.

Source: Migration Report 2014, citing Federal Statistical Office

Germany has had a positive net migration from 2009 until 2013 (Figure 3)

which is more the exception in Europe after the financial crisis.8 Although one can see

that immigration and emigration from 2008-2009 dropped and registered a negative

net migration, however it picked up rather steadily until 2013.

8 Scandinavian countries, and small countries like Malta, Switzerland, and Luxembourg also registered a

positive net migration based on data from Eurostat 2013.

Poland, 13.50%

Romania, 13.00%

Bulgaria, 5.30%

Italy, 5.00%

Syria, 4.40%

Hungary, 3.90%

Croatia, 3.00%Spain, 2.80%Serbia, 2.70%

US, 2.20%

Other countries,

44.00%


Figure 3. Immigration, Emigration, and Net Migration per 1000 resident in

Germany, 2013

Source: Author’s computation. Eurostat 2013, downloaded on 19-February-2016.

3.2 Foreign-born Doctors and Nurses in Germany

This section deals with the share of foreign-born nationals in specific

occupations in Germany and considers the traditional source of labour migration. The

share of foreign-born doctors in Germany has increased from 3.7% in 2000 to 5.2% in

2006 (OECD, 2015b). In 2013, there were a total of 326,945 doctors in Germany,

where 28,901 (8.8%) were foreign-born (OECD, 2015b). In 2014, the OECD

reported a total of 31,857 foreign doctors where a 61% (Figure 4) came from Europe.

Notably, 5% of the foreign-born doctors in Germany are from Syria (OECD, 2015a).

Among OECD countries, the number of foreign-born doctors in Germany is below

average (OECD, 2015b).

In 2010, OECD reported that there is a total of 1.2 million nurses in Germany,

and 5.8% of this population are foreign-born (OECD, 2015b) which is higher than

OECD average. But the demand for nurses and health associate professionals has

remained unfilled and continues to increase as the ageing population in Germany also

-1

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

-200,000

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

Net Migration Immigrants Emigrants Net Migration per 1000 resident


increases. According to a study done by Bertelsmann Foundation, 61% of nursing-care

facilities in Germany have job vacancies where 4.3 positions on average are not filled

(Bonin & Ganserer, 2015).

The Federal Statistical Office reported that between 2009 and 2014, the total

number of employees in the health sector grew by 476,000 or by 10% (Federal

Statistical Office, 2016). However, the demand for medical doctors and nurses

continues to increase and it remains to be the sector with the highest number of

shortages across all German states (BAMF & BMI, 2014).

Figure 4. Foreign-born doctors in Germany, 2014

Source: OECD, 2015b

Rest of Europe,

26.0%

Romania, 11.0%

Greece, 8.0%

Austria, 6.0%Poland, 5.0%Russia, 5.0%

Syria, 5.0%

Others, 35.0%


3.3 Foreign-born Information and Communication Technology Professionals

(ICT) and Engineers in Germany

The Cologne Institute for Business Research made estimates in early 2000 that

there were 50,000 to 70,000 job vacancies in the ICT sector to be filled in the short-

run. This shortage of IT professionals in Germany remains although at a lower degree

which could be attributed to the decline in growth in the ICT sector, particularly

between 2007 and 2010 (OECD, 2010). Kolb (2005) reported that most of the foreign

IT professionals up to 2004 came largely from India, Romania, Russia, Ukraine,

Belarus, and Baltic states (Figure 5). In the engineering sector, there was a shortage of

34,200 engineers in 2009. The German Association of Engineers project that this will

increase by 48,300 engineers per year from 2023 until 2027 (IZA, 2011).

Figure 5. Foreign-born ICT professionals in Germany, source countries up to July 2004

Source: Kolb, 2005

India

26.4%

Russia, Belarus,

Ukraine, Baltic

States

12.6%

Czech/Slovak

Republic

6.6%

Romania

7.0%

Former Yugoslavia

5.1%

Hungary

3.4%

North Africa

(Morocco, Algeria,

Tunisia)

2.9%

Bulgaria

2.9%

South Africa

2.6%

Pakistan

1.4%

Not Specified

29.1%


Interestingly, the data above on where the migrants in Germany come frome

reflect results from Gallup World Survey between 2008-2010, where seven countries

ranked Germany as its top destination for migration namely: Romania, Bulgaria,

Greece, Russia, Poland, Turkey, and Serbia, where all countries have at least 2.3% of

the population wanting to move to Germany (OECD, 2013b).

3.4 Filling the skilled labour gaps

The German Federal Government defined five paths for securing skilled

workers for the future: 1) activation and securing employment; 2) greater compatibility

between family and work; 3) training opportunities for all from the start; 4)

qualification: training and development; and 5) integration and qualified immigration

(Mayer, 2013). The scope of this paper is on the fifth path of adopting integration and

qualified immigration, with a particular focus on Filipinos who migrated to Germany.


4. Migration Policies of the Philippines

4.1 International Migration

Source countries of migration use two broad approaches to facilitate

international migration for formal and legal work. First, they pursue unilateral

facilitation policies, which governments do without the need to cooperate with

migration-destination countries. It includes the provision of information, loan

facilitation, improving passport processes, and policies to ease the job-search process

abroad (Beam, McKenzie, & Yang, 2014). These are nudges on the supply side of the

migration which are akin to interventions to spur profitable small-scale investments

among households. It has positive impacts if policies at destination countries are

adequately open or when there are existing bilateral migration policies. This approach

may, however, have low returns if the border restrictions make the investment not

profitable.

Another approach is pursuing bilateral facilitation policies, where source

countries have cooperation with governments or employers in destination countries. It

includes formal agreements setting the number and type of workers who are allowed to

take up labour migration in host countries (Beam et al., 2014). It influences the demand

side of the equation but also influence the supply side of labour migration. The

Philippines had made great progress when it comes to bilateral labour agreements

(BLA), which counted around 49 with 25 destination countries (Center for Migrant

Advocacy, 2012) and annual deployment of almost 2 million overseas Filipino workers

(POEA, 2014).

There are countries which also adopted unilateral policies to ease the barriers

which prevent their citizens from migrating. For example, Tuvalu has provided

financing for seasonal workers wishing to migrate abroad (Bedford, Bedford, & Ho,

2010, 2010). Nepal decentralized the passport issuance process so that citizens will no

longer travel over mountain ranges to obtain a passport (McKenzie, 2007). Armenia


has provided potential migrants with more information about the disadvantages of

illegal migration and about possibilities for legal jobs abroad (IOM, 2009) and Egypt

connected its job-seekers and employers abroad through a website (Beam et al., 2014;

Fandrich, 2009).

4.2 Desire to migrate abroad is high but most Filipinos stay

Data from 2010 Gallup World Poll shows that there are many Filipinos who

would like to work abroad. In a sample of 1,000 Filipino adults, the poll asked “Ideally,

if you had the opportunity, would you like to go to another country for temporary work,

or not?”, 51.1 percent of adults aged 15 and over said they would like to work abroad

in temporary work while 18.6 percent said they would like to migrate permanently

abroad. The Philippines has a population of 93 million in 20109 and had a voting

population (aged 18 and above) of 52 million (McKenzie, Theoharides, & Yang, 2014).

Taking the Gallup World Poll results, that’s more than 26 million people who would

like to temporarily work abroad. This desire to migrate temporarily abroad is highest

for individuals aged 15-34, for individuals in urban areas, and for more educated

individuals (McKenzie et al., 2014). Although the desire to migrate is high, most

Filipinos do not migrate. Five in six families do not receive remittances from workers

abroad despite the fact the country’s GDP is less than a tenth of that in developed

countries (Beam et al., 2014).

4.3 Filipinos around the world

The 2013 Stock Estimates show that more than 10 million Filipinos are living

across the globe, which comprises 10% of the entire Filipino population. There are 4.8

million permanent Filipino immigrants, 4.2 million have temporary residence abroad,

while 1.2 million are irregular migrants. Top destinations include the US, Saudi

9 The Philippine fertility rate in 2010 was 3.1 (IOM, 2013). Annual population growth rate between 2000-

2010 was 1.9.


Arabia, UAE, Malaysia, and Canada (Figure 6) (CFO, 2013). In Europe, top

destinations include Italy, UK, Greece, France, and Germany with the three latter

countries having not more than 70,000 Filipinos (Figure 7). In 2003, there is a sudden

increase in the number of OFWs who left for Europe which was a result of the active

recruitment of the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK (SEI-DOST, 2011).

Figure 6. Top 10 countries based on Stock Estimates of Filipinos, 2013

Source: Stock Estimates, CFO 2013

United States,

3,535,676

Saudi Arabia,

1,028,802

UAE, 822,410

Malaysia, 793,580

Canada, 721,578

Australia, 397,982

Italy, 271,946

United Kingdom,

218,126

Qatar, 204,550 Singapore, 203,243


Figure 7. Top European destinations of Filipinos, Stock Estimates 2013

Source: Stock Estimates, CFO 2013

The number of Filipinos who left in 2014 was 1,832,668 (POEA, 2014a) which

include newly hired and rehired workers. The top ten destinations for labour migration

each year10 account for approximately 86 percent of all new overseas Filipino worker

(OFW) hires (McKenzie et al., 2014). Figure 8 shows the number of Filipinos who

migrate abroad each year from 2007-2014 as compared to Indians, showing the

magnitude of Filipino labour supply in the world (UN ESCAP, 2016). Workers who

got new job contracts between the 2010-2014 period range between 340,000 to

490,000 Filipinos leaving the country each year as a new hire. The Filipino workers in

Figure 8 include both those who got new contracts and were rehired by their previous

employer, adding up to almost two million by the end of 2014.11 Between 45 to 52

percent are service workers, 31 to 35 percent are production workers and 11 to 14

10 For 2010-2014, the top ten destinations of newly hired Filipino overseas workers are Saudi Arabia,

United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, Kuwait, Qatar, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, and Bahrain

(POEA, 2014). 11 I was not able to gather how the Indian government computes the annul deployment, whether it is

exclusive or cumulative.

Italy, 271,946

United Kingdom,

218,126

Greece, 61,716

France, 48,018

Germany, 47,214

Spain, 42,804


percent are professional, technical, and related workers (POEA, 2014a). Contrast this

with the data between 1998 to 2009 where, on average, 25% of the OFWs are

professional, technical and related workers, (which is higher than the period of 2010-

2014) while 68% are service and production workers (SEI-DOST, 2011).

Figure 8. Annual number of migrant workers deployed in the Philippines, India and

Bangladesh, 2007-2014

Source: Asia-Pacific Migration Report, ESCAP 201512

The POEA data provides a picture of the annual outflow of Filipino workers,

exclusive for every year and not cumulative for all years (SEI-DOST, 2011). Moreover,

information on the outflow of Filipinos annually is based on the information gathered

from registered or legitimate recruitment agencies who are mandated by law to register

the contract with the POEA (SEI-DOST, 2011). Filipino workers who were directly

hired by foreign companies and those who got a job while staying abroad for other

reasons are not captured in the data. This shows that the yearly outflow of more than

12 This is based on annual deployment of workers for employment. Stock estimates for Indians abroad

are more than 28 million across the globe according to the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. But

India’s deployment in 2014 was 804,000 and largely moving to Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar

http://moia.gov.in/writereaddata/pdf/Annual_Report_2014-15.pdf. Indian emigration is characterized by

permanent immigration more than temporary work contracts.

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Philippines India

http://moia.gov.in/writereaddata/pdf/Annual_Report_2014-15.pdf


a million individuals may underestimate the number of Filipinos who leave the country

to work abroad.

4.4 The Philippine approach to Filipino international migration

The Philippines has put in place several unilateral facilitation efforts which

include providing information about illegal recruitment, about cultural differences in

different host countries through the pre-employment orientation seminar (PEOS)13,

and improve the process and issuance of passports (Beam et al., 2014). This is an

important step by the government since there have been a huge number of cases of

illegal recruitment, human trafficking, and exploitation of Filipino workers abroad

(IOM, 2013)14. Financial institutions also provide financial services to help potential

migrants pay recruitment fees in the Philippines (O'Neil, 2004).

The Philippines’ efforts at unilateral and bilateral facilitation contributed to the

large flow of Filipinos abroad through legal and formal channels. Still, informal

migration remains among Filipinos abroad which projected to be at 1.2 million (CFO,

2013). There is evidence that despite government’s efforts to facilitate both demand

and supply for migrant labour, barriers remain which restrict migration. Individuals do

not take migration to get higher returns on investments because they do not have the

right information15, or would need ’a nudge’ to overcome behavioural biases (Beam et

al., 2014 citing Jensen, 2010; Duflo et al., 2011).

13 Online pre-employment orientation seminar is provided by the POEA and can be found at

http://peos.poea.gov.ph/index.php/peos/dashboard. 14 This includes contract substitution in the country of employment, delayed, underpayment or non-

payment of wages, women in domestic work subjected to long working hours, experience violence or

sexual harassment, and suffer prejudice and discrimination in destination society (IOM,2013). 15 The paper by Beam et al., (2014) studied this issue on lack of information. They found that

“knowledge is clearly incomplete – at baseline, one-quarter of individuals responded with “don’t know”

to the typical wages and costs of work overseas for six common destination countries, and the

responses given by those who do give an answer also suggest considerable inaccuracies. For example,

half of those who did respond estimated they would earn the same wage or less in high-wage Canada

as they would in low-wage Saudi Arabia. At end line, only 14.3% of the control group can name a lender

who can finance migration costs and only 19.9% know where to go to apply for a passport. However,

http://peos.poea.gov.ph/index.php/peos/dashboard


4.5 The role of the government and private sector

The number of immigrants in the Philippines is rather small, with an inflow of

less than 20,000 foreigners as compared to its outflow of almost 2 million which

registers the country as one of the top origins of traditional immigration countries

(IOM, 2013). The large movement to the US can be traced back to the American

colonial times when Filipinos were considered ‘nationals’ of the US (Asis, 2006). Since

the 1970s, the government of the Philippines has been on the forefront of promoting

overseas temporary contracts, mostly in the Gulf countries, as can be gleaned from the

publication of jobs abroad by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration

(POEA)16. In the executive order which created the POEA in 1982, its mandate does

only include promoting overseas employment of Filipino workers but, more

importantly, also the monitoring and protection of rights of the workers to ensure fair

employment practices where they are sent (Reorganizing the Ministry of Labor and

Employment, Creating the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, and for

other purposes, 1982). It is the first country to implement temporary overseas contract

work on a wide scale (McKenzie, Theoharides, & Yang, 2014).

The government-led recruitment and employment of Filipinos abroad started

when the Philippine government began to aid Filipinos in finding work overseas

through its overseas employment program during the oil crisis in the 70s. In 1974, the

Philippine Labour Code was adopted which started regulating overseas work. The

Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA)17 was established as the

government agency responsible for processing workers’ contracts as well as licensing,

regulating, and monitoring private recruitment agencies (Asis, 2006). The government

participated in the recruitment and matching of Filipino workers with foreign

the information treatments alone do not result in higher rates of job search or international migration”

(pp. 15) nor does it lead to taking steps to migrating two years after the facilitations were provided. 16 Overseas job orders submitted and published by the POEA are found at http://www.poea.gov.ph/cgi-

bin/jobvacancies/CtyJobsResult.asp. 17 The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) grew out of the Overseas Employment

Development Board and the National Seamen Board in the then Ministry of Labor and Employment.

http://www.poea.gov.ph/cgi-bin/jobvacancies/CtyJobsResult.asp

http://www.poea.gov.ph/cgi-bin/jobvacancies/CtyJobsResult.asp


employers. The government delegated the recruitment of Filipinos for overseas

employment to private agencies due to the high demand for Filipino workers (Asis,

2006). There still remains a department in the POEA which handles placement of

workers, although it only accounts for a small number of Filipinos matched with

foreign employers particularly with the governments of Saudi Arabia and South Korea

(IOM, 2013).

The laws and rules governing the POEA ensure that Filipinos working abroad

will have a guaranteed wage for regular work hours, overtime pay, and should not be

lower than the minimum wage agreed bilaterally, or based on international convention,

or in the Philippines, whichever is the highest. Otherwise work contracts are not

processed.18 The primary role of the government agency is the protection of rights of

Filipinos and that the workers are not discriminated or exploited. The Philippine

Overseas Labour Offices (POLO) verify the work contracts in the host country

received by the POEA to check compliance with laws both in the Philippines and the

host country. Moreover, the Philippines have various programs for its OFWs to ensure

their protection. This includes a mandatory Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar

(PDOS) where OFWs receive information about their rights and responsibilities

within their employment contract and what to do in the case of contract violations

(IOM, 2013).

Moreover, legal assistance fund is also appropriated by the Philippine

government to assist migrants in cases of contract violations. Philippine embassies and

POLOs in destination countries where Filipino population is large have 24-hour

resource centres providing legal services (IOM, 2013).

18 This can be found in the Memorandum Circular no. 5, series of 2014, where it lists requirements

before a principal or employer can be accredited

http://www.poea.gov.ph/mcs/MC%202014/MC_5_2014.pdf.

http://www.poea.gov.ph/mcs/MC%202014/MC_5_2014.pdf


The Philippines has consistently asserted that it does not promote overseas

employment as a means to sustain economic growth and achieve national development

(H.C. personal communication, March 30, 2016) and that the Philippine State shall

continuously create local employment opportunities (Migrant Workers and Overseas

Filipinos Act, 1995). But as of 11 March 2016, there are more than 1,251 recruitment

agencies in the Philippines: 844 licensed land- based recruitment agencies for land-

based jobs (POEA, 2016b) and 407 licensed manning agencies for seafarers (POEA,

2016c). The number of licenses issued as of March 2016 stands at 3,576 which include

those which already expired, cancelled, delisted, or which ceased operations (POEA,

2016a). Almost all of the recruitment of Filipinos is done by recruitment agencies.

“[Why we have many recruitment agencies? As you know] the overseas employment of Filipinos, as well as the protection of our OFWs, the extent of that depends on how the labour market functions. The push and pull forces of migration so to speak, the demand for Filipino workers and the supply that we have here in the Philippines, those are the forces that move the vibrant, if you will, activities in the overseas labour market. The number of recruitment agencies is a function of that…the role of the government is to regulate that, to make sure that the workers are amply protected (H.C., personal communication, March 30, 2016).”

Sociologist Rodrigues (2010), asserts that the Philippine government has

become a labour broker, and its role has become a contradiction of exploitation and

protection. She further contends that the Philippine government has reconfigured and

redefined citizenship in a way that Filipinos abroad should maintain a sense of

nationalism and national belonging to broker labour to the world (Rodriguez, 2010).

On the other hand, development economist Michael Clemens asserts that migration is

a single anti-poverty tool that would achieve far greater results than other development

projects by developed nations where a person can increase his or her income by up to

1000 percent by just moving (Clemens, 2009). The Philippines stands out as an


exception from “the trend in migration, a movement from a less democratic state to a

more democratic state, but the Philippines moves to the other direction” (Clemens,

personal communication, January 2014, Lecture). There is, however, more to be

gained, both by Filipinos and the Philippine government, if the flow of the Filipino

overseas workers would go to the direction of more democratic states. To states, where

workers rights are respected and where conflicts will not only not endanger lives of

Filipinos, but also not bring huge costs on repatriation to the government.19

4.6 Migration in the Philippines is mostly legal temporary contract work

Migration from the Philippines can be characterized as largely temporary and

legal, mostly being recruited through licensed private recruitment agencies (85-95%),

while the rest is through Government-to-Government (G-to-G) recruitment

arrangement at the POEA’s Placement Branch, limited mostly to the Republic of

Korea and Saudi Arabia (IOM, 2013). Overseas temporary contract work is the

primary channel through which Filipinos migrate, which requires a job contract secured

by an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) before he or she can leave the Philippines.

Between 1992 and 2000, 83 percent of Filipinos abroad were engaged in contract work,

with most of the rest being non-temporary workers migrating through the family

reunification policies or other permanent migration channels (McKenzie et al., 2014).

This form of legal temporary work is likely to be the trend in the future as countries

like Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and India seek to follow the Philippine

model, while destination countries consider how to balance demands for labour with

public concerns about migrant settlement (McKenzie et al., 2014).

19 This is a very interesting topic that would require a separate research and analysis, and due its

complexity, it is not covered in this research.


5. Movement of Highly Skilled Filipinos

5.1 Overview

In this section, the focus is on the Filipino professionals in the science and

technology sector since this is where shortage occupations exist in Germany in

particular, and the objective of the EU of targeting highly qualified individuals through

the EU Blue Card, in general. Also statistician, mathematicians, and scientists are

covered because of the exemption from salary threshold of the German Blue cards for

scientists and research associates, although they do not fall under the shortage

occupations list.

The Science Education Institute of the Department of Science and Technology

published a report in 2011 on the international migration of Filipinos in the science

and technology (S&T) field. On average between 1998 to 2009, 25 percent of OFWs

are professional, technical and related workers who represent about 16,000 Filipinos

moving annually while 68 percent are service and production workers (SEI-DOST,

2011). Between 2010 to 2014, the number of professional and technical workers

migrating abroad decreased to around 11 to 14 percent (POEA, 2014a). In total, S&T

professions comprise a small percentage annually among Filipino overseas workers

(Figure 9). Moreover, migration among S&T occupations is largely female, comprising

75% of Filipinos moving abroad (SEI-DOST, 2011). If disaggregated based on

occupation, nursing, and midwifery professions are dominantly female while engineers

are largely male. If we combine all the S&T occupations, more than half of this are

nurses and midwifery every year since 1998 except 1998, 2007 and 2008 (SEI-DOST,

2011).

Top ten destinations of the Filipino S&T occupations are mostly in the Middle

East, Americas, and Asia averaging between 190 to 9000 annually in the period of

1998-2009 (SEI-DOST, 2011). The ranking made by the SEI-DOST was based on

average rank, the frequency of occurrence, and the average number of S&T OFWs.


For this paper, the average number of Filipinos working overseas is presented (Table

4).

Figure 9. Annual Flow of Temporary OFWs (New Hires Only) by Science & Technology Classification, 1998-2009

Source: SEI-DOST, 2011

Note: Science and Technology occupations in this graph are: Physicists, Chemists and Related

Professionals, Mathematicians, Statisticians, and Related Professionals; Computing

Professionals; Engineers and Related Professionals; Life Sciences Professionals; Health

Professionals; and Nursing and Midwifery Professionals

Table 4. Top Ten Countries for Filipino S&T by average number of S&T OFWs deployed abroad for the period of 1998-2009

Country Average number of S&T OFWs

Saudi Arabia 9066

United Arab Emirates 1030

United States 581

Singapore 521

Kuwait 356

Qatar 836

Libya 282

Ireland 521

United Kingdom 2165

Bahrain 190

In the next section, a closer look at the selected professions is presented and analysed.

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

350,000

400,000

Non-S&T S&T


5.2 Movement of Filipino computer programmers

Between 2001-2010, there was a total of 3,693 Filipino computer programmers

(Figure 10) who left the Philippines to work abroad. Among the computer

programmers, Malaysia and Japan factored in the list of top destinations. It had a

decreasing trend between 2001 and 2005 perhaps influenced by the several business

process outsourcing (BPO) companies established in the Philippines but went up again

from 2005 to 2008 and decreased again after which can be attributed to the financial

crisis during this period.

Figure 10. Annual deployment of Filipino computer programmers overseas, 2001-2010

Note: Author’s compilation. Source: OFW Statistics, POEA

http://www.poea.gov.ph/stats/Skills/Skill_Country_Sex/2004.pdf, 2001-2010

5.3 Movement of Filipino medical doctors

Among Filipino medical doctors, there was a total of 1,438 doctors (Figure 11)

who left the Philippines to work abroad in a span of ten years since 2001. There has

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

TOTAL=3,693

59

53

71

110

149

148

221

363

656

1507

0 500 1000 1500 2000

Brunei Darussalam

Kuwait

Bahrain

Japan

Qatar

Singapore

United Arab Emirates

Malaysia

United States

Saudi Arabia

TOP 10 DESTINATIONS

http://www.poea.gov.ph/stats/Skills/Skill_Country_Sex/2004.pdf


also been an upward trend of doctors leaving the Philippines, which some authors refer

to a possible brain drain although there is no robust evidence to show that this is the

case (IOM, 2013; McGeown, 2013). The issue of lack of doctors in the Philippines is

a rural problem because most of the doctors go to the urban areas to work (McGeown,

2013). Among doctors, Australia, China, and Micronesia are part of the top

destinations between 2001 and 2010.

Figure 11. Annual deployment Filipino medical doctors overseas, 2001-2010



5.4 Movement of Filipino nurses

The number of nurses leaving the Philippines is the biggest among highly

qualified professionals (Figure 12). Between 2004 and 2010, there was a total of 72,693

nurses who left the Philippines to work abroad. As previously mentioned in this paper,

85-95% of the hiring for overseas work is done by private recruitment agencies and

most of our nurses are female. In this 6-year period, almost 70% of all nurses went to

0

50

100

150

200

250

TOTAL=1,438

24

27

34

35

35

48

53

60

335

555

0 200 400 600

Micronesia

China

Singapore

Libya

Qatar

Bahrain

Australia

United Kingdom

United States

Saudi Arabia

TOP 10 DESTINATIONS



Saudi Arabia. Taiwan, Jordan and UK are part of the top destination of Filipino nurses.

The nurses going to the UK made it part of the top ten destinations of S&T Filipinos.

Figure 12. Annual deployment of Filipino nurses overseas, 2004-2010

Source: OFW Statistics, POEA 2004-2010

5.5 Movement of Filipino Mathematicians and Statisticians

For mathematicians, statisticians, and related workers, there are 759 Filipino

workers (Figure 13) who left the Philippines abroad to work between 2001-2010.

There has been an upsurge between 2005 and 2008 driven largely by Malaysia hiring

more professionals in this field.

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

TOTAL = 72,693

386

416

1054

1478

1495

2072

2638

2812

3750

50782

0 20000 40000 60000

Bahrain

Jordan

Libya

Qatar

Taiwan

United Kingdom

Kuwait

Singapore


Saudi Arabia

TOP 10 DESTINATIONS


Figure 13. Annual deployment of Filipino Mathematicians, Statisticians and Related Workers, 2001-2010



5.6 Movement of Filipino engineers

Between 1998 and 2009, there was a total of 49,401 engineers (Figure 14) who

left the Philippines to work abroad. It has been steadily ranging between 2,000 to 3,000

but saw a tripling of the amount between 2005 and 2009. The flow of Filipino

engineers has always been moving to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates,

especially recently with all the constructions in preparation for the World Cup 2022.21

Although in recent news, a law in Qatar requiring a 12-year education might reduce

the number of Filipinos qualified for the jobs22 because the Philippine education only

has ten years but has been changed since 2012 to a 12-year education23.

20 Included occupations are: Technicians Statistical and Mathematical and related workers, Statisticians

Mathematicians Systems Analyst and Related Workers, Statisticians, Mathematicians and Actuaries 21 For instance, check the latest list of job orders posted at the POEA website for engineering positions

being offered through the various recruitment agencies http://www.poea.gov.ph/cgi-

bin/JobVacancies/PosJobsResult.asp. 22 Qatar law said to threaten 12,000 Filipino expat jobs, http://www.arabianbusiness.com/qatar-law-said-

threaten-12-000-filipino-expat-jobs-620352.html, 1 February 2016 23 The K to 12 Basic Education Program, http://www.gov.ph/k-12/

0

50

100

150

200

TOTAL = 759

10

12

14

20

29

38

45

87

148

216

0 50 100 150 200 250

Canada

Oman

United Kingdom

Australia

Qatar

Singapore


United States of America

Malaysia

Saudi Arabia

TOP 10 DESTINATIONS


http://www.poea.gov.ph/cgi-bin/JobVacancies/PosJobsResult.asp

http://www.poea.gov.ph/cgi-bin/JobVacancies/PosJobsResult.asp

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/qatar-law-said-threaten-12-000-filipino-expat-jobs-620352.html

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/qatar-law-said-threaten-12-000-filipino-expat-jobs-620352.html

http://www.gov.ph/k-12/


Figure 14. Annual deployment of Filipino engineers, 2001-2009

Source: SEI-DOST, 2011

Looking at the average monthly salary of Filipino S&T earnings in the

Philippines (Table 5), and what they were earning abroad in 2009 (Table 6)—which

is based on the contract registered with the POEA—it is apparent that by simply going

out of the Philippines, Filipino doctors will have around 618% to 904% increase in

their income.24 The computer programmers and systems analyst have around 258%

increase, and engineers will have around 111% increase by going out of the country and

finding work elsewhere. A Filipino searching the internet to compare the cost of living

between the Philippines and Germany would realize that even if factoring in the cost

24 Based on 2010 conversion rate and compared to the 2009 average income of medical doctors abroad

based on POEA data as shown in Table 4.

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

10000

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

TOTAL = 49,401


of living25, the net gain on economic terms justifies moving outside of the country to

work.26

Under the government-to-government recruitment scheme between POEA

and BA/ZAV, the salary for Filipino nurses going to Germany was 1,900 euros in

2013.27 This is not competitive as Filipino nurses were already earning 2,126 USD on

average in 2009. Factoring in the cost of living and rent in the Middle East and in

Germany, it is not very attractive to work in Germany if only basing it on income. This

might be the reason one of the reasons why as of December 2015, there were only 31

Filipino nurses hired under the Triple Win Nurses programme by the GIZ since its

inception in 2013. It increased to around 200 until February 2016 which shows learning

of the programme. On 11 February 2016, the POEA has issued Governing Board

Resolution no. 04,28 which allows the participation of private recruitment agencies for

hiring Filipino nurses in Germany. According to the document, a German hospital or

clinic directly hiring a Filipino nurse from the Philippines would pay around 2,300-

2,500 Euros (one time) per nurse which includes German language training, airfare,

visa fees, and processing fees. In a recent posting of a recruitment agency, Filipino

nurses are offered 2,300 euros gross in Germany if they have 2-5 years work

25 The cost of living Philippines is around 47% cheaper than in Germany (excluding the rent), and the

rent is 72% cheaper in the Philippines than in Germany. Although the cost of living in Saudi Arabia is

around 31% cheaper than Germany (excluding rent) and the rent in Saudi Arabi is 46% cheaper than

Germany. 26 There are various OFW websites, forums, and Facebook groups in countries where Filipinos work. One

such website is Numbeo.com http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-

living/country_result.jsp?country=Philippines&displayCurrency=USD where you can compare cost of

living and rent in various cities across the globe. 27 Recruitment Specification Form: Announcement: Philippine Nurses for Germany,

http://www.manila.diplo.de/contentblob/3924096/Daten/3341372/RSF_fil_nurses_to_Germany.pdf 28 Series of 2016, Allowing the participation of private recruitment companies in the recruitment,

placement and employment of Filipino nurses to Germany, http://www.poea.gov.ph/gbr/2016/GBR-04-

2016.pdf

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=Philippines&displayCurrency=USD

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=Philippines&displayCurrency=USD

http://www.manila.diplo.de/contentblob/3924096/Daten/3341372/RSF_fil_nurses_to_Germany.pdf

http://www.poea.gov.ph/gbr/2016/GBR-04-2016.pdf

http://www.poea.gov.ph/gbr/2016/GBR-04-2016.pdf


experience.29 It still remains to be seen whether the new recruitment programme would

attract more Filipino nurses.

Table 5. Median salary in specific occupations in the Philippines in 2010

Occupation Median monthly salary in the Philippines

(in Philippine Peso) in 2010

Aircraft Pilot, Navigator, and Flight Engineer 57,789

Mining Engineer and Metallurgical Engineer 56,638

Computer Programmer 43,573

Systems Analyst 42,112

Statistician 35,010

Doctors 20,000-35,000*

Nurses 25,000**

Source: Top 10 high-paying jobs in the Philippines, BLE-DOLE, 201230

* This is from the BLE-DOLE but without information as to the year31

** This is based on the salary grade (SG) of nurses which is SG1532 in 2012

Table 6. Average Monthly Income of S&T by Specific Occupations abroad, 2009

S&T Occupation Average Monthly Income

(in US Dollars) abroad

No. of OFWs with

disclosed salary

Physical Scientists 13,964 2

Mathematicians and

Actuaries

7,083 2

Doctors Medical 5,566 23

Bacteriologists,

Pharmacologists and

Related Scientists

5,003 2

Ship’s Engineer 4,469 5

Systems Analysts 3,455 5

Engineers Industrial 2,907 58

Engineers Mining / Mineral

Mining

2,656 3

Engineers Electrical and

Electronics

2,646 121

Engineers (NEC) 2,598 319

29 Nurses for Germany, http://www.workabroad.ph/job-openings/166c54-nurse-for-germany-with-b1-

or-b2-cert-only.html 30 1 USD = Philippine Peso 45.11 in 2010 based on the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) 31 Doctor (General Practitioner) found at http://www.ble.dole.gov.ph/jobdetail/doctor-pract.htm. 32 Salary Grades for 2012 can be found at https://hrepreflibrarian.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/salary-

standardization-rates-for-philippine-government-employees-joint-resolution-no-4-by-the-philippine-

congress/

http://www.workabroad.ph/job-openings/166c54-nurse-for-germany-with-b1-or-b2-cert-only.html

http://www.workabroad.ph/job-openings/166c54-nurse-for-germany-with-b1-or-b2-cert-only.html

http://www.ble.dole.gov.ph/jobdetail/doctor-pract.htm

https://hrepreflibrarian.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/salary-standardization-rates-for-philippine-government-employees-joint-resolution-no-4-by-the-philippine-congress/




Statisticians,

Mathematicians, and

Systems Analysts

2,564 14

Architects and Town

Planners

2,443 73

Engineers Civil 2,394 398

Chemists 2,235 5

Nurses Professional 2,126 499

Medical Dental Veterinary

Related Workers

2,000 20

Engineers Mechanical 1,942 202

Veterinarians 1,853 5

Optometrists and Opticians 1,582 3

Pharmacists 1,489 4

Engineers Chemical 1,000 2

Dietitian, Public Health

Nutritionist

789 1

Total 1,766

Source: SEI-DOST, 2011 citing 2009 POEA Data33

5.7 Hard-to-fill occupations in the Philippines

The Department of Labor and Employment released a report entitled

PROJECT JOBSFIT 2020 Vision where it listed key findings and recommendations

on hard-to fill occupations34 in the Philippines and how the government plans to fill

the labour gap (DOLE, 2010). Part of the recommendations is to “develop and issue a

model ladderized curricula for disciplines and courses for in-demand jobs, locally and

overseas” (DOLE, 2010), which shows that the government also considers the labour

market needs in foreign countries and adapt the training and education of Filipino

students to fill labour gaps abroad. Not surprisingly, the positions in the fields of

engineering, IT, and medical doctors are included in the hard-to-fill occupations in the

Philippines.

33 1 USD = Philippine Peso 47.637 based on the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) 34 Hard-to-fill occupations are job vacancies which an establishment has encountered some difficulties

in managing the recruitment process. Reasons may include no applicants, applicant’s lack of experience,

skill or license, preference for working abroad, seeking higher salary or problem with location and other

reasons (DOLE, 2010).


5.8 Enrolment and Graduation Rate in Higher Education in the Philippines

It can also be seen how the population responds to the labour market demands

by number of enrolees in certain disciplines. Figure 15 shows the number of enrolees

in the science and technology disciplines between school year (SY) 2003-04 and SY

2013-14 while Figure 16 shows the number of graduates in these fields in between SY

2002-03 and SY 2012-2013. What can be seen is that the total number of expected

graduates is significantly lower than the number of enrolees. For instance, there were

336,078 who have enrolled in an engineering course in SY 2002-03 and they were

expected to graduate in SY 2008-09, but the number of engineering graduates is only

47,725 (CHED, 2014). The reality of a dropout rate of 83.7% in the Philippines is

severe. It means that 2.13 million college students drop out of the university every year

(Villar, 2012).

Figure 15. Higher Education Enrolment by Discipline in Science and Technology in the Philippines, School Year 2003-2004 to School Year 2013-2014

Source: Higher Education Data: 2014 (Public and Private Higher Institutions), CHED 2014


Figure 16. Higher Education Graduates by Discipline in Science and Technology in the Philippines, School Year 2002-2003 to School Year 2012-2013

Source: Higher Education Data: 2014 (Public and Private Higher Institutions), CHED 2014

One reason for the high dropout rate might be the great cost of tertiary

education in the Philippines.35 However, public universities are much more affordable

and there are still fewer students finishing their studies from public universities than

private universities (CHED). Moreover, individuals graduating with engineering,

medicine, and nursing have to pass the respective board exams. Appendix C shows that

the passing rates in these disciplines between 2006 and 2008 are between 28 to 79%,

with 79% being an outlier with high passing rate among geologists, showing a starker

issue of not only having a high dropout in university but also a slim chance in some

areas of being able to practice what one has learned.

35 For instance, iMoney featured a cost of studying in top universities in the Philippines as compared to

the top schools http://www.imoney.ph/articles/cost-college-top-schools-philippines-world/ while

Philstar reported the cost of college tuition fees in Manila, INFOGRAPHIC: Tuition per unit of Metro

Manila universities http://www.philstar.com/campus/2014/05/26/1327474/infographic-tuition-unit-

metro-manila-universities, 26 May 2014

http://www.imoney.ph/articles/cost-college-top-schools-philippines-world/

http://www.philstar.com/campus/2014/05/26/1327474/infographic-tuition-unit-metro-manila-universities

http://www.philstar.com/campus/2014/05/26/1327474/infographic-tuition-unit-metro-manila-universities


6. Filipinos in Germany

6.1 Overview

The 2013 Stock Estimate from the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO)36

shows that 47,214 Filipinos are in Germany, with 36,020 permanent migrants, 8,194

temporary migrants, and 3,000 irregular migrants (CFO, 2013)37. Based on the

Migration Report 2014 of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF),

there are 20,589 Filipinos registered in Germany. Possible reasons for the discrepancy

between the stock estimate and the migration report could be the huge number of

Filipino seafarers, close to about 25,000 working in 3,500 German ships38 and irregular

Filipino migrants in Germany (Schmidt, 2013) who are then not registered as residents

of Germany. Another issue is that most German ships are registered in different

countries (VDR, n.d.) but Filipinos might still consider their work to be based in

Germany with the Deutsche Handelsflotte (German Merchant Fleet).

When one looks at the Filipinos who moved to Germany based on a temporary

work contract between 1992 to 2009, there were only 271 Filipinos deployed to

Germany for employment during this 17-year period, where 43% are domestic workers

(POEA, 2014a). However, in its 2010-2014 Overseas Employment Statistics Report,

36 The CFO based its Stock Estimate data from the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, POEA, and

its own data based on the required registration for a pre-departure orientation seminar the CFO

provides to Filipinos before leaving the Philippines. 37 CFO definitions: Permanent Migrants are Filipino immigrants and legal permanent residents abroad,

Filipino spouses of foreign nationals, Filipinos naturalized in their host country, Filipino dual citizens, and

their descendants. Temporary Migrants are Filipinos whose stay overseas, while regular and properly

documented, is temporary, owing to the employment-related nature of their status in their host country.

Include land-based and sea-based Filipino workers, intra-company transferees, students, trainees,

entrepreneurs, businessmen, traders and others whose stay abroad is six month or more, and their

accompanying dependents. Irregular Migrants are Filipinos who are not properly documented or

without valid residence or work permits, or who may be overstaying in a foreign country 38 The Philippines produce the most number of seafarers and mariners in the world. Read “Filipino

seafarers – most in demand in the world at http://boholchronicle.com.ph/2015/06/28/filipino-seafarers-

most-in-demand-in-the-world/. An explanation for this huge number can be attributed to the

Philippines being composed of 7,107 island where one of the main means of transportation is by ship or

boat. Moreover, there are a huge number of maritime schools in the Philippines.

http://boholchronicle.com.ph/2015/06/28/filipino-seafarers-most-in-demand-in-the-world/

http://boholchronicle.com.ph/2015/06/28/filipino-seafarers-most-in-demand-in-the-world/


there was a total of 669 Filipinos deployed to Germany for land-based work. Based on

POEA data on temporary contracts they receive from Filipinos going to Germany,

Filipinos in Germany are mostly ship dockers and freight holders in German ships,

domestic helpers, artists and designers, engineers, composers, musicians, singers, and

cooks. One serious limitation of this data is that the POEA mostly gathered its

information from recruitment agencies. For temporary work contracts directed given

to Filipinos by companies based in Germany, the way POEA captures this information

is when the Filipino returns home to the Philippines for any reason and then plans to

go back to Germany to continue working, then they are required to get an overseas

employment certificate (OEC) which if not acquired, will be a reason not to allow them

to leave the Philippine (Philippine Embassy Singapore, n.d.; POEA, 2014b).

Table 7. Statistics on Filipinos in Germany based on different sources


(Germany’s Statistics; Migration Report 2014)

2013 2014

20,178 20,589


(Philippine’s Statistics; CFO Stock Estimates 2013)

2013 2014

47,214 No data

Filipinos with temporary contracts in Germany

(Philippine’s Statistics; POEA, 2014)

2013 2014

133 181


6.2 Permanent Filipino Immigrants in Germany

All Filipinos leaving the Philippines to live permanently abroad are required to

register with the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO). Part of the registration is

the mandatory pre-departure orientation seminar (PDOS) which informs the

permanent immigrants on how to settle in another country (CFO, n.d.). The CFO has

provided 10-year data on Filipinos in Germany having a permanent residence title for

the period 2005-2014 for this research. The data was collected through the mandatory

registration, and all the registrants have a Type D (permanent) visa.

There are 5,655 permanent Filipino immigrants (Table 8) in Germany for the

period of 2005-2014, with 2014 seeing the biggest increase in the number of permanent

Filipino immigrants. This population is 90% female (Table 11) with an average age of

27.60 when they left the Philippines (Table 10).39 A cross-tabulation (Table 12) was

made based on gender and educational attainment. What can be seen is that 52.06%

of Filipino female and 42.14% of Filipino male have attained a college level or are

college graduates while 26.71% of Filipino female and 19.71% have attained an

education of high school level or high school graduate. What is interesting is that

28.30% of Filipino male have elementary level or elementary graduate as their highest

educational attainment as opposed to only 5.14% of Filipino female. When regions in

the Philippines where the permanent Filipino immigrants come from are cross-

tabulated with educational attainment (Appendix D), it is apparent that more than 44%

of all permanent Filipino immigrants have at least a college level or a college graduate

education except in Central Luzon. This is a result of the policy of Germany to attract

highly qualified and qualified individuals. Table 9 shows where the regions in the

Philippines where the permanent Filipino immigrants in Germany come from

39 In the Migration Report 2014, it was reported that 68% of Filipino female moved to Germany for

reunification with their German husbands. The Philippines, Thailand, Russia, Brazil, Ukraine, Japan,

Lithuania and Czech Republic are origin countries with the highest proportion of females going to

Germany.


suggesting that certain networks are present shown by the number of individuals

coming from these regions such as the National Capital Region, Central Visayas,

Calabarzon, and Central Luzon.

Table 8. Annual departure of Filipinos for permanent immigration in Germany, 2004-2015

Note: Author’s calculation. Source: CFO (Rodrigo Garcia <[email protected]>, email sent on

26 February 2016)

Table 9. Origin Regions in the Philippines of permanent Filipino immigrants in Germany, 2005-2014


26 February 2016)

Total 5,653 100.00

Region XIII (CARAGA) 166 2.94 100.00

Region XII (SOCCSKSARGEN) 92 1.63 97.06

Region XI (DAVAO REGION) 264 4.67 95.44

Region X (NORTHERN MINDANAO) 259 4.58 90.77

Region VIII (EASTERN VISAYAS) 265 4.69 86.18

Region VII (CENTRAL VISAYAS) 1,174 20.77 81.50

Region VI (WESTERN VISAYAS) 282 4.99 60.73

Region V (BICOL REGION) 132 2.34 55.74

Region IX (ZAMBOANGA PENINSULA) 151 2.67 53.41

Region IV-B (MIMAROPA) 90 1.59 50.73

Region IV-A (CALABARZON) 700 12.38 49.14

Region III (CENTRAL LUZON) 497 8.79 36.76

Region II (CAGAYAN VALLEY) 84 1.49 27.97

Region I (ILOCOS REGION) 209 3.70 26.48

NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION (NCR) 1,243 21.99 22.78

CORDILLERA ADMINISTRATIVE REGION (CAR) 44 0.78 0.80

AUTONOMOUS REGION IN MUSLIM MINDANAO .. 1 0.02 0.02

Region Freq. Percent Cum.

Total 5,655 100.00

2014 1,156 20.44 100.00

2013 609 10.77 79.56

2012 547 9.67 68.79

2011 586 10.36 59.12

2010 508 8.98 48.75

2009 515 9.11 39.77

2008 486 8.59 30.66

2007 424 7.50 22.07

2006 458 8.10 14.57

2005 366 6.47 6.47

Registered Freq. Percent Cum.

Year


Table 10. Summary of the permanent Filipino immigrants in Germany, 2005-2014

Number of

registrants

Mean age

when they left

the Philippines

Standard

Deviation Minimum Maximum

5,650 27.603 10.113 0 77


26 February 2016)

Table 11. Gender of Filipino permanent immigrants in Germany, 2005-2014

Gender Frequency Percent

Female 5,046 89.23

Male 609 10.77

Total 5,655 100.00


26 February 2016)

Table 12. Cross-tabulation of educational attainment and gender of permanent Filipino immigrants in Germany, 2005-2014

Gender

No

Formal

Education

Elementary

level to

Elementary

Graduate

High

School

Level to

High

School

Graduate

College

level to

College

Graduate

Post-

graduate

level to

Post-

graduate

Vocational

level to

vocational

graduate

Total

Female 1 251 1,304 2,639 114 573 4,882

0.02% 5.14% 26.71% 54.06% 2.34% 11.74% 100%

Male 1 135 94 201 6 40 477

0.21% 28.30% 19.71% 42.14% 1.26% 8.39% 100%

Total 2 386 1,398 2,840 120 613 5,359

0.04% 7.20% 26.09% 52.99% 2.24% 11.44% 100%

Pearson chi2(5) = 354.1149 Pr=0.000


26 February 2016)

More than half (56.73%) of the Filipinos who left the Philippines permanently

for Germany between 2005-2014 are between the age of 24 and 35 (Table 13). The

minors (below 18) who left during the same period comprised 12.11%.


Table 13. Age of departure of Filipino permanent immigrants in Germany, 2005-2014


26 February 2016)

6.3 Temporary Highly Qualified and Qualified Filipinos in Germany

Based on the Migration Report 2014 (BAMF), there are 344 Filipinos who are

in Germany for education and 989 have a residence permit for employment. For this

research, thirteen (13) highly qualified and qualified Filipinos were interviewed to

determine their reasons for moving to Germany, and their experience during their stay.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted which elucidates their encounter with the

procedures dealing with German migration policies and ascertain how the Germany’s

liberalization of its visa and residence permit rules were experienced by those targeted

to come to Germany—the highly qualified and qualified third-country nationals.

Theoretically, they should experience an expeditious way of moving from country of

origin to the host country with the facilitative mechanisms put in place, not only of the

host country, but also of the country of origin, in this case the Philippines, which has

adopted both unilateral and bilateral facilitation approaches to Filipino international

migration. Lastly, questions were asked to uncover highly qualified and qualified

Filipinos’ motivations to stay in Germany and or not and what were the factors that

Age at Departure from the

Philippines

Frequency Percent

0-17 684 12.11%

18-23 780 13.81%

24-29 1,871 33.12%

30-35 1,334 23.61%

36-41 582 10.30%

42-47 250 4.42%

48-53 107 1.89%

54-59 31 0.55%

60-65 9 0.16%

65 and above 2 0.04%

Total 5,650 100%


influenced the respective decision. The answers to these questions can inform the

German government’s policy-making in the next rounds of amendments to its

immigration laws on how to better attract, and perhaps win, the highly qualified and

qualified professionals who already overcame the barriers of migrating to German and

also those who aspire to move to Germany, and determine how to set and improve

conditions that would make them move and, perhaps, stay.

6.4 Reasons for migrating to Germany

The reasons for migrating to Germany vary from one person to the other, and

also one person may have different reasons for choosing to leave the Philippines and

moving to Germany. The reasons provided by participants are categorized according

to the theories adopted in this research.

Table 14. Summary of factors which motivated participants to move to Germany (Departure Period: 2005-2014)

Neo-classical economic theory (human capital)

1. Education in the Philippines was unsatisfactory

2. Further education to improve career options

3. Looking for a job with more responsibilities and competitive on a technical level

4. There was no funding for research in the Philippines

5. Specific programme and learn a foreign language

6. Improve academic record

7. Looking for an organization which represents diversity and international organization

which offered a job is in Germany

8. Specific programme with funding

9. Specific professor and specific programme in Germany

10. Further studies required to continue teaching science in the university

New economics of labour migration (household decision)

1. Family decided to go to Germany

2. Wife decided to go to Germany for PhD

Migration Network Theory (social capital)

1. Roommate was a DAAD scholar

2. Earning a PhD and at the same time to see boyfriend

3. Professor knew a research group in Bielefeld

4. Previous research partner provided opportunity

5. Former professor at the university urged us to study abroad

Transnational theory

1. Multinational consulting company’s client needed a specific IT skill for their mainframe


An important observation in the reasons provided for choosing Germany is the

specific programmes in universities and research institutes and the accompanying

funding for such programmes. Salary considerations almost never factored in the

reasons save only for the amount of money necessary to cover the cost of living.

Although it could also be influenced by the reticence of Filipinos in admitting that

income is the most important factor.

I really want this degree even if I have to spend money…I wanted to get a degree because I wanted to get a promotion, from assistant professor to associate professor. The salary increase is not a factor because the salary in the university is not commensurate to your position. But if you have your degree, you can build your reputation and do more research in the future. (See Appendix E)

Appendix E provides a more detailed table of interview answers on reasons for moving

to Germany.

In the initial hypothesis, it was expected that network theory would play a

central role in the reason for moving to Germany. Among the participants of this study,

networks played a significant role in their reason for staying and not so much for

moving to Germany. Human capital theory played an even greater role in their decision

to go to Germany.

6.5 Experience in Germany is generally positive

The experience of the highly qualified Filipinos after staying in Germany for

five years on average is largely positive. Areas, where experience is negative, are in

finding accommodation, recognition of qualifications, language barrier, the attitude

of German society towards foreigners, marriage procedures, weather, finding a school

for a child, and visa processes. Appendix F provides an account of the participants’

experiences in Germany.


Finding accommodation

In finding accommodation in Germany, it can be seen that the universities,

professors, and employers play a role in helping the students or employees find their

accommodations. It ranges from sending welcome letters which inform students of list

of websites for finding apartments in the city to professors and international offices in

the university asking personal contacts for available housing and accompanying

foreigner students in registering at the Citizen Office (Bürgeramt) for apartment

registration (Anmeldung). It is the easiest among Filipino expats since it is the

company which obtains an apartment or provides an allowance to find one in the first

30 days. Filipino communities also function as a great source of information for finding

accommodation. However, this is an area where also negative experiences are apparent

and, when considering that finding a place to stay is one of the first few things that give

someone an impression of how easy it is to live in a new city, this is a substantial area

for further improvement.

Somehow the people leasing the apartment will choose as well the people applying so there were interviews, so of course my immediate disadvantage was that I was not fluent in German. Second, the people were asking me if I’m going to cook. Somehow, they thought I was Chinese, so I think they were worried that when I cook then I will ruin the apartment with the smell…the apartment will be ruined… For a foreigner’s point of view, of course it was really hard to find an apartment (See Appendix F).

What emerged as an important insight from the interviews was the differences

between finding a place to stay in the Philippines and in Germany. In the latter, a

person is being interviewed by possible landlords, asking for several documents, and

even about cooking behaviour, and in the end, the landlord will choose among those

who visited the apartment who will get the place, with negotiations on renovations and

liabilities.


Recognition of Qualifications

One important challenge Filipinos deal with when moving to Germany is the

recognition of qualifications. The Philippine education only has ten years while

Germany has 12 years. This posed as an issue since Filipinos will either be asked to

prove additional units taken to fill the 2-year gap or show years of work experience,

depending on the institution. The Philippine government started implementing a 12-

year education programme in 2012.

Language Barrier

The language barrier proved to be the area where participants had the most

negative experiences. Although all the participants took German language courses, one

serious limitation is the required level of German needed for the job and informal

conversations to connect with others. Even for persons who reached B2 or C1 level,

they consider this level only ‘on paper’. This has the effect of feeling being part of

‘others’ and ‘outsiders’, which has significant impact, especially considering a core

construct in Filipino psychology called ‘kapwa’ (the other as part of oneself) which can

also be translated to ‘togetherness’ or ‘sense of community’. The effect of being pushed

outside of society has a substantial psychological impact on Filipinos.

Attitude of German society toward foreigners

The perception and experience of the attitude of German society towards

foreigners are experienced differently by the participants depending on which Federal

State they reside in. Some feel great and at home in some States while some struggle

in other States. One area which can be improved is the foreigners’ experience in

German government offices. Understanding German taxes and registrations (which

also includes de-registering) is a big area for improvement.

Finding a school for the child

The experience of a Filipino in finding a school for their children provides some

insights on how information can be disseminated regarding the different State rules in


admitting students in school. For instance, the requirement of a third foreign language

(Dritte Fremdsprache) was a challenge in enrolling one’s child who studied in one State

having Spanish as the third foreign language and moving him to another school in

another State with French as the third foreign language. The result was that almost all

schools in the new city where the Filipino family moved to rejected the child’s

application because of strict implementation of a rule on third foreign language.

Visa processes

The visa process for the foreigner’s spouse who is also highly skilled was an issue

when the family moved to a different city. When one of the partners finds a job in

another city and the other resigns to move with the partner, the latter is unemployed

and this poses a problem with his or her visa status. Moreover, highly qualified Filipinos

married to Germans renew their visa every year and being asked about marriage status

rather than their qualifications for a job-seekers visa after graduation, was perceived as

a discouragement for a foreigner scientist to stay in Germany. This invites a re-

examination of visa rules for spouses who are also highly qualified, especially in shortage

occupations and occupations exempted from salary thresholds.

6.6 Factors affecting participants’ motivation to stay in Germany

When asked whether highly qualified Filipinos will stay in Germany, all of the

participants answered that they are staying but only temporarily. Only two of the

participants answered a possible longer stay without any hint of a clear intention to

apply for a permanent residence title. The two potential permanent immigrants are

both working in the IT sector, and both left for Germany at age 22. Interestingly, one

participant who changed her citizenship to German also answered that she is going to

go back to the Philippines. Being with partner/family is also a reason for five

participants for staying longer in Germany.

When asked whether the participants plan to go back to the Philippines or to

move to another country, eight of the thirteen participants said they are moving back


to the Philippines, one already went back, two mentioned Australia, one mentioned

wanting to move to an English-speaking country, and one mentioned Singapore and

Malaysia. The reasons vary as to why they move back to the Philippines although

generally, family considerations, with ageing parents in mind, and contributing to the

improvement of their fields or the Philippine society played a role in their reflections

of leaving Germany. Below are some of the reasons provided by the participants of

factors which affect their motivation to stay in Germany.

Job opportunities

One reason for staying in Germany is the opportunity to work with the right

collaborators in a particular field of research. An important consideration is how

Filipino scientific researchers look for research groups based on publication, expertise,

and funding.

There was a former professor from Ateneo [who was one of the students of my MS supervisor] who had some contact with the research group from Bielefeld and I knew this research group from their papers as well. So I emailed them and I told them I want to do a PhD with this group and they replied and that's why they invited me for 1-month period and see whether I would fit in their research group and when they said that it was ok, that's how I got to work with them (See Appendix G).

However, the opportunities for foreigners to teach at a German university remain to

be complicated, if not impossible.

[The question is] not only to attract people like me but also to attract Germans [to stay in Germany]. To stay in the system, you need habilitation at some point. That is quiet a big barrier for young scientists. Only few people try to go through that path, it takes you years to get the habilitation and even if you get it, it doesn’t guarantee you a permanent position in the end. There are some non-habilitated permanent positions in Germany, but they are not so many at research institutes. There are not so many you can’t count


on them having opening. So Germany is attractive to start with, to initiate your research career but not a place to stay longer. [What can make me stay?] I don’t know. It is also true that you don’t need so many professors. The German system is very hierarchical. The US system for example has a professor and an associate professor. In Germany only professors. Either you make it and you are good for life or you don’t make it. [But if this could be changed, like have an assistant professorship like in the US], that would severely change my decision-making, not only for myself but also for other scientists.

Work-life balance

Germany has a good reputation among the participants of ensuring a good

work-life balance, especially among those who worked in the US. This is particularly

attractive to highly qualified professionals.

Europe has good benefits and work-life-balance, best of countries maybe. But if I shift to the US, I don’t know if I will get the same holidays that I get here in Germany. And not to mention that science in research is in general very good in the US. But they have also more competition. I don’t know if that appeals me, the culture of intense competition and getting tenure and crunching as much output as you can. I don’t know if I can subscribe to that. Holidays and intense spirit of competition. Australia is kind of a good midway between Europe and US. You get less holidays than in Germany but not bad like 25 days, if you work in government you get more (See Appendix G).

When we were in the US, my wife was a student. I was a nurse assistant and I had two other jobs. We were still not able to make ends meet. We also didn’t have an insurance. In Germany, while my salary [as a nurse] is determined by state laws and is low compared to US levels, you can live with dignity with a part-time job. I like it here because my wife found a job here. She has a job, I have a job, we have more family time here, we are satisfied. It’s unheard of to have multiple jobs in Germany, unlike in the US. Here, even if


I’m on-call on weekends, I am not stressed at all. My life is good here. I’m relaxed at work. I have vacations. I have Pause (breaks). I can take my vacation leaves. That was unheard of in the US. Everyone was just working. You resent taking a vacation because every break is money not earned. You get your holiday differential, night shift, work unimaginable times, and you get a lot of money. I just don’t earn as much here because there is a salary cap. But because there is a salary cap, you don’t work too many hours here. I regularly take an Urlaub (vacation). I can retire here. But if my wife wants to go back to the Philippines, I will join her. Her career is more important than mine. She earned her PhD! That’s why I took nursing. So I could always be with her…I don’t aim to be promoted at my current job in Germany. Being a nurse manager means you have to take care of a lot of paperwork in German, and I am not a native German speaker. Besides, I prefer to be more hands-on with patient work (See

Appendix G).

I want to stay in the company’s office in Germany. I like the way they treat their employees. The hours are limited, like 8 hours only and not 9 hours. In the Philippines, I have to do overtime work. There's work-life balance here. It's more important to me. If I could have my current salary, then I have work-life balance, I would want that. The culture is different here…If I say goodbye after work hours, they say goodbye back. In the Philippines, you say goodbye, they ask you, "you are going home already?" (See Appendix G).

Perception of respondents as to Germany’s efforts to attract highly qualified

professionals

Perceptions of the highly qualified individuals are subjective and might not

represent actual policies, however, managing perceptions is important if Germany

wants to capture the imagination of the people it tries to attract. The perception among

highly qualified Filipinos is mixed, although it is generally more positive, but this could

also partially be due a certain selection bias.


7. Conclusion: Recommendations for Germany

Germany has substantially liberalized its migration policy in the last 15 years

targeting skilled migrants. A big source of its labour migration had been Eastern

European countries even during the period when Germany imposed strong restrictions.

An important finding in this study is that migration policy in Germany, in fact, is not

the limiting factor but its labour policy and existing social factors such as language, the

attitude of German society, and the reluctance of employers, to hire third-country

nationals. But putting in place mechanisms such as the German Blue Card is an

important step to allow SMEs to hire qualified third-country nationals and without

the German Blue Card, the lesser their chance is in the ‘war for talents’ with

multinational corporations. Access to the German Blue Card is a good topic for further

research on SMEs’ experience in hiring qualified third-country nationals. Although a

possible bigger issue in SMEs’ recruitment is still the language level required or the

specific qualifications and training that a third-country national must possess to be

considered for a job in Germany.

The issue of shortage occupations in Germany will likely grow as the

unemployment rate for highly skilled decreases and the number of days a position for

highly skilled remains vacant increases. It also poses significant problems with

demographic issues in the background. Germany has adopted a five-point strategy to

fill its labour gap, and qualified migration can provide a solution both in the short-term

and in the long-term. This study presented an option to look at an opportunity to

attract highly skilled individuals in the Philippines to move to Germany. It also

presented areas where intention to stay may be influenced. But a limitation of interview

responses is that people’s minds are fickle and decisions change any time for reasons

not initially stated. As some the participants mentioned, they have not deliberately

planned moving out of the Philippines but a combination of circumstances made them

to.


There is a prospect of attracting highly qualified Filipinos in the shortage

occupations, but policy changes need to be broad and soft policies need to be

customized to the country of origin. Technocratic approaches such as setting targets

for the number of persons hired annually might not be the best course of action in

attracting skilled workers.However, a policy tailored to the country of origin with an

in-depth understanding of its culture, aspirations, and mindset might provide an

integrated approach to capturing the motivation of a certain group of highly intelligent

and skilled individuals.

This study presents policy recommendations based on the findings of this

research with highly qualified Filipinos living in Germany who overcame the barriers

of migration but who might leave Germany for various reasons both within and outside

the scope of migration policies. Recommendations provided below are directed at

improving certain migration procedures and, perhaps more importantly, of some

aspects of labour policies in Germany.

Lower transaction costs

1. Germany should establish recruitment hubs in the Philippines customized at

targeting highly qualified and qualified individuals. As mentioned in the first

part of this paper, 85-95% of recruitment in the Philippines for work overseas

is done by private recruitment agencies. The new resolution allowing private

recruitment agencies to hire Filipino nurses for jobs in Germany is an important

step. A recommendation on this is to examine areas where transaction costs can

be lowered. Examples include providing a list of certified translators, doctors to

provide medical clearance, and correct information on necessary documents to

bring to Germany. The recruitment agencies can also provide cultural

information about Germany. Close partnership between recruitment agencies

and the Goethe Institute should be explored. Recruitment agencies should

establish strong relationships with German trade and employer associations

especially in the field of shortage occupations.


2. Germany should promote language skills of German government employees on

the local level. The experience of the participants in government offices in

Germany show that this is where they had particular negative experiences due

to the language barrier. One possible implementation is to raise the payscale for

government employees with proficiency in UN languages.

Improve perception and communication in source country and in host country

3. Germany should pro-actively promote itself as an immigration country.

4. Germany should also increase awareness of existing facilitative mechanisms

such as various existing websites and hotlines and communication strategies

should be further adapted to the customers.

5. Germany should actively engage in information dissemination, example, about

job opportunities, finding accommodation, registration, etc. on arrival

(“Welcome letters” from BA and BAMF).

6. Germany should promote cultural exchanges through academic and

professional partnerships by Goethe Institute.

7. Germany should facilitate cross-border networking among highly qualified

individuals on an institutional level, for example, academic and professional

associations such as the German Medical Association and university hospitals

with their respective counterparts. Strengthen existing initiatives such as expos

presenting German employers and opportunities in Germany.

Strive towards a more international academia in Germany

8. Germany should support the establishment of English-taught programmes in

universities to create a more international environment in university and also to

attract non-German speaking highly qualified individuals. Analyse academic

employment structure such as assistant and associate professor positions and

additional tenured tracks as compared to other countries with strong research

environments.


Avoid de-skilling of highly qualified workers

9. In order not to discourage potential ‘Fachkräfte’ (qualified) applicants such as

nurses, Germany should provide at least a comparable level of recognition of

their qualifications (salary and responsibilities) as matched to their country of

origin.

The participants’ migration to Germany can be explained by the neoclassical

economic theory based on human capital especially for single highly qualified Filipinos,

but the new economics of labour migration and network theory can explain why

Filipinos who have partners, especially among those who met their partners in

Germany, are staying longer but without a clear intention of permanently residing in

Germany. One participant’s migration to Germany is backed up by the transnational

theory because of his employment in a multinational consulting firm.

German migration policy matches the motivation of highly qualified third-

country nationals. This is shown by the number of issuances of the German Blue Card,

the increase of international students having a job-seeking visa after graduating in

German universities, and the increase of highly qualified foreign-born professionals in

Germany. The participants in the interview also showed that the migration policy

works but with some frictions on certain areas such as spouse visa. But an important

conclusion of this study is that migration legislation is only a part of the bigger approach

to attracting highly qualified third-country nationals, such as Filipinos. Labour policy

and social factors remain as more important in the reasons for staying. A German

Migration Law could be a key tool for integrating all those aspects. This law should be

broad enough to allow adaption of policies according to the source country, different

sectors, and political realities. The German Migration Law is a currently a debated

topic and this research hopes to provide further insights for highly skilled individuals

from third-countries such as the Philippines.


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Appendix A: Summary of Participants

Gender Field/Occupation in Germany

Highest Education

Reason for migrating to Germany

Staying (Y/N)? Reason?

1 Female Scientist PhD Specific research topic with funding

Yes, temporary. Be with German husband but will go back to the Philippines when husband finds a job in the Philippines or when he retires.

2 Female Scientist PhD Candidate Climate Change networks and to be with boyfriend

Yes, temporary. To be with European boyfriend, to finish PhD but will go back to the Philippines because unhappy in Germany.

3 Female Engineer MS Candidate Be with European husband and child

Yes, temporary. Be with family but currently establishing a business/consulting in Germany which will have PH clients and go back to Philippines.

4 Female IT BA Unsatisfactory educational system in the Philippines

Yes, possibly longer. Berlin is home.

5 Female Scientist PhD Specific research topic with funding

Yes, temporary. To be with European boyfriend but preparing funding proposal to build research network between Germany and Philippines to go back to Philippines.

6 Female Social Scientist Postdoc Specific research topic with funding

Yes, temporary. Staying because of good quality of life and good postdoc opportunity but will go back to the Philippines because getting a tenure track is difficult in Germany. Will stay for 3 years.

7 Male Health Practitioner

BS Support Filipina wife in her academic pursuit

Yes, temporary. To be with Filipina wife and child but will go back to Philippines because Filipina wife wants to go back to PH, but personal preference is to retire in Germany.

8 Male IT MS Candidate Specific organization Yes, temporary. He will stay as long as his contract is renewed in Germany but will leave to go to Australia as penultimate destination then retire in the Philippines.

9 Male Mathematician PhD Specific research topic with funding

Left. Left Germany because of contractual obligation in the Philippines; Signed a contract with the university (as professor) before leaving for Germany to study PhD.

10 Female Medical Doctor MS Specific programme Yes, temporary. Finish degree which will take 5-6 years and go back to the Philippines after; Finds no reason to stay in Germany.

11 Male Scientist PhD Specific research topic with funding

Yes, temporary. Staying in Germany because research environment is good but will move to a country with a warmer climate and with good research institutes like Australia.

12 Female Scientist MS Specific research topic

Yes, temporary. To be with German husband but trying to find opportunities in New Zealand because of language barrier and feeling discriminated in Germany.

13 Male IT BS Internal transfer within a multinational consulting company

Yes, possibly longer. He will stay so long as his contract as an expat is renewed but willing to stay in Germany if there is a job offer other than present company, if not, go to Singapore or Malaysia if employer will send him back to the Philippines.

Residence Title (based on the Residence Act)

Year Migrated to DE

Age Arrived in DE

Year Graduated in DE

With Partner in Germany (Y/N)/ Met before or after arriving in DE

Child/No Child

Remitting to the Philippines? Y/N?

Language at home in Germany

Language at work

1 Settlement Permit § 9 2005 33 2010 Yes / After No Yes German and English

English and German

2 Student/Training / Research RA §16, 17, 20

2010 (Left -2011, Back-2013)

25 Expected 2016

Yes /After No Not reported

English English

3 German citizen since 2012

2009 27 2016, Expected

Yes / Before Yes Not reported

German, Filipino and English, mostly German

N/A

4 Employment / RA §18 2011 22 2014 No No Yes English English

5 German University graduate / §18b

2011 26 2015 Yes / After No Yes English English

6 Employment / RA §18 2011 30 2015 Yes / Before Yes Yes Filipino and English

English

7 Foreigner’s spouse / RA §30

2011 30 Did not study in DE

Yes / Before Yes4 Yes Filipino and English

German

8 Miscellaneous (Special permit because working in International Organization)

2011 32 Did not study in DE

No No Yes English English


2006 (Left-2011; Back-2013, Left-2013)

24 2011 No No Not reported

English English


2012 34 2013 No No No Live alone German

11 Employment / RA §18 2013 25 Studied in Italy

No No Yes English English and German, mostly English

12 German’s spouse / RA §28

2013 30 2015 Yes / After No Not reported

German and English, mostly English

N/A

13 Employment / RA §18 2014 22 Did not study in DE

No No Yes English English

Frequency of going to the Philippines

Place of study in the Philippines

With Job?

Use of Make it in Germany website

Use of Federal Employment Agency website

Attended Orientation or Integration Course?

If studied German, where and who paid?

Recognition of Qualifications

1 Twice a year or every year

UP Yes Yes Yes Not reported Not reported Not reported

2 Every year ADMU No No No No Scholarship Not reported

3 Every year from 2009-2012, afterwards, rarely

PLM No Yes Yes Yes Self-financed Equivalence problem

4 Not reported but went in 2016

UP Yes Yes Yes Not reported University / Free Recognized without a problem

5 At least once a year

UP No No No No University / Self-financed Not reported


UP Yes Yes Yes Not reported Not reported Recognized without a problem


STI Yes Yes Yes Not reported Self-financed One-year process

8 Every year UP Yes No No No Subsidized by Employer Recognized without a problem

9 Twice in 5 years

UP Not in DE

No No Not reported University / Free Equivalence problem

10 Every year UP Yes Not reported

Not reported

No Self-financed Not reported

11 Once in 2 years

ADMU Yes No No No Not reported Recognized without a problem

12 Every year UP No Yes Yes Yes Not mentioned Not reported

13 Not reported

PLM Yes No No Yes Employer Recognized without a problem

Appendix B: Compilation of EU Member States issuance of Blue Cards

Country

Period to process / decide on application after

receipt of documents for application for EU Blue

Card

Average cumulative time to receive all

required documents and be issued a Blue

Card

Mandatory registration of job opening at the

national labour exchange office (or similar offices)?

Total EU Blue Cards issued

Austria No data No data No data No data

(but issues a Red-White-Red Card to skilled migrants, OECD, 2015)

Belgium 90 days

Not available because no issued Blue Card (only 2

inadmissible applications in

2013)

It depends on the number of employees the

company employed in the previous year.

0 (as of 2013)

Bulgaria 7 days 1 month and 1 week Yes No data Croatia No data No data No data No data

Cyprus

Cyprus has set the volumes of admission to

0 (EMN Ad-hoc Report,

2013)

0 Not applicable 0

(EMN Ad-hoc Report, 2013)

Czech Republic No data No data No data No data

Denmark Did not adopt EU Blue

Card Did not adopt EU

Blue Card Did not adopt EU Blue

Card Did not adopt EU Blue Card

Estonia 2 months 4 months Yes

No data (but issuing ‘e-residence’ to all people anywhere in the world,

OECD, 2015)

Finland 41 days No data because few

applications have been filed

No No data

France 3 months 2-3 months No No data

Germany

It varies. There are 600+ Alien Offices in

Germany which issue Blue Cards.

It varies. Recognition of

qualifications takes 3 months.

Yes, in some cases. But if Federal Employment Agency does not reply after 2 weeks, EU Blue

card is automatically approved (OECD, 2013).

21, 000 as of 2015 (OECD, 2015)

Greece No data No data No data No data Hungary 90 days 90 days Yes No data

Ireland Does not issue Blue Card Does not issue Blue

Card Does not issue Blue Card Does not issue Blue Card

Italy No data No data No data No data Latvia 30 days 51 days No No information

Lithuania 2 months 4 months Yes 94

(OECD, 2015)

Luxembourg 90 days No information as

to duration of treatment of files

Yes 300

Mostly to US citizens (OECD, 2015)

Malta No data No data No data No data

The Netherlands 90 days 90 days (Note that

evaluation of No No data

recognition is not a part of the residence permit procedure,

but separate)

Poland 86 days No information Yes 4

(as of 2013)

Portugal 60 days 80 days No No data

(but issues a Golden Residence Permit to investors, OECD 2015)

Romania 15 days No data Yes No data

(but imposes a quota of 1,000) Slovakia 30 days 2-5 months Yes No data

Slovenia 38 days 4 months Yes 13

(as of 2010, EMN Ad-hoc Report, 2013)

Spain 45 days 2 months Not reported No data

Sweden No data No data Yes

No data But publishes names of persons applying for a Blue Card under

http://www.bluecard-eu.de/application/country/sweden/26

United Kingdom Does not issue EU Blue

Card Does not issue EU

Blue Card Does not issue EU Blue

Card Does not issue EU Blue Card

Note: Author’s compilation based on the Ad-hoc query on issuing European Union Blue Cards to third country nationals requested by Lithuania on March 21, 2013 found at http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/networks/european_migration_network/reports/docs/ad-hoc-queries/economic-migration/465_emn_ad-hoc_query_on_eu_blue_cardwider_dissemination_en.pdf, OECD International Migration Outlook 2013 and 2015, EU-Blue Card at http://www.bluecard-eu.de/application/country/sweden/26, EU Blue Card Network https://www.apply.eu/Questions/ and Pro-Link Global https://pro-linkglobal.com/romania-2012-work-permit-quotas-announced-eu-blue-card-option-introduced/ .



http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/networks/european_migration_network/reports/docs/ad-hoc-queries/economic-migration/465_emn_ad-hoc_query_on_eu_blue_cardwider_dissemination_en.pdf

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/networks/european_migration_network/reports/docs/ad-hoc-queries/economic-migration/465_emn_ad-hoc_query_on_eu_blue_cardwider_dissemination_en.pdf



https://www.apply.eu/Questions/

https://pro-linkglobal.com/romania-2012-work-permit-quotas-announced-eu-blue-card-option-introduced/

https://pro-linkglobal.com/romania-2012-work-permit-quotas-announced-eu-blue-card-option-introduced/

Appendix C: Table of Examinees and Passers in Board Examinations between 2006 and 2008, Professional Regulation Commission

2006 2007 2008

Licensure Examinees Passers % Passed Examinees Passers % Passed Examinees Passers % Passed

ACCOUNTANCY 11,817 2,850 24.12% 10,867 3,705 34.09% 11,314 3,710 32.79%

AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING 106 30 28.30% 92 36 39.13% 98 43 43.88%

AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING 405 182 44.94% 462 205 44.37% 416 157 37.74%

ARCHITECTURE 2,134 911 42.69% 1,876 837 44.62% 2,077 768 36.98%

CHEMICAL ENGG 934 492 52.68% 875 438 50.06% 879 430 48.92%

CHEMISTRY 503 245 48.71% 460 234 50.87% 481 227 47.19%

CIVIL ENGG 7,669 3,135 40.88% 6,017 2,256 37.49% 7,816 2,766 35.39%

CRIMINOLOGY 11,427 3,568 31.22% 13,901 4,463 32.11% 15,485 5,028 32.47%

CUSTOMS BROKERS 1,268 213 16.80% 1,205 227 18.84% 1,108 254 22.92%

DENTISTRY 2,339 772 33.01% 1,681 581 34.56% 1,121 525 46.83%

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING 8,324 3,481 41.82% 7,895 2,637 33.40% 6,046 2,022 33.44%

ELECT. & COMM. ENGINEERING 6,912 2,438 35.27% 6,716 2,146 31.95% 6,446 2,309 35.82%

ENVI. PLANNING 42 23 54.76% 36 19 52.78% 55 26 47.27%

FORESTER 500 203 40.60% 504 199 39.48% 379 194 51.19%

GEODETIC ENGINEERING 414 148 35.75% 423 170 40.19% 386 135 34.97%

GEOLOGY 47 35 74.47% 50 37 74.00% 55 36 65.45%

INTERIOR DESIGN 183 57 31.15% 214 110 51.40% 184 78 42.39%

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT 25 14 56.00% 25 16 64.00% 21 12 57.14%

LIBRARIAN 825 303 36.73% 868 278 32.03% 1,003 237 23.63%

MARINE ENGINEER OFFICER 4,645 2,345 50.48% 5,268 2,809 53.32% 6,599 3,633 55.05%

MARINE DECK OFFICER 7,545 3,665 48.58% 8,869 4,243 47.84% 11,743 6,094 51.89%

MASTER PLUMBER 728 301 41.35% 603 245 40.63% 593 195 32.88%

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 3,531 1,681 47.61% 3,321 1,735 52.24% 3,181 1,799 56.55%

Source: DOLE 2010 PROJECT JOBSFIT

MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY 3,239 1,507 46.53% 2,547 1,311 51.47% 2,380 1,414 59.41%

MEDICINE 4,724 2,592 54.87% 4,933 2,934 59.48% 4,491 2,567 57.16%

METALLURGICAL ENGINEERING 57 29 50.88% 23 13 56.52% 36 21 58.33%

MIDWIFERY 4,947 2,666 53.89% 6,579 3,498 53.17% 7,337 3,881 52.90%

MINING ENGINEERING 16 10 62.50% 31 20 64.52% 33 23 69.70%

NAV. ARCH. 22 10 45.45% 14 5 35.71% 16 5 31.25%

NURSING 82,149 37,030 45.08% 131,841 60,457 45.86% 153,108 67,220 43.90%

NUTRITIONIST DIETITIAN 492 257 52.24% 567 320 56.44% 523 273 52.20%

OPTOMETRY 281 186 66.19% 265 168 63.40% 546 322 58.97%

PHARMACY 2,391 1,235 51.65% 2,230 1,241 55.65% 2,077 1,123 54.07%

PROF. TEACHERS 112,760 34,667 30.74% 124,432 35,187 28.28% 144,819 45,197 31.21%

P.T.O.T. 2,758 1,112 40.32% 2,168 877 40.45% 1,792 762 42.52%

RAD. TECH. 637 239 37.52% 1,119 413 36.91% 1,810 836 46.19%

SANITARY ENGINEERING 131 46 35.11% 91 35 38.46% 115 58 50.43%

SOCIAL WORKERS 1,107 580 52.39% 1,053 504 47.86% 1,154 616 53.38%

VETERINARY MEDICINE 565 214 37.88% 637 225 35.32% 683 224 32.80%

TOTAL 288,599 109,472 37.93% 350,758 134,834 38.44% 398,406 155,220 38.96%

Appendix D: Cross-tabulation of Region in the Philippines and Educational Attainment of

permanent Filipino immigrants in Germany, 2005-2014

Note: Author’s calculation. Source: CFO (Rodrigo Garcia <[email protected]>, email sent on 26 February 2016)

52.34 47.66 100.00

Total 2,959 2,694 5,653

54.22 45.78 100.00

Region XIII (CARAGA) 90 76 166

66.30 33.70 100.00

Region XII (SOCCSKS.. 61 31 92

63.26 36.74 100.00

Region XI (DAVAO RE.. 167 97 264

64.09 35.91 100.00

Region X (NORTHERN .. 166 93 259

46.42 53.58 100.00

Region VIII (EASTER.. 123 142 265

53.07 46.93 100.00

Region VII (CENTRAL.. 623 551 1,174

57.80 42.20 100.00

Region VI (WESTERN .. 163 119 282

59.09 40.91 100.00

Region V (BICOL REG.. 78 54 132

60.93 39.07 100.00

Region IX (ZAMBOANG.. 92 59 151

44.44 55.56 100.00

Region IV-B (MIMARO.. 40 50 90

48.00 52.00 100.00

Region IV-A (CALABA.. 336 364 700

39.03 60.97 100.00

Region III (CENTRAL.. 194 303 497

51.19 48.81 100.00

Region II (CAGAYAN .. 43 41 84

46.89 53.11 100.00

Region I (ILOCOS RE.. 98 111 209

52.53 47.47 100.00

NATIONAL CAPITAL RE.. 653 590 1,243

70.45 29.55 100.00

CORDILLERA ADMINIST.. 31 13 44

100.00 0.00 100.00

AUTONOMOUS REGION I.. 1 0 1

Region College.. Others Total

Education Collapse

Appendix E: Factors which motivated participants to move to Germany

Factors which motivated participants to move to Germany Theories Determinants Quotes/Respondents’ Answers Neo-classical economic theory and human capital theory

Human capital Education in source country was unsatisfactory “I decided to pursue another degree. I just wanted to take this [interdisciplinary, humanities, art history, and philosophy] degree and it happened to be in Germany.” Further education to improve career options I had a really good career at multinational company [in the Philippines], 4 years as a programmer and 6 years as a geoscientist. However, I wanted to pursue a master’s degree so I looked around for a programme…I searched online for master’s programmes available, in English-speaking countries. I also branched out to EU countries and looked for English-taught programmes… The other one I saw was in Utrecht University butit was not so cheap… My main motivation for choosing Germany was that I found the master’s programme that I was looking for in English…almost free, maybe 100 euros per semester. Looking for a job with more responsibilities and competitive at a technical level …it was difficult to find a job in our country which is competitive on a technical level. I want to take more roles and responsibilities. It was not so bad in my previous company but I wanted more options because I was already at the highest level possible with my competencies, but I wanted to move laterally as well. There was no funding for research in the Philippines My mentor told me that I should look for scholarships abroad. I wasn’t adventurous so I just looked for a scholarship in the Philippines. But I cannot finish it in the Philippines because there was no funding for research. For example, I applied for this scholarship for graduate students at the Department of Science and Technology, but after 1 year of my paper, my application was being passed on to different departments. They cannot figure out where to place my topic. They were like oh it’s for environmental science, oh it’s for

molecular blah blah. So in the end they returned all the documents to me so in the end I said, ok if it’s going to be as complicated as this…. They have the money, but the bureaucracy is too problematic so that’s when I said maybe I should pursue further studies abroad. By then I was accepted by a scientific fellowship institution in Germany. Specific programme and learn a foreign language I was particularly looking for MA in International Health or MA in Global Health. There were only a few universities offering this particular program. One is in London, the other one is Amsterdam. The other one is Germany, they have Charité Berlin and Heidelberg. I don’t want to live in big cities like Berlin so I applied to Heidelberg… If I live in Germany, I could be forced to learn German and French and I cannot do that if I go to the other two places. Learning a new language was one of the factors that made me decide to go to Germany… I went directly to the university website. I didn’t want to apply for a scholarship because I want to have full control of my plans. In some scholarships, they have a lot of requirements and I don’t want that. Improve academic record I wanted to widen my horizon, and it is also good for my academic record if I did graduate studies outside of the Philippines, so that was the main reason. I chose Germany because it offered a degree with financial support. The other universities where I was accepted did not offer financial support…I want to do a career in the academe, so I pursued PhD degree in Math in Germany. Looking for an organization which respects diversity and the international organization which offered a job is in Germany I was interested in this concept of international civil service. I was working in the private sector for a long time, then I felt that I want to do something good and not just work…I changed jobs because of principles. While I was working in the private sector, there was a time I thought, I was making someone richer. At the end of the day, you are just a number, you are dispensable. All of a sudden there are organization changes. They are always vulnerable…[I chose the International Organization because] I have a high

respect for the International Organization. I could see the International Organization as an ideal environment that respects diversity. I don't want to go to an environment where I am considered a minority…The country is not important. I also applied in Nigeria, Kenya. It was more of the organization...It was International Organization or nothing. If I don’t make it by age 35, I will stay where I am…The application took a long time. I applied in March 2010, never heard from them, then I received an interview invitation in June scheduled between June and August. There were three interviews. Then I did not hear from them again until February of the next year. They emailed me that I got the job but that post was changed so they gave me a contract for 11 months, and depending on the funding, they will give me an extension. That was a gamble, because I was already a senior team lead in my previous company and I was earning good. Then they told me that I need to start in March. It was short notice. But at the end of the day, I really wanted to leave the private sector. Sooner or later I will leave, I know that, so I just accepted it. Specific programme with funding I chose to go to Germany because of the specific programme offered at the university. It was a good programme, it fits my plan. It was a newly launched course at the university, only been running for 2 years when I applied, and it was just the perfect course. My professor also offered a student assistantship position so I didn’t have to find scholarships. I also looked in other universities for this specific programme but Germany had the most reasonable living standards in the EU. UK is expensive, although there were degrees with good content. But it’s an uphill battle to get a student assistant position in the UK, and it’s just expensive to live there…I know someone in the US and also in the UK and I know that I can stay at someone’s place to check opportunities there. I didn’t know anyone in Germany, but I trusted my professor that she will support me. It was really my professor who encouraged me to take the opportunity. She told me I shouldn't miss this opportunity because if I declined, she cannot promise that she can defer the post because the project is running, and the funding of the project can only be given to an enrolled student in the PhD programme. If I don't accept the admission from the university, then she cannot promise that in the future there will be funds. She

facilitated my application because it was such a short period. Classes already started when I arrived….She told me not to apply for a DAAD scholarship because that will take time and my course is not under the list of priority courses, which was true at that time…I did not receive a contract before I arrived in Germany. They just sent me a letter that I will be given a contract but they did not put my salary. I asked my professor if I will be able to survive with the allowance that I will receive. She said, it would be enough because it’s standard. I took the word of my professor that it would be enough. Then I asked how much I need to bring roughly to get by in the first few months because they will only process my contract once I arrived…I really want this degree even if I have to spend money…I wanted to get a degree because I wanted to get a promotion, from assistant professor to associate professor. The salary increase is not a factor because the salary in the university is not commensurate to your position. But if you have your degree, you can build your reputation and do more research in the future… I just used Google to find this programme. 10 years ago, there was no Facebook. Specific professor and specific programme in Germany I chose Germany because of the programme and professor. I know the professor as an expert in his field and I really want to work with him. I followed him. After being short-listed, he interviewed me We talked over Skype and we talked about potential dissertation the topics. He’s Canadian so the professor-student relationship is not so formal. He even goes to the university in shorts. Also, I chose Germany because the student and professor have closer ties, well, I think…I found a programme that I like in Germany. I didn’t have a scholarship for my PhD but I was a Wissenschaflicher Mitarbeiter (research associate) so I work 65% of the time. Further studies required to continue teaching science in the university After I graduated, I taught at the UP. But the College does not allow you to teach if you don't do further studies, so I was kind of 'forced' to study further. Not really forced because I enjoyed it anyway. Then after graduation, my supervisor convinced me to take higher education because if I want to teach master's students then I have to have more than a master's. I need to take a PhD. He was recommending some opportunities in

different parts of the world, I was telling him before, that I want to just take the PhD in the PH but he highly encouraged me to go abroad because he said that our institute is not yet mature to hone PhD students. But in some fields, our institute can do it. But I want to study water management or water-related research so I have to find it elsewhere. I was at the right moment when I applied. My former supervisor sent me a link, I saw some calls for PhD candidates in this part of Germany which I never heard before. I just sent my documents and it was easy because I had my documents ready because I already applied for programmes in the US. [I chose to be in Germany in the end] because the offer in the US was not as ‘stable’ as the offer here. I was waitlisted in one of the scholarships, they offered some studentships but there was no guarantee that I would get it again the next semester. I also got a position in Australia and it was for 4 years and Germany was offering this programme for 3 years. I was also interested in Europe. I mean Australia is also interesting but I just thought that if I studied in Europe, there will be more possibilities to go out, travel to other parts of Europe. The continent by itself is interesting. Those were my considerations. Germany is one of the leading countries in research in science. So you go to where the challenge is…I got information about the PhD positions from my professor in the Philippines who sent me a list of websites that I could check…Nobody in our team knows anyone from Germany. We are just exchanging these links among us, we say, ‘let’s check this out’.

New economics of labour migration

Household decision

Family decided to go to Germany My salary is good in the Philippines but I needed to learn a new language so I could earn more. People at my previous work who know a foreign language, they earn 70,000-80,000 and I was only earning 40,000 because I did not know any foreign language. I felt bad. I studied math, differential calculus, etc, I prepared hard to pass the engineering board exam. My colleagues on the other hand, went to Europe to learn a new language, they came back, and get double of my salary! So I decided to take European languages in UP for 2 semesters. I first majored in French with a minor in German and then switched to German as a major because of the words which are related to my field. So I met my husband online as my language tandem partner. He helped me with my German assignments and if I needed help in my work, he also helped me because he’s also working in the technical field. I cannot remember which website I found him. I just

googled ‘german-english tandem partner’, found him, we chat on MSN, and I totally forgot about the account I created. He went to the Philippines, we got married, and now I am here because of our family. I did not go here to study MS but it’s because of him. Wife decided to go to Germany for PhD My wife decided to pursue her PhD in Germany because she found a good programme that suits her. I support her academic career. For me, her career is more important. I am a nurse. I can find a job. I took nursing so I can follow her.

Migration network theory Social capital Roommate was a DAAD scholar My roommate studied in Germany, with DAAD. I looked at it but the problem is, they offer specific programmes. I didn’t find a programme I liked to be in. A friend’s boyfriend told me to apply for a German scholarship for scientists I had a German friend, who was a former boyfriend of a friend, who I met in some conferences before. We were doing some environmental activist work with an NGO in the Philippines. The boyfriend invited me to write about environment, etc. and he was the one who was actually pushing me to go back to Germany after the volunteer work I did in 2009. He was the one who told me to apply for the fellowship from the scientific fellowship institution in Germany He was the one who facilitate, like finding a host institution in Germany for the fellowship. But I was lucky, because the host institution did a background check on me and because of my connections in the climate change scene in the Philippines, they were able to contact someone who is a former mentor of mine, so they contacted her, and she said “she’s fine”. He [the friend’s former boyfriend] wanted to work together on a paper...so he was interested to work with someone from developing countries. So the social network sort of enticed me to go back to Germany. Earning a PhD and at the same time to see boyfriend I went back to Germany because I want to earn my PhD and at the same time I want to see my boyfriend.

Former grantees of the fellowship gathered for a send-off before leaving the Philippines I did not know anyone who had the fellowship before. But there very few Filipino fellows from this scientific fellowship institution. So what happened was, there was someone Filipino fellows who contacted me and they were so happy to find out that there was a ‘young blood’ fellow. I met one renowned chemist, and three other people I think, in the Philippines, and then we went to Chocolate Kiss [restaurant] for my send-off. [Although this is not strictly a reason that motivated participant to move to Germany, it provides an important insight on experience in the Philippines where former grantees of scholarship try to get updated on who gets such a fellowship and tries to connect and establish ties with new fellows]. Professor who knew a research group in Bielefeld There was a former professor from Ateneo [who was one of the students of my MS supervisor] who had some contact with the research group from Bielefeld and I knew this research group from their papers as well. So I emailed them and I told them I want to do a PhD with this group and they replied and so that's why they invited me for 1-month period and see whether I would fit in their research group and when they said that it was ok, so that's how I got to work with them. Previous research partner provided opportunity [I got this job through] networking. One of the EU partners was from the Forschungszentrum (research centre) and he was the one who told me to have an opening for me if I wanted to come here. [He played a big role in me getting this job], 75% to 80%. Because the position that I was originally eyeing was already filled. So because he was familiar with my research background he said ok, I think I have a good project for you let me write it to the boss. So he is one of the principal investigators of the institute, he’s not one of the big bosses but he is one of the ‘semi-boss’ and he said we might have a budget for this position so we talked about the project and then he said ok. So mostly it’s his doing. But of course also the director and everyone.

Former professor at the university urged us to study abroad [I found the academic programme] on the internet. So I was an undergrad in Physics. I was told that most of the previous students are going to the IT industry afterwards. But we have a good professor who told us "you know you should change the direction, you should go to grad school." And I was kindda interested in some fields most of which were not available in the Philippines. I had a very very good professor at Ateneo but from the chemistry side so polymer side. So she's Indian, she urged us to go to grad school as well. So when I decided to go to grad school, that was around January, then I will graduate in March. And then during that time, the GRE...in the US, you have to do the GRE and the deadline for the GRE already elapsed. So when I decided to go to grad school, there was only Europe. And Australia I think. And then Naples said yes… I only need one yes…I did not get information from career fairs, not for my PhD degree nor to find a position in Germany. I never found it particularly helpful. It was a matter of niche. most of the openings I see in career fairs are for people who want to study business or language, I think. I think that's why. Most of the applications I did were either through the internet or via recommendations, direct recommendations from Ateneo [University]. For example, some people email programmes for PhD or master’s to our professors and then the professors forward them to us. These are the informal, the feeds to student applicants, for physical sciences at least.

Transnational theory Powerful actors Multinational consulting company’s client needed a specific IT skill for their mainframe A client of the company where I work looked for a specific IT skill, a specific programming language which is used for their mainframe and I have that. So what happened was, the client asked for this skill, the company searched its database of employees in the globe, found me, asked me to fill up a CV from the client, my manager sent it to the client, client approves, my company sends be to Berlin. I have accepted it because of the salary but also because I have never been outside of the Philippines nor lived independently before. I want to experience that. My contract is still in the Philippines, I’m still earning my Philippine salary, but they give me a per diem which is adjusted to the living standard in Berlin. I still pay taxes in the Philippines but for everything that I earn in Berlin, my company pays the tax differentials.

Appendix F: Participants’ Experience in Germany

Participants’ experience in Germany

Activities/Aspects Quotes/Respondents’ Answers

Finding accommodation and registration in the city

Facilitation/assistance by the university It was the university which assisted in almost all the bureaucratic things. They helped us with the registration and insurance whatever things then, opening a bank account, getting a cell phone, etc.

Filipino communities provide support in finding accommodation and answering questions There is a Filipino group here of academics—PhDs and Post-Docs—they call it PUMA. It is headed by a Filipino academic. I studied computer science before, I got to know him before. He is in Munich, so he was the first one I contacted when I got my acceptance from the university. When I came here, we had dinner. He holds this [dinner] every other month. When I had time, I go there. For the level of support, I know that there are Filipinos here, also academics. I also asked him about some things like when I had problems with my insurance or was looking for a place. He has networks and asks around as well.

Letter of acceptance from university should be sent earlier for us to find accommodation earlier Registration was in September; the actual start of classes was in October. So, it was like they sent the letter late June or July, so I only had August and I was working at that time. It was difficult. It would have been better, if they would have sent the acceptance earlier. So before I came here, I was looking for a place but I couldn’t find anything. Everything was taken, and the only thing which was left was expensive. So what I did was to reach out to students through this online group and then I was able to crash in their student flats. For two weeks. It was a difficult experience to be moving all the time. And I stayed in a hostel for less than a week. And because of the Oktoberfest, everything was fully booked! I also went out to my friend in Switzerland and the Netherlands, just so to have a place, also because I don’t know anybody else. I also used couchsurfing (www.couchsurfing.com). I also needed to register at the KVR (Kresiverwaltung Referat) [as stated in the acceptance letter I got from the university], they

Positive Negative Neutral Positive and Negative Colour Legend:

http://www.couchsurfing.com/

have a specific for handling students. I did not have an address so I had to use my professor’s address. Had they sent the letter earlier, I could have applied for a place at the Studentenstadt.

Professors and university staff helped before arriving and after arriving in Germany My professors helped me a lot in Heidelberg before I arrived. They helped me coordinate, find possible accommodations and everything I needed. I wanted to buy a car, and they helped me coordinate everything. For the registration, there was a team who helped to get all of these things including the insurance. There was a team of coordinators, professors, secretaries who helped me. I did not know anyone here. No relatives.

Landlords having interviews with potential lessees and asking cooking behavior The people who arranged for my accommodation were people from my research group. They arranged a housing for me which was in a small village for elderly people. There was no internet there so I had to go constantly to the university to access the internet which I needed to talk to people at home. And I didn't have the courage to find a new place because I didn't know enough German to find a new place…Then I finally learned German…So I went to different interviews… Of course in Germany the system is different. Somehow the people leasing the apartment will choose as well the people applying so there were interviews, so of course my immediate disadvantage was that I was not fluent in German. Second, the people were asking me if I’m going to cook. Somehow, they thought I was Chinese, so I think they were worried that when I cook then I will ruin the apartment with the smell…the apartment will be ruined… For a foreigner’s point of view, of course it was really hard to find an apartment.

Employer provided allowance for accommodation in the first 30 days but Filipinos helped me in finding a place They paid for my travel. For housing, you find it yourself. You will be given a budget for lodging for the first 30 days. So that pays for your hotel or room or apartment. You will be given a certain allowance and it's up to you how to use it… Within the first 30 days, I stayed in a hotel. After that, I found a Filipina who has an available room. I was thinking during that time, if my contract is not extended, then I don't want to get an apartment. I also don't want to buy furniture. I met her through a prayer meeting of Filipinos in Bad Godesberg. There is a center of Filipinos here. Catholic mass. There's a prayer meeting and then we eat together after. A Filipina helped me with the registration in the city. But I figured that because I'm an International Organization staff, I have a diplomatic status, and I don't have to register in Bonn. But I still registered because I need proof of residency in some things so it's good to have this

document. Also when I looked for a new apartment, when I got my extension, I was asked for my registration document.

Husband has properties in Germany I did not have problems finding accommodation because my husband has properties.

Professor has a central role in transition in Germany I was the first foreigner student of my professor. So she just asked another professor who had a foreigner student and then she facilitated my paperwork, she sent all the documents I need to submit at the German embassy. She helped me find a place to stay. Where she lived, she knows someone who owns a student building which was accredited by the university, so she asked this person to reserve a place for me. She really helped in my initial transition. When I arrived, she asked her staff who speaks English to assist me in the paperwork at the Rathaus (city hall). All legal documents should be in German. So of course, I just arrived and I needed to apply for tax ID, sign documents. The staff was an angel in my life. She accompanied me, she helped me get an insurance, she contacted people. It was a big help.

Multinational consulting company took care of everything It's easy for me. The company pays for the apartment. When I arrived I already have a place to stay. For the registration, the company has an external party that takes care of all our documents and registrations.

University registrar sent me list of accommodations My supervisor connected with the university registrar who was helping international students. They send me list of accommodation, then I contact the people. They also told me to register but you know it's all part of the letter they gave me. You just need to follow step 1 to whatever…the costs, I have a scholarship, so that’s where I get the money to pay the costs of registration. But at the Auslaenderbehorde (Foreign Office), if you are a student you don't pay like 90 euros. It's less. Almost nothing. For the health insurance, I also looked for my own insurance but of course I pay it from the stipend which I get from the scholarship. I think DAAD is better on this one. They provide scholars with insurance, they provide language courses, they have gatherings of scholars, so your already have ‘capture friends’. And someone to guide you along the way.

Recognition of qualifications

They only required documents to be in English but for a letter which has to be in German, a friend helped When I sent my docs, it included the transcripts. I had English and Filipino certificates and diploma. During the time, there was an English transcript ready, so there was no problem. No German

translations were required. They just asked to write a letter in German. It was for the University. I didn’t know German yet, so I asked a friend of mine if her friend can help me writing it.

No problems with qualifications being recognized I did not have problems with it.

Lacking years of education because of differences in Philippine and German educational system

Actually that was a problem. I took 5 years of Engineering in the Philippines but when I arrived here they told me I still lack 2 years of education. I cannot remember how they computed it but maybe because in my elementary education, instead of studying 6 years, I did it in 5 years because I was accelerated in class. Maybe also because of that. Then I took a Weiterbildung (further training), then after that, there was no problem in applying for my master's degree. I applied for Produktionstechnik (Production Technology) for my Weiterbildung (further training) and now with my MS, since it's connected, so it was easier to apply.

German-American degree in Berlin I have a German-American degree [from an American University in Berlin].

Studies support Counselling at the University I went to this counselling office, mostly for international students, if you have problems with your studies. I went there once. It was very helpful.

Filipino contacts helped in research I did not get support from Filipinos when I was looking for a scholarship. But when I finally got one, I got help from Philippine NGOs for my research. The head of a governance institute in the Philippines proofread my product for my fellowship and the executive director of a renewable energy NGO in the Philippines also helped in my research.

Role of German language German and English spoken at home, mostly English We speak German and English at home. Mostly English. I don’t watch TV. For movies, yeah, English.

German language not needed for IT Jobs If you are a developer, it is easy to get a job, because you don’t need German.

Limits social connections

I only feel comfortable using the language when I am in offices, like the Buergeramt (Citizen Registration Office) or the Finanzamt (Finance authority)… but only to complain. I use German to complain. But to carry on a conversation, it is still difficult until now. That limits my social circle too, which has more of the cosmopolitan Germans who moved or lived abroad. Feeling of being part of ‘others’ People at the Institute speak English. But you still feel…you know…when they all talk in German…how do I say it…there’s a barrier in their openness…so when you go to the admin office, they all speak German. While you are there, you really feel you are part of ‘others’.

Outside of the university, not knowing the language is difficult to connect I did not feel [the language barrier] in Heidelberg because it was an enclosed environment where everyone interacted using the English language. After Heidelberg, I did feel a little of an outsider without the ability to speak the language. I really forced myself to learn it to be able to integrate well. I remember, back in 2014 I was in the middle of the language course and I really found it difficult to network with the people here, with native Germans. I found it difficult to connect without forcing myself to use the language. It was a difficult phase.

English used with professional network but German used with patients [Professionally, not being fluent in German]…I don’t think it has made a huge difference because most of the people who I am working with, professionals, consultants and doctors, they speak English. At the that time, it wasn’t such a big deal. My main motivation for learning the language was to communicate with the patients well. It did make a difference in terms of patients’ communication of course.

There are a lot of expats in Bonn and a lot of Germans speak English Not here in the NRW region [there is no language barrier]. There are many expats here and we are lucky to be in Bonn because a lot of people speak English. You will survive and there’s no pressure to speak German. This is also the reason why I did not learn German because I did not feel the pressure to learn it. Maybe if I lived in Stuttgart or somewhere else, I will be forced to learn German and I could be speaking good German by now… Here, the only limitation to speak English with Germans in Bonn, is if you are talking to older people. But youngsters to middle-aged individuals, there is no problem talking to them in English. I find it unfair in fact with my German colleagues because I want to talk in German with them but they also want to improve their English and we talk in English so they are able to practice and I don't. *laughs* I practice only in my German classes. The extent of my German is survival German.

Ordering, groceries, etc. When I learned these basic German survival phrases, that's the point when my skills just plateaued. Until now, I cannot converse in German.

Communication with colleagues is a mixture of German and English but technical writing is in English We are all doctors; we all speak English. And when I joined this, I already speak German so I could get by. If they speak in German, I understand. When I want to answer and it's difficult to explain in German, I speak in English and they understand that. For me, if it's easier for them to speak in German, I also understand if they want to explain it in German. But I write technical reports in English. Even my husband is finding it difficult to translate my abstracts in German. It’s too technical.

Client’s work language is German and I need a translator Language barrier played a big role. My client, all their documents and emails, all are in German. Then during meetings, it's also in German. I need to translate every time all the documents before I could understand it. We have a program to translate with encryption so that's what I use… I don't attend meetings anymore. They told me I'm not required to attend so they relay to me what transpired during the meeting. But within the company, we use English but when we have clients to talk to, they all talk in German. At the client, if they know English, they talk to me. If not, then they don't talk to me. Well there was a time that I had to work at the client and the person I'm talking to doesn't speak English. So my colleague translated the instruction to me. But our other clients they know how to speak English. Around 30-40% of the people in our client's office, they don't speak English but maybe that's because they are old. They have full white hair.

English as our language in our university I didn't feel that there’s a barrier. At the university, we all talk in English but of course my supervisor was telling me that I have been here for a long time and my German is so bad. She's always telling me, you really have to start speaking German *laughs*. But no, I didn't have a problem with not knowing the language. I mean of course it's a limitation but there's always a solution. I call my officemate, I bring a translator, that's how I solve my limitation. I always get help on this.

Attitudes from the German society

People in general are nice but there is a bit of discrimination in government offices At the authority offices, Germans are fine, they are ok. The people I met on the streets and my classmates, they are very open. But as soon as they work in the administration, there is a bit of discrimination going on, that’s at least what I feel.

Racist comments I did experience some racist comments and encounters. I thought during that situation, “if only I could answer them in German…”

Bremen is a great city - found a job upon arrival I have a friend who's doing a PhD here in Bremen, she didn't experience any problems. My Indian friends told me before that they didn't experience any problem nor discrimination in Bremen. Bremen is a great city. They said they experienced problems when they were staying in the eastern part of Germany, I can't remember if it was Thüringen or Brandenburg. But here, there is no discrimination. I have been here for a long time. In 2009, when I just arrived, I already found a job. I applied to be salesperson in a booth in a Weihnachsmarkt (Christmas market) and they offered me the job. My German was A2 only at that time. And every year, they [employer at the Christmas market] always ask me if I want to work at the Weihnachsmarkt. They also invite me to join cultural events with Germans. I just said no because I was not drinking beer but I really felt happy. I felt at home. At the Hochschule (college), even if my German language is not so good, my classmates help me with my studies.

Learning the German language

University provides language classes It was a free elective; it didn’t have credits. But it was free. It makes sense to take German courses because you are in Germany.

There was a German language course in the university. I attended this 4 hours-a-week German course. Then when I got the DAAD scholarship, I was able to attend a two-month intensive course in Marburg…Honestly, I would have not attended a German language course if I had to pay for it…It was expensive…800 euros per month at the university.

Scholarship includes language courses The scientific funding institution offered one-to-two months intensive German language courses. They subsidized night classes.

Self-financed own German language courses After my program, I had to enrol myself at the Goethe Institut for 13 months to learn up to C1 level for a medical doctor. But I don’t remember getting any support from the universities.

Teaching Math in German to a son of a Filipino There was on couple who asked me tutor their son in math. It was a favour. Every time I go there, I had food. Their child only spoke German so I was forced to teach him in German.

Employer has special agreement with the Goethe Institut and provides a payback of course fees I take courses at Goethe. If you are an International Organization Staff, you get a discount. It is part of the International Organization language assistance programme. Also if you have finished 75% of the course, the International Organization gives you back 85% of what you paid. Before, the International Organization does not support German language course, but 2 years ago they included that. Prior to that, it was only the 7 official languages which were supported.

Worked as a waitress to improve German; Applied for side jobs and student jobs which were in German I worked in the export control, on the technical side as a student job. I was working on mass spectrometer, which they used for uranium enrichment. This can be used in nuclear weapons so my job was to determine which are critical for import and export. I stopped that because of my school exams. I also did nebenjobs (side jobs) before. I worked as a waitress and that helped improve my German a lot.

Multinational consulting company hired a private tutor to teach business German for IT but stopped I studied German until A2. Basic. Provided by my employer. All trainings are sponsored by my employer. My German classes were 3 hours per week then 2x per week in the evening. After work, we attend classes. This lasted for 3 months only because they cut the subsidy for my German language. They wanted to see if the German language was effective. There was a problem with the staffing and then maybe also because of the costs, that's why they cut it. Before we were 4 Filipinos with German classes, then 2 of us already went back to the Philippines so maybe for them it doesn't make sense to pay the private teacher. For A1, I attended in Lingua, near Starbucks, but for A2, they paid a private tutor because they want to customized the German language to learn German business for IT…I tried learning German on my own but I really don’t have time because this is the first time I'm living independently. I want to learn German but I have to do the laundry, clean the house, do the groceries, etc. If only I have time...sometimes I want to take a leave of absence for three months so that I could learn German.

University has German language courses I studied up to A2 at the university. It’s 63 euros.

Integration course or orientation course

University orientation was not helpful

There was some orientation day at the university, a programme for a few hours for international students. So I went there and it was not very helpful. It was more of a welcoming orientation. They said they can put links for finding places but can’t do anything if everything is occupied. Email forwarding There was an orientation at the Institute [where I am doing my PhD] but it was not about Germany but about being a student. They do not have integration or orientation programs. They just forward emails they receive from the International office in Bonn. That’s it.

Did not attend orientation or integration courses I attended language courses. I did not attend orientation or integration seminars.

12-month programme but took the exam after 3 months Yes [I attended an integration programme]. It was for 12 months. But because I learned the German language in the Philippines, and because I understood what they were teaching in class, after 3 months, I decided to take the exam. I didn't wait for 12 months… We paid the fee for this course. But after I passed the course, they gave me back my money. That was a good motivation to pass that exam. I wanted to get that money back. It was at the VHS.

Orientation about cultural differences before leaving the Philippines No I did not attend an orientation course or integration course. But before we left, they gave us a presentation, a very brief one, about cultural differences. Then some reading materials were sent. That's it. There was not an orientation at work because I started working the next day with the client after I arrived.

Finding a job Through websites I went to a website, it’s www.berlinstartupjobs.com It’s a very good portal for different startups.

I used a few websites. Naturejobs (http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/) , that is for science jobs. There was also Euraxess (http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/) , a European site for job-searching in science or in research as well. There's...That's it. Then there's internal field, information that circulates within the field so...my niche is quite specific so most of the people here, we know each other so we circulate information within the same circle.

I check the Careers UN Portal (https://careers.un.org/lbw/Home.aspx) but I use more the ICSC (International Civil Service Commission) website (https://jobs.unicsc.org/) . ICSC is where you see all the listed International Organization agencies. It's the portal that I used. I noticed that the Careers

http://www.berlinstartupjobs.com/

http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/

http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/

https://careers.un.org/lbw/Home.aspx

https://jobs.unicsc.org/

portal, that’s the aggregator, it's late. I think it's because it will take, for example, for FAO to send the vacancy to that website and then it will take let's say 2 months before they can post it. The ICSC is more updated so that's where I go to find jobs at the International Organization. I went to Jobsboerse (https://jobboerse.arbeitsagentur.de/) and Stepstone (https://www.stepstone.de/) websites. These are the websites that I use to find work.

I checked Monster.com website (http://www.monster.de/geo/siteselection) . IT in Singapore is in demand. I applied there before through a website. Someone called me after. I uploaded my CV on Jobstreet (http://www.jobstreet.com/) or Monster, they called me right away.

I found job positions at the Earthworks jobs website (http://earthworks-jobs.com/) . It has all information about everything in geosciences and engineering, etc.

Career fairs I attended one [career fair] last year [2015] in Munich.

No I didn’t attend career fairs because I have been working for 10 years and I thought I will not learn a lot from the fairs. But I attended one time an exhibition of employers. There was a booth of VDI (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure or Association of German Engineers). I first met there the HR of the place where I eventually worked. But at that time, when I first met them, I still didn't know how I would fit in their organization. But eventually, after 6 months or 1 year, I found an opening in their organization, I already have an insight of this organization when I first met them at the job fair. That’s in Bremen.

Personal contacts in the Philippines to find jobs in Germany Yeah, sure, most of the people I worked with before in my previous company. There was a German contractor who I worked with in the Philippines so I personally reached out… also [to contractors] in the US. My previous company is mostly in the US, and so are the consultants I worked with them before. Also I got contacts when I worked on my thesis.

International career programme in the university I am doing a career programme in the university… They started it this year in January, it was for international students or graduating or recently graduated students. We are only 6 [in the programme]. It is with funding and we are the pilot participants. The main objective is to support international students to getting a job in Germany. So for example preparing CVs, German applications like cover letter and they are very supportive in helping finding our way into the job that best fits us. I am very

https://jobboerse.arbeitsagentur.de/

https://www.stepstone.de/

http://www.monster.de/geo/siteselection

http://www.jobstreet.com/

http://earthworks-jobs.com/

lucky to be able to participate in this…While I’m doing that, I am also studying German. To at least speak good German. Because the opportunities require it. Also converting my driver’s license. My target is: by second half of this year, I want to start a job. Right now, I am studying German. Newspapers, Hochschule Bulletin, Websites I found my side jobs through the newspapers or online. There is this Schwarzes Brett (bulletin board) on Bremen.de (http://schwarzesbrett.bremen.de/). My student jobs, I found them on the Hochschule (College) bulletin. It was posted by the student council. They have their own website to post vacancies which were only for students.

Through newsletters After my PhD graduation, I was looking for Postdoc positions. There is a newsletter being managed by the University of Hohenheim, which has good agricultural economics programmes, and that where I found the job in Bonn. When you have a PhD, it’s more difficult to find a job because your field becomes so limited and specialized. I saw that posting, it was perfect. It was related to my experience and topic. I just applied directly through email. Also, one reason why I applied for this job was because it has an international environment. I am considering teaching in universities as my postdoc but they require that I teach in German. I only reached A2. I cannot advise students. I know that I will not be successful in getting in universities in Germany because of the language requirement. So I really targeted international organizations in Bonn.

Job shadowing I received job offers from the BA but I found my current job because of one of my wife’s colleagues has a fiancé working in this clinic. When you apply in clinics, they have a one-day Probe (trial). I did job shadowing twice. One was in an Altenheim (house for the Elderly). But there, you can really see Germany’s problem with the lack of nurses. I was the only Examinerter Krankenpfleger (licensed nurse). Everybody else was an assistant nurse. They had two buildings with 30 patients each, with only one licensed nurse. I did not accept the offer even though they matched my current salary because it was too much responsibility for one person to oversee 60 patients. So I asked the fiancé of my wife’s colleague if I could job shadow in their clinic. I chose this because it is less stressful, commensurate with the salary. I am an Ambulanter Krakenpfleger (outpatient nurse) in this clinic.

http://schwarzesbrett.bremen.de/

Role of Make it in Germany website (http://www.make-it-in-germany.com/en)

Establish a business or own consulting in Germany I use the Make it Germany website because they have resources for establishing businesses in Germany but I don’t use it to find a job... I didn’t check websites to look for jobs because I didn't really think I would go abroad. There are many options in the Philippines. If I didn't get married, my plan was to stay in the Philippines. But we talked about it, if I can establish a business here after my MA, we will go back to the Philippines. I am working in the renewable energy sector, so I think there is more potential in the Philippines for this. That's my plan. Provide technical support. Increase efficiency in solar, geothermal, etc.

Make it in Germany website helped in visa I checked the website when I was looking for information about the visa and visa processes but not for work.

Look for a job I’m checking it out, this Make it in Germany website, because I am looking for a job now. It was introduced to us by a guy from the international career programme [at the university].

Reference for Orientation Booklet for Filipinos I included the website in the orientation booklet for Filipinos because I think it's useful. Personally, I don't personally need the website at this time, so I don't use it. I check it just to check references because I also want to refer it to other people who might find it useful. The information which I included in the orientation booklet, it was actually taken from that website, Make it in Germany.

Got information on the new law regarding medical practitioners That’s the website where we saw that there is a new law regarding visas for medical practitioners. We thought we could get a Blue Card but we learned it was only for doctors [and not nurses].

No clue about Make it Germany website I haven’t heard of this website.

Role of Federal Employment Agency

Informing the Bundesagentur fuer Arbeit (Federal Employment Agency) of a new job Switching from one job to the other is a bit tricky because you have to notify the BA and so I had to call them several times and I looked at their website just to understand the process. The website is really for unemployment claims and freelancer. I didn’t find it too helpful. I just needed to know if they would approve my visa or not.

Provided scholarship for further studies

http://www.make-it-in-germany.com/en

http://www.make-it-in-germany.com/en

They gave me a scholarship for my Weiterbildung (further studies). I applied as an Arbeitsuchende (person looking for a job), they reviewed my credentials, and then they said they will pay for my Weiterbildung (further studies). They paid for my transportation, they paid for my schooling, everything. The process was fast. The person who was working at the BA saw my resume, he saw that I'm an Engineer, then he just approved it because he said they really need more engineers. We talked in German. Look for a job I went to the [Bundesagentur fuer Arbeit] website but I don’t want to apply for things which are written in German. I try to filter my search. I’m looking for jobs in English.

Website used to search for research funding and grants I used the website to search for projects, possible areas where I could send proposals, find tips. It’s useful. I see on the website who are in the market because of the vacant positions advertised. This is more useful to me because I’m already working. For students and people who are migrating, the Make it in Germany website is more useful. But for me who's already working, it's more useful to use the BA website. Make it in Germany is about studies, staying in Germany, accreditation of qualifications, etc.

They sent me job openings to my mailbox I was working as a nurse for 2 years. When we decided to move to Bonn, there was a friend who told us to apply for unemployment insurance at the BA so that I can receive 400 euros per month while I am looking for a new job. I was surprised to receive 4-5 job offers in our mailbox per day. It’s really different when you are a nurse in Germany. I didn’t get my unemployment benefit because the overall process takes at least 3 months, and I was able to find a job after a month. It was even a hassle because when I found a new job, I had to report again to the BA to witdhraw my unemployment application.

Financing for studies Scholarship stipend is much lower than previous salary For the scientific fellowship institution, there was a big difference from what I was getting then with my salary in the Philippines. But now that I went back for my PhD [under DAAD], it’s a bit more problematic, because it is less than what I was earning in the Philippines… If you think about the people in my PhD program, actually…I’m not the only one complaining…that we were receiving more money when we were working in our home countries than what we get from DAAD. I’m thinking, maybe they thought we are from developing countries so what they give is actually enough. But no...it is not. Some of my colleagues, they have a family. It’s really not attractive…the DAAD for professionals who want to pursue further studies.

Student assistant position My professor also offered a student assistantship position so I didn’t have to find scholarships.

Finance own study because no strings attached I didn’t want to apply for a scholarship because I want to have full control of my plans. In some scholarships, they have a lot of requirements and I don’t want that.

Visa application and extensions

Easy when you have a work contract I had to change my visa to a work permit. I was just there, brought all my documents. I didn’t have to say much. I just had to tell him that am applying for this visa, the 8-month extension for graduates of German universities and then I showed him my contract. He said OK. Five minutes later I had my work permit.

Filipino husband and wife visa applications are more complicated because rules differ by state When we arrived in Germany, I had a student visa and my husband’s visa was connected to that. He studied German for more than 1 year so he can practice nursing in Germany. When he was done with his German language course, completed all requirements to be a nurse in Germany, the problem was he does not have a work permit. The Auslaenderamt (Alien Office) told him to go back to the Philippines to apply for the correct visa because they do not process work permits but the German Embassy in Manila. But we were lucky that it happened in 2013, when a new law was passed that all medical workers are exempted from this rule, that he can get his own visa in Germany. The problem was that no one knows about the new law. We emailed the German embassy in Manila, they never replied. We went to the Auslaenderamt 2 months after the law was passed but nobody there knows about this new law. We explained to them the new law. We brought all the documents. We even asked a German to talk to them. No, they really insisted that we go back to the Philippines to get a visa. But he was lucky to find an employer who told him that he will take care of it. He knows the law because he’s hiring nurses regularly. Finally, the personnel at the Auslaenderamt, when they finally figured it out, they told him that he’s the first nurse in the entire Goettingen to have been given this visa under the new law…But now that we moved to Bonn, and he was unemployed when we moved, the Auslaenderamt in Bonn told us that it is better that his visa is connected to my visa because I was employed and he is unemployed. But after 1 month, he got a job. Clinics call him 5 minutes after he sends his application! But his visa is still connected to my visa. It depends on whether my work contract will be renewed, and I have to renew it every year, together with my work permit. Such a hassle. And if my contract is not renewed, he has to get his own visa.

Multinational consulting takes care of it There were people who took care of the requirements for the visa extension for me. It was an external contractor who specializes on this. I didn't have to fall in line in government offices. Well except when I had to be physically present to renew my Visa but there was someone with me who took care of everything. I just have to show up. That's the only time I had to go to the Alien Office. They treat us well. I don't have to worry about this. All costs are paid by the company.

Social support and feeling of belongingness

Filipino communities do not function as support group I don’t have many Filipino friends in Berlin.

Support group but not cannot relate professionally I only know a Facebook group and that only tells me what is happening in Berlin. I have Filipino friends here but their work as Putzfrau (cleaner), also putting petroleum on old people. It’s difficult to find Filipinos who have the same educational level that I’m trying to achieve. The Filipinos I talk to, they cannot connect to my topics... Also, I went to the churches here where the Filipinos are, but I didn't like it. It's so different from the Philippines. I was active in church in the Philippines and then here, the Filipinos who attend the church, they talk behind each other's backs so I decided not to go anymore.

Filipino communities helped in social adjustment The Filipino community helped a lot in terms of social support and in terms of social adjustment. I meet them 2-3 times a year. A few members [of the UPAA] I frequently contact by phone to ask them about Filipino recipes or Filipino restaurants in Berlin when I miss eating Filipino dishes. Sometimes I would fly from here to Berlin just to eat Filipino food.

Well we have FSAAG which is a Facebook group *laughs*. Well we also have here in Munich a smaller, slightly more tight...a journal club, called PUMA called Philippine....I don't know what it stands for...but it's Filipinos researchers or former researchers based in Munich and this is a mailing list run by a Filipino Academic, whom you might know. So he's a professor at LMU, or he used to be a professor of Physics at LMU but now he's retired and he regularly organizes seminars for Filipinos researchers or former researchers based in Munich.

Filipinos are my support group. That's why when I first arrived here, I really searched for Filipinos. When you meet a good contact, you will get information. Like, here you can buy cheap things here, you should go here for travels, etc. So when I met a few Filipino students, I learned a lot promos. Of course it's easier to communicate with them, and it's good to meet and gather and eat together. You know the

usual Filipino activities. Professionally, I did not go to them to ask for career advice. Actually, it was the other way around. They approach me to ask if I know any openings. Their role for me in my life is really as my support group. My community. I think for me, the reason why I cannot benefit from the professional networking among Filipinos is because my field is different from their field, which is mostly in forestry, agriculture…there’s one in microbiology but it’s still different. Internationale Begegnungszentrum (IBZ) funded Philippine country presentation I met this group of 20-30 Filipinos from time to time and they played Bingo on Friday nights so that was my break in a sense. I joined…this Filipino people were aged 50 and above. So … nurses who came in the 1970s and their husbands, sons, and daughters… so I joined their group, we meet every Friday….the organization was connected to the IBZ. At one point this organization requested this group to create a Filipino cultural night and I had to help them make some presentations.

Filipino community was cure for homesickness Of course, their role was to cure my homesickness in a sense because you can speak with them in Tagalog. There are also some things which you can ask the Filipinos which you cannot easily ask other nationalities. Like there was this one time I was changing apartments, I had to ask a Filipino to store all my things their basement. These are personal favors which you know you can ask of Filipinos.

University friends I kept in contact with all my university friends... I am still in contact with some of my professors and occasionally meet them.

Work colleagues I am fortunate to have a good relationship with people from work. They became my close friends and also my support system.

Family in Germany My sister was in Bonn [when I moved to Germany]. That was very important. If I needed something, I just needed to communicate it to her and she would help me….She didn’t know I was applying [for a degree in Germany] and I also didn’t know that she will be in Germany during this time!

University of the Philippines Alumni Association assisted and provided orientation booklet The first thing I did after arriving is to register myself at the Philippine embassy in Berlin which was suggested by persons at the UP PGH. After I did that, they helped me get in touch with UPAA. They were my first Filipino contacts…. The help was relatively small. They only started sometime in 2009 or 2010, this group of UP alumni, they published an orientation booklet for Filipinos in Germany

(http://projects.upaagermany.org/projects-germany-orient-2016.html) which I find very very helpful. They hold meetings at least twice a year sometimes in Berlin, sometimes somewhere in Baden Württemberg. It is very helpful, you get to receive tips, information about whatever. I could say it has helped me a lot. Filipino community in Bonn is big The Filipino community in Bonn is big. This is one of the reasons why I came to love Bonn. It became my second home… I didn't even know that there are a lot of Filipinos in Bonn. During my first day at the International Organization, there was a Filipino who approached me and invited me to go gatherings. Two years ago, the International Organization released a statistics of the nationality representation in the organization. During that time, the Filipino community in International Organization Bonn was the biggest population. Now, it's the Indians. They put a cap recently. Now we are fewer because some already retired.

Filipino organization raises funds for a school in the Philippines I am a member of Knights of Rizal. It's like Knights of Columbus. Your role model is Rizal. I'm still active. It has a strict membership, limited only to professionals. You have to be a Filipino or a foreigner with a Filipino spouse, so we have Germans also. We have fundraising events, we support a school in Ormoc, all the proceeds go to that.

Musical clubs organized initially through Facebook became a support group Folk Club Bonn, I am also a member. That's where I channel my musical talent. The founders of that club are Brits so we speak English. German members are also speaking English and sing English songs. Every first Friday of the month we always perform. I sing and play the guitar. It's an open mic event but without the mic. The program is in the lobby of a hotel, so it's purely acoustic…I found out about this group on the internet. There was a Facebook page where I joined, we were all Oasis fans. There were a lot of us who are in Germany, but majority are Brits. In 2013, we decided to organize a programme in London for Oasis fans and we decided to have an open mic…I joined, I met people, they are now my long-time friends. I travel to London to meet them for events. It's once a year… One of the members, he told me that he has basking in his bucket list. I told him, we could do that in Cologne. Let's go to a place where nobody knows you. So he said I'll go to you there in Germany [from the UK], then he asked me to find a place for basking and open mic. It’s better to do this in Cologne because it’s free. The rule is that you can only stay in one place for 30 minutes and there are certain areas where you cannot do it. We did that. We played music on the street. Here in Bonn, it's stricter. You have to pay 10 euros for 2 days

http://projects.upaagermany.org/projects-germany-orient-2016.html

just to play, then 30-minute limitation per place. The pressure is greater because you have to at least get 5 euros per day to pay the fee. We are organizing a campaign to abolish this fee. You can also dance. Not just sing. You can perform anything.

Adjustment struggles Being alone in winter without friends while studying is difficult I don’t have a problem with the language but with being alone in winter, not having friends and being pressured by the programme. It is very competitive and difficult. It is fine…but the lack of support…I don’t have friends and I didn’t have anyone and then it is winter. It is 4 pm and then it gets dark.

Getting married Discouraged to get married in Germany and was told to go to Las Vegas or Denmark My level is very basic, like A1. I am doing A2 now. When I got married, we had to go to the KVR again and this is part of living here, I didn’t expect to get married here. When we got there, I didn’t speak German. It was like very discouraging, if you don’t know German, they discourage people getting married between people from Germany and developing countries like the Philippines obviously. They compare it to countries like Thailand which they don’t trust because they are corrupt and don’t consider the papers coming from us. The person we talked to told my husband, when I was there for like two or three times, the person was only talking to my husband which was very discouraging to me. I don’t know if they didn’t talk to me because they don’t speak English or … you see discouraging is an understatement. I feel like I was left behind, German as language and then to be looked at like a person from developing country who tries to get married to get a visa. It is very discriminating… they require a lot of papers and like for example all my addresses since I was 15 and pictures, and the worst case, they said in the worst case, they will hire a private investigator, just to investigate my background! The person told us, if we really want to get married, we can go to Las Vegas or Denmark because there is a loophole, which was for me very very … appalling. Because maybe most females, I am just thinking, they think it is mail-order bride. They didn’t even look at my qualifications. I had a good career for ten years now. I can always…always quit my study if I want to and go back to my work. It is like a study leave. That was a bit difficult...a diversion, it wasn’t light or easy for me. They said it is not good if you want to get married in Germany. You have to pay a lot. But I didn’t go to the Philippine embassy because it didn’t really occur to me.

Find a school for child Almost gave up, pack up, and leave the city because of difficulty of finding a school for son When we were in Goettingen, there was a school near our housing. Since were in the university, it was not difficult because there was a special class for foreigners, which our son attended for 1 semester to learn German before he transferred to a regular school. But transferring to a new school in Bonn was

difficult because the rules are different by state. Maybe it was also because there was a shortage of teachers in Bonn last year. So the problem was that every state has a Dritte Fremdsprache (third foreign language) requirement and our son studied German, English and Spanish in Goettingen. When we moved to Bonn, it’s French and not Spanish. I contacted more than a dozen schools and they all rejected my son because he did not take French as his Dritte Fremdsprache. They told us this is up to the school to accept. Every school passed us to another school which all rejected my son because he is an incoming 8th grade. Finally, I decided to ask for help from our HR because I cannot do this alone anymore. They told us to contact the Bezirksregierung (district council) of North-Rhein-Westphalia. We learned that there is a law that a child has to be in school and we can complain after 3 rejections. I reached 13! We were willing to transfer to Cologne or go back to Goettingen just to find a school for our son. Two weeks after we complained, we have not received any news until a school contacted us telling us that they are admitting our son. They still told us that there is a rule about the Dritte Fremdsprache and he is missing a subject but that they are admitting our son because they have been instructed by the district council. Now he’s taking extra classes in Physics and Chemistry to substitute for the French classes which he cannot take We even thought of bringing our son to the International School but it was very expensive! 2,000 euros per month! They said they are willing to offer a 50% discount but that’s still too much for a local salary. In our company, school fees are subsidized only for expats, so their children could study at the International School.

Professional networking and personal development in Germany

Attending conferences I meet people in conferences. We have same interests. It is quite nice….I also attend meet ups [through www.meetup.com].

Volunteering I volunteer at a refugee center. I am not officially registered but I volunteer.

Joining professional associations in Germany I joined the Marbuger Bund which is a big organization of doctors. But I do not hold any position. I am a member of the UP Medical Association, in the sense that I am paying the membership dues.

I am part of this European society [of physical scientists] indirectly as an employee of my institute and also part of another society, so another field so I’m part of these two societies.

http://www.meetup.com/

I am a member of VDI (Association of German Engineers). But I don't attend meetings because I still don't feel like networking with them. But I registered in this event about women support, women empowerment, in Hannover, and then in Bonn, so now I am starting to go out. For the past 6 years, I did not join any organization. I didn't want to go out before because I have a little child. Even if I find a network, it's not possible to meet them after that. But soon, I will be done with my studies, then I will open a business, so I really should network. But in my Weiterbildung (further training), we are all women. The theme was Greet and Meet, I still have contacts with my classmates. We speak German. My Weiterbildung is in German.

I am a member of Forum for International Health. I am a member of the Board. Qualifications to join a German association was high and need to pay a fee There were German associations but I was not qualified to join. Usually, it’s only for professors. Also, I will have to pay a fee. So even if I were qualified, if I have to pay a fee, I will not join.

Connecting Philippine networks and German networks I have more professional networks in the Philippines. We are so few here in my field. There are more of us in the Philippines. In fact, we link the people in Munich to the networks in the Philippines. We bring them there. This year we are going to bring one German professor to the Philippines.

Keeping in touch with networks in home country Philippines

Communicating with family and friends in the Philippines I was in the Philippines two days ago. I met my friends from high school. We have been friends for 16 years. With professional or political organizations… I don’t have any in the Philippines.

I chat with my friends everyday over Viber and Skype. I call my family once a week. I think…I don’t keep in contact with my organizations in the Philippines, well, I connect through email.

I use to call my family often before. Now, we got lazy.

I chat with my work colleagues in the Philippines everyday through our internal chat.

Work culture Working in Germany for 40-45 hours per week versus in the US of 70-80 hours for doctors The training program for internal medicine or neurology is for 5 to 6 years in Germany. It’s mandatory. In the US, it’s like the Philippines, they require only 3 years for internal medicine and then after that you get to choose your next steps, for example cardiology only for 2 years. It’s longer here because it’s not intensive. For example, here, we only work for 40-45 hours per week maximum, but in the US or in the Philippines, we work for 70-80 hours per week. I prefer this longer route.

Appendix G: Factors affecting participants’ motivation to stay in Germany

Factors affecting participants’ motivation to stay in Germany Factors Quotes/Respondents’ Answers Job Opportunities Berlin as Start-up Hub

I am attracted to the Berlin Startup scene because it is thriving. You meet a lot of people. There are no hierarchies in the companies. Most of the time, the CEOs are very approachable. They really encourage knowledge sharing. Employer offered a full-time position after graduation When they [IT employer] learned that I am actually about to graduate from my degree, the company offered me a full-time position. I just took it. Research opportunities with the right collaborators Canada has been considered. I also have some family in Canada. But I don’t like the cold. I am not closing my doors to Canada, but I don’t prefer to. I think migrating there is much easier than to other English speaking countries. Saudi Arabia has been considered, I have a lot of friends there. There are a lot of research opportunities in Saudi Arabia for example for physical scientists like myself. But I don’t consider it very strongly, I think. Because the environment there is not as good as in US or Europe or Australia to do research…Saudi Arabia has the funding but there are not enough people to make research a worthwhile thing. It is not as well located and well connected as other places. Whereas when you are in Italy [or Germany], you get ideas from all over Europe. You are directly participating in the research community. So that’s good. If you are going to the US, even if you only look at the US research environment, it is already quiet huge. You have a few possible corroborators there. Of course you could argue, that research is international anyway, so you don’t need to be in these say clusters to really do research but I think it is important that you are geographically located in these clusters.

Absence of assistant professorship positions in universities [The question is] not only to attract people like me but also to attract Germans [to stay in Germany]. To stay in the system, you need habilitation at some point. That is quiet a big barrier for young scientists. Only few people try to go through that path, it takes you years to get the habilitation and even if you get it, it doesn’t guarantee you a permanent position in the end. There are some non-habilitated permanent positions in Germany, but they are not so many at research institutes. There are not so many you can’t count on them having opening. So Germany is attractive to start with, to initiate your research career but not a place to stay longer. [What can make me stay?] I don’t know. It is also true that you don’t need so many professors. The German system is very hierarchical. The US system for example has a professor and an associate professor. In Germany only professors. Either you make it and you are good for life or you don’t make it. [But if this could be changed, like have an assistant professorship like in the US], that would severely change my decision-making, not only for myself but also for other scientists. I am now looking for a more long-term position that can offer stability for the family, anywhere in the world. I am currently doing my rounds of postdoc fellowships in Germany, but we could see ourselves going back to the Philippines, eventually. I haven’t really thought of leaving my job or Germany because I'm really ok at my present job now. I also talked to my boss, he said he could extend my contract until 2017. There's a policy in the company that if I stay abroad for 3 years, they have to change my contract to the local contract in Germany. [Will I accept it?] Well it depends on the role they will give me. I noticed that Germans, they stay in their current roles for a long time. I'm young. I don't want to feel stuck. I want professional growth. If that's present, I would consider it.

Physical Mobility Mobility One thing I can compare to Manila is the mobility. You can just move around the city just very easily.

Impressions Fitting in the city I came to the city at an impressionable age—young but not too young so not to be scared….My life in Berlin is pretty comfortable and I never considered leaving the city.

Family considerations Germany is not a place for parents I don’t want to bring my parents here….It would just interrupt [their lifestyle]. When I think about their medical treatment, in the Philippines, if you have an ailment, you just go to the ER (emergency room) and you get a treatment. Here, they will turn you away because your case does not qualify for the ER. You might have to wait for two weeks. The public system here in Germany would not work well for my parents. Also the language itself and the culture. Germans as not as hospitable as Filipinos. Parents are old to move to another country My parents are old. They are comfortable where they are now. I think they also don’t like to move. But I thought about bringing them here because I felt guilty not being with them. Parents are retired but would want sisters to study in Germany My family is fine in the Philippines. My father is retired; my parents are just busy with the farm. Germany is nothing they could enjoy living in. Maybe my younger sisters… I would not bring them… but I would give them the opportunity to study or work here. That’s want I am open to. Contract is renewable and not stable, it will be difficult to bring mom in Germany I don't have a family so I'm more mobile. In 2014, my mom and sister went here for a vacation. Maybe it's possible to bring them here but it's more difficult because you know in the International Organization, we are fixed term contract-based. It's difficult to decide for a longer term. For example, if I bring [my mom or sister] here, and then the International Organization says that my contract will not be extended, I still have support them, that's difficult because of course I have to support them until they can adjust here. So until I find stability in Germany... Family (husband) is only reason why staying in Germany I didn’t plan to migrate for good. I didn’t plan to stay here in the first place. But I have my family here. My husband is here. My parents and my siblings, they are all in the Philippines and I’m the only one outside of the country. My husband is the only reason why I’m still here. Not because of work. After my graduation, my professor told me to go out of Germany if I want to learn more. That’s when I went to the UK to teach. Had I not married a German, I would be in the Philippines now. But I will go home. I hold on to that but it depends not only on me but my husband. If he finds an opportunity in

the Philippines, while still working, then we will migrate there until retirement. If not....I will...stay here. Make the most of my stay here. The plan to go back to the Philippines will be pushed until after my husband retires. He's not movable. I'm movable because of the type of work that I have. Bring family only as tourists but not as immigrants If there's an opportunity and money, I will bring them [parents and siblings] here as tourists but not as immigrants. It crossed my mind to be an immigrant here but I need to learn German. Met a person to be spend life with I'm considering going back to the Philippines. I just went home lately, I really felt I'm missing UP, it's so convenient and a comfortable place to work. But I have to admit, it [my decision] already changed, I changed my decision. It's a corny reason perhaps...but...I met someone in Germany who made my heart skip a beat. He's German. I met him in 2013. Now, he's the major reason why I'm still here. Because you know, even if everything is great here in Germany, there's no traffic, the air is clean, but at the end of the day, you still want to go to a place where you feel that your life has a meaning for society. So you know...if I did not meet anyone like him who could make me go back to Germany, I would be in the Philippines now. But I guess now it's the primary reason why I'm back here because I found this kind of person who I realized I could spend my life with. I really thought about it. I asked myself if I can still find another person like him. I really asked questions. Would I take a chance? I really thought about it. Then your decisions just hinged on where this person is… I still haven’t really digested that I made a decision. But we already talked about it. He said that he would be open to moving to the Philippines. The thing is, we are trying to do this project with the Philippine institutions, with my university in Germany and the research institutions in the Philippines. The dream job is that I will be employed here to work with the Philippine research institutes. I'm waiting for this to happen. If this is not going to work, I will have to really find an alternative. I had a meeting in January, my proposal will be done by the end of March. But then after submission, I will wait for 6 months for the decision. I am not looking for a job now because, well, I don't feel like it yet. Because if I apply for something, like a postdoc, that will be for 2 years or so. I don't think I could commit to anything like that because I'm still waiting for this project to push through. If I will look for a job, I'd look for something which is like for 1 year or 6 months so I have something to do while waiting. And to not starve… In the long term, I will really go back because....it's happier in the Philippines. It's more comfortable. My family will not like winter.

They are also happy in the Philippines. I mean they should decide for themselves if they want to go here and I will not decide for them. Ideally, I really want to go back. So I will bring this guy I'm currently holding hands with to the Philippines. He has not been there yet.

Language Plans to move to an English-speaking country Frankly, it is OK [to live in Germany]. We are also trying to move to New Zealand. The only thing stopping us from doing it is the parents of my husband because they are older and they need more assistance as they grow older. I probably understand that, and it is fine with me but given the chance, I would also… for me… it would it be would be easier to move to an English-speaking country. There is also Geoscience there. Personal preference… I will choose an English-speaking country. The language barrier is not there so it's easier. Germany....yeah maybe it's possible for me. Maybe it could work…I thought of going to the US. Or at least just go outside of the Philippines because I really want to know how to live independently. So when this opportunity came up, I took it. But I only thought of the US. Actually, before I was offered by the company to go the US because there was a client who needs my skills but the client declined my application because I was too young at that time so they thought I need more experience.

Happiness and Work-Life Balance Not happy in Germany I just realized this lately…really just recently…I am not happy. I am not happy here. My parents…they are getting older. All of my siblings, we are all outside of the Philippines…My priority is to find a job in the Philippines…I can only think of staying in Germany if I don’t find a job in the Philippines. Right now, I just want to finish my PhD and then go home. Europe has work-life balance than the US but Australia is a good midway Europe has good benefits and work-life-balance, best of countries maybe. But I shift to the US, I don’t know if I will get the same holidays that I get here in Germany. And not to mention that science in research is in general very good in the US, but they have also more competition. I don’t know if that appeals me, the culture of intense competition and getting tenure and crunching as much output as you can. I don’t know if I can subscribe to that. Holidays and intense spirit of competition. Australia is kind of a good midway between Europe and US. You get less holidays than in Germany but not bad like 25 days, if you work in government you get more.

Life in Germany is better than life in the US When we were in the US, my wife was a student. I was a nurse assistant and I had two other jobs. We were still not able to make ends meet. We also didn’t have an insurance. In Germany, while my salary [as a nurse] is determined by state laws and is low compared to US levels, you can live with dignity with a part-time job. I like it here because my wife found a job here. She has a job, I have a job, we have more family time here, we are satisfied, It’s unheard of to have multiple jobs in Germany, unlike in the US. Here, even if I’m on-call on weekends, I am not stressed at all. My life is good here. I’m relaxed at work. I have vacations. I have Pause (breaks). I can take my vacation leaves. That was unheard of in the US. Everyone was just working. You resent taking a vacation because every break is money not earned. You get your holiday differential, night shift, work unimaginable times, and you get a lot of money. I just don’t earn as much here because there is a salary cap. But because there is a salary cap, you don’t work too many hours here. I regularly take an Urlaub (vacation). I can retire here. But if my wife wants to go back to the Philippines, I will join her. Her career is more important than mine. She earned her PhD! That’s why I took nursing. So I could always be with her…I don’t aim to be promoted at my current job in Germany. Being a nurse manager means you have to take care of a lot of paperwork in German, and I am not a native German speaker. Besides, I prefer to be more hands-on with patient work. Lifestyle improved in Germany At first I didn’t’ like Germany. I asked myself if I made the right decision. After some time, I appreciated it more. In the US, we were more stressed. I didn’t have time to exercise. Here, we don’t do anything on Sundays. We are more laid-back here. I started to treasure my downtime, a time to do nothing. For me this is healthy. Our lifestyle has changed. We have time to exercise and live a healthy lifestyle. Company’s office in Germany treat its employers better than its office in the Philippines I want to stay in the company’s office in Germany. I like the way they treat their employees. The hours are limited, like 8 hours only and not 9 hours. In the Philippines, I have to do overtime work. There's work-life balance here. It's more important to me. If I could have my current salary, then I have work-life balance, I would want that. The culture is different here…If I say goodbye after work hours, they say goodbye back. In the Philippines, you say goodbye, they ask you, "you are going home already?"

Weather Live in a warmer place I don’t want to go to Canada nor the US. Or stay here. I want to live in a warm place…Sometimes I ask myself, why am I making myself suffer in this cold place? The climate has an appeal because Australia has a much better climate than Germany. At least better than northern Europe which is not bad but I prefer to grow older in a place with more sun.

Sense of advocacy in the society Different perspectives from developing countries I tried to find similar involvements I had in the Philippines here in Germany. For instance, I tried looking for environmental organizations. Mostly, they are hippie groups, different causes. There is a gap in the social awareness. They do not understand how poor people think because they do not have them here…in a way that limits their grasp of the real issues. They are not involved in global issues…well that has improved recently but you can really see the gap in their understanding. I want to talk to people who can understand these issues and it is rather difficult here.

Friendship with Germans More connected with Filipino friends than with German friends It is not easy making friends with Germans [after being here for a long time]. I still feel that I am still more connected with the friends I left behind in the Philippines. I miss having friends. Here, you cannot just be spontaneous with people to go somewhere or do something. Germany cannot really do anything about that. It’s the way they are.

Clear goals in life Temporary stay in Germany from the beginning My objectives here are very clear. Temporary period for training and graduate studies. And foreign language.

Contractual obligations in the Philippines

Contract with the University to go back I went home because I had a contractual obligation at the UP Diliman. I really had to go home… I was on leave with pay in UP when I went to Germany, so when you’re on leave with pay, part of the contracts says that you have to return to UP. For example, I stayed in Germany for 4 years. Under my contract, I cannot leave UP twice of that number of years. I also want to go back because my family is in the Philippines. I also have personal reasons. I want to help in improving mathematics in the Philippines.

Pension Pension might not be enough to support me but I will stay if I get a permanent residence not tied to my work contract I will stay here to work longer. Retirement, definitely in the Philippines. Cost of living here is high. My pension, I don't know if that would be enough to cover my retirement here. In the Philippines, if I want a simple lifestyle, my pension can cover everything, especially if I live in my province… But I still consider going to Australia as my last frontier before retirement. They’re looking for IT professionals also. I am adventurer. I want to know the lifestyle there. I have tried being in the US and I know the lifestyle there. I like Europe's lifestyle more, it's more laid-back. The people here know what are the essentials in life, and it's not consumerism. The focus here is friends, family, and not just work, work, work. When I was in the US, I met people who had 2 to 3 jobs. It feels like you are only living to work. You have more potential to earn more in the US but here you get work-life balance…I will stay in Germany if they give a permanent residence without being tied to my work contract. That’s number 1. Number 2, if they allow dual passport. I don't want to give up my Philippine passport. But even if I change my citizenship to German, I still want to retire in the Philippines… If I get a residence permit not tied to my work contract, then maybe I would look for a job in companies in Germany.

Progress in research field in Germany

Public health programmes in Germany are not strong To be honest, public health [as a research field] in Germany is not that strong. The programmes in the Philippines are better. It’s not their ‘forte’ here. It just happened that they have the advanced programmes. But their basic programmes? Actually in Berlin, they only have one Bachelor’s then two Master’s. There is Berlin School of Public Health but it is unlike the universities back home. They also have Heidelberg and Munich, but even my professor, he told me if you want to learn more, go out. Not here. Like most Germans, after they studied here, they studied in the UK or US to get more experience of what they learned from the universities. I’m really searching for good programmes. There are quite a few known school like the London School of Hygiene. My professors from way back, that’s where they went.

Appendix H: Perception of participants as to what Germany can do better to attract highly qualified individuals

Perception as to to what Germany can do better to attract highly qualified individuals Activity/Aspect Quotes/Respondents’ Answers Work packages Make work packages more attractive

It is not only about a competitive salary but also the work environment, not too hectic. Do not overwork developers, offer them a lot of flexibility. Surprisingly, [my salary in Germany] it’s not that big. But also you should note that when I was in Italy, I was also funded by an EU project so that was a fellowship so what I was receiving from the fellowship was slightly higher than the Italian average, from the Italian universities. So that actually made a difference. Had I been funded in the Italian system, I would get less money. Then my German fellowship would make a difference. King Abdullah University of Science and Technology offers good assistant professorship positions KAUST, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (http://www.kaust.edu.sa/), they offer very good assistant professorship positions to people from Western backgrounds so that they reach their threshold, their critical mass, to attract more of them… naturally. They attract both the young and the more established ones with part-time professorships. These are very attractive from my perspective, the young scientist. In Germany, you are a ‘slave’ because of the hierarchical system, for most of the time. You are being directed by someone who is a professor or who is habilitated. But in the US or Saudi Arabia they give you an assistant professorship where you can do whatever you want.

Visa process Make visa process easier It is too much of a bureaucratic hassle to go through. If you are an entry-level developer and you do not meet the EU blue card requirements, you have to go through the hoops, unless you are an EU citizen. Then, even for highly qualified professionals, when they come to Berlin, they are not offered the most lucrative deals. The limit is 43,000 euros per year and you are a mid-level developer coming to Berlin, that is not standard, that is on the low side, and then you still have the limitation by the blue card….but it’s better in other parts of Germany, like Munich…you could get up to 60,000 euros.

http://www.kaust.edu.sa/

Spouse visa being renewed every year is discouraging It is difficult to get a visa in Germany. For example, I got an extension, only until for when my passport expires, and I don’t know what I will get after. And it is very uncertain what I will get then, maybe a year. And personally, I don’t like idea that I am ... that they are always checking me. Are you still married? Ok, you get a visa. The treatment… just because I got married, I was mandated to do the integratory course ... it’s like some for refugees and for wives of German citizens, I guess. And, in the beginning it was ok with me but then I realized, the people who are there are not university graduates. I feel like I am discriminated against, I have my degree here from a university in Germany for two years and then I was asked to do the integration course but I am already integrated here. Other wives of Germans, like a friend I know from New York, they didn’t have to do this. But just because I am from a developing country, I was put there, because I am passport holder of this and that, I was put there, regardless of my qualifications.

Perceptions about immigration countries and migration motivations

Improve perception of IT professionals about working in Germany At least for my friends in the Philippines [it is a perception problem]. And I also get a sense that maybe Germany is not looking outside of the EU because it is much easier to recruit people from Spain, Portugal or Italy. They wouldn’t have a visa problem. But it really depends…I also met so many eastern Europeans and Russian developers in Berlin… Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector in the Philippines pays IT professionals well I think [the BPOs in the Philippines] that’s part of [the reason why they are not leaving]. I can tell you that my friends who work in IT in the Philippines live in quite cushy lives so they would not consider leaving the country because they don’t need to. They are employed in big companies like HP, Accenture, BMG. In a lot of startups, they also try to outsource some of the tasks there. A lot of them are Filipinos, who they outsource it to. Maybe that’s why they are not moving out, because the job is sent to them. Filipinos go to the Middle East because of networks It’s because of networks, the more people there are, the more people have testimonies on how it is there. It’s more like word of mouth … because Filipinos are more like relational. … and it is so seldom to hear a friend who has a friend who is in Germany. So that’s probably one of the reasons.

I have friends in the Middle East and they told me that the Filipino community is so big there. Even if you don't speak Arabic, you will not feel lost. You kind of feel that you will survive because there are other Filipinos there…Network is important. You need security, something to hold on to, that other people, Filipinos, they were able to make it. If there are more Filipinos who made it, who can tell you that they are actually receiving salaries, it will make you feel more courageous. If only Filipinos here in Germany can increase and then organize to help Filipinos because of the language barrier, I'm certain that there will be more Filipinos coming here. Filipinos go to the Middle East because of the demand and competitive advantage of Filipinos I think Filipinos go the [Saudi] because of the demand. Since the Europeans and the Americans are less likely to move there, Filipinos will have better chances of competing so they go there. In Germany, the demand is big, sure, but there are so many universities in Germany specializing in Math, so many PhD graduates too. I know Germans who finished their PhDs and did their ‘habilitation’ but still have a difficulty finding jobs. What more for Filipinos? Germany has a rich academic setting; they have an oversupply of academics. Unless you are extremely good [and popular among the network], you have a slimmer chance of getting into German universities… If I will be offered a position in Saudi, I will get it, if the money is right, and the conditions are present—you have a research grant, you have travel allowance…sure why not. I will try it for a few years. If there’s a cultural clash…in the academic field, I can always go back home. There is also a big demand in the Philippines, especially if you have a PhD in Math. I can ignore death penalty being imposed in the Middle East if the money is right. Changing citizenship or acquiring permanent residence is easier in other developed countries than in Germany Sometimes I think about changing citizenships just to make my life easier. The Philippine embassy in Germany is such a headache. But if you compare how easy it is to change citizenships or to get permanent residence in Australia or Canada, it takes you only 1 year or 3 years. They are not even highly qualified individuals. My friend, he’s is doing manual labour in Canada. I think he only waited for a year or so and then he got a permanent residence. Then another year I think, then he became a Canadian citizen. Something like that. They didn’t bring up the costs. They brought up only the number of years of waiting. Well, they only told me their stories. My perception is that it’s easier in these other countries than in Germany.

Father worked in the Middle East and found it very difficult I did not consider going to the Middle East. My dad worked there before and he told me that his life there was very difficult. This is why I studied hard, so that I don't have to leave the Philippines to find a good job. Although recently, the Engineers I know go to Singapore, Japan, and the Middle East. Triple Win Nurses programme fails because it is not attractive for nurses to work in Germany The salary is a big factor. You arrive here with a license from the Philippines, but you will be starting as a nurse assistant. You receive 1,000 euros with taxes and this may not be reassuring for OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) who want to earn money to remit to the Philippines for their family. You have to bear this for one year while you wait for the recognition process. Our nurses are better skilled because we complete bachelor’s program and we take board exams. This one year that you have to wait to be recognized here in Germany, you could have earned a lot of more money in the US or UK! Let’s say you earn between 1,500 to 2,300 euros but that is gross income. You still have to pay for taxes and living costs. Perhaps it is higher compared to the Philippine salary of 8,000 pesos as an entry level nurse, but when they arrive here, they will feel deskilled and demoted because nursing is a vocational course. You know your salary will not increase because it’s mandated by state and connected to the level of education. I heard somewhere that Germany is going to change that, that there will be no differentiation on the types of nurses like Krankenpfleger (nurse for the sick), Alterpfleger (nurse for the elderly), Kindpfleger (nurse for kids). It will be a general licensed nurse for everyone. The Triple Win nurses has an advantage through. They provide you with German language courses, they facilitate your papers, register you at the Stadthaus (city hall), help you with translation. I had to go through all that at my own cost and effort. The language courses and the certified translations of documents are very expensive. Personally, the disadvantage of the Triple Win is that they require 2-year work experience. When I arrived here, I didn’t have work experience because after graduation in the Philippines, we already flew to the US. When I finally got my US license, we left for Germany where I tried to get the license again for 1 year and learn German. IT opportunities are good but Malaysian companies are doing well in poaching IT professionals from the Philippines The pay you get in the Philippines is ok. There are many opportunities in the Philippines. People go to Malaysia and Middle East because they know someone. In Malaysia, I know a lot of friends who

resigned from our company and then went to Malaysia to work. So in the beginning it was just one person, and then the next year, another person left for Malaysia. So 4 of my friends are there now. So it helps if you know someone who works there who could tell you that it's good pay, it's good to live there.

Recognition of qualifications Disconnect between the qualifications acquired in the Philippines and qualifications needed in Germany When I looked at the requirements of other universities in Germany, they don’t even consider a Bachelor’s degree from the Philippines being equivalent with a Bachelor’s degree from Germany. There is also that perception that maybe our education is not at par with the Germany university system.

Treatment of highly qualified individuals

Consider the qualifications of the person and not the passport he or she is holding First of all, look not just at the passport, just because this person is from the Philippines… all the discrimination against the person… but look at the qualifications. If the person went here and studied or had a good career in a multinational company, she should be given more benefits, they should stop this thinking that we are out to get social services here, because that is what I feel. Because I am from the Philippines and we are corrupt and we just lied to get here. I want them to look at the qualifications before. We are not just a number. Just not a random Filipino from the streets. I expect the treatment we deserve.

Information on opportunities and qualifications

No information provided on how we can stay They [DAAD] don’t really tell you that you can stay here after studying. The students have to seek out that information that in fact there is a possibility of staying here after graduation to look for a job. Germany needs to announce the opportunities for IT professionals in the Philippines As long as they say they are open to IT professionals. They just need to announce in the Philippines. Like when they announced about the nurses, there were a lot of nurses applying. There's always a surplus. It's not just a matter of attracting but promoting…Also they need to establish standards for eligibility. It could be perceived that what they’re doing is only for publicity but the hiring process is a farce. For example, did they create an examining body where IT professionals can take the exam to show they have the standard skills? They shouldn’t guess qualifications. If Filipinos can acquire those standards, then there will be people applying. The foreign language requirement, if that is required to get a job, then I will do it. Especially if you look at the call center industry, they are encouraged to learn foreign languages. Check Goethe Institut, Instituto Cervantes, Alliance, the enrolment rate tripled in the last years but that’s because there are call centers supporting this. If Germany will open its labor

market to Filipino IT, and they would require German, they need to announce where Filipinos can get foreign languages, institutes which certificates Germany will accept. They need to accredit institutes. More videos and promotion attracting IT professionals They lack promotion. I didn’t find an advertisement where it encourages IT professionals to apply in Germnay. I also looked for videos on foreigners like me telling her experience about living and working in Germany. I didn't find one. I want to know how it feels to work in Germany as a Filipino, I didn't really find these videos. Japan, US, Australia and Korea are attracting scholars from the Philippines better than Germany If I compare it to the efforts of Japan, US, Australia, and now Korea, in attracting scholars from the Philippines, I think these countries way way way better than Germany. Germany...you don't hear about their programmes. They don't advertise. I mean of course we know Germany because we buy our high-precision instruments from Germany but that's it. There was this German scientific cruise-ship gathering in the South China Sea, it was not as advertised as the cruise ship done by Japan or the US. I guess Germans communicate only to personal contacts. It's not systematic in a way that they talk to the institutes but more on talking to personal contacts. I know people who went to Germany only because of personal contacts, you know, they know the supervisor but their approach is not institutional, at least in the Philippines. But they are actually active in Thailand and Vietnam but not in the Philippines. So Filipinos go to the US, Canada...because they advertise. Germany advertises less.

Build network of doctors Connect with professional networks in the Philippines Germany could for example link directly with the university hospitals in the Philippines, directly with UP College of Medicine, or UST College of Medicine or UE, so that even before the medical students would graduate they would have the inkling “oh that’s a possible task for me”. Something like that. Or perhaps, realign with the Department of Health, something like that. Or with associations also.

Situation in the German academe Germans are also having problem find a job in the academe The problem with Germany is that, at least in Maths, it is extremely competitive. You won’t get a position at the university. I mean…the Germans, they also have a problem finding a job in the universities in Germany. If I want to teach, I will not apply in Germany but only perhaps in industrial settings, like insurance…yeah perhaps that would work in Germany. But my mind-set now is to have an

academic job. Germany is not the place. Canada and Australia perhaps, it’s easier to find a teaching job at the college level.

German Universities for Foreign Academics

Increase programmes or universities with English as medium of language Germany has a huge language barrier problem in the academe. For instance, if you want to become a professor, you have to get experience in teaching. In Germany, you have to teach in German. In Japan, there is one university where the entire graduate programmes are in English. This way, they attract foreigners to teach there and there is a path to get tenure at that university for foreigner professors.

German professors networking Networking with German academics improved In terms of networking, Germany is not bad. They’re getting out there. They’re available. Nowadays, when they send messages about research opportunities, it somehow arrives to the right people outside of Germany… To be honest, Germany is doing a good job in getting the right people. They’re good in networking in this field.

German scholarships Scholarships for similarly situated developing countries But of course if you are a Filipino, there is a disadvantage of being from a developing country. If you are competing with someone from the US, you are an underdog. One thing Germany can do, for example, is to create Postdoc scholarships for developing countries and we compete with each other. Alexander von Humboldt scholarship I think is doing this, there are 1-2 Postdoc positions for similarly situated developing countries. I think, Filipinos will have a hard time competing in Mathematics with people from developed countries. We have to catch up at some point. DAAD is doing better now than in 2007 I went to 1 or 2 scholarship fairs. They have an EU scholarship fair every year in a nice hotel [in Makati city]. The DAAD website is also very helpful. Throughout the years it has improved. In 2007, it was ugly. But now, it’s good. In terms of attracting scholars, Germany is doing a good job.

Philippine educational system 10-year educational system problematic in recognition procedures There is a problem of the two educational systems. [The Philippines] only has 10 years and that is a problem. At one point, Germany did not want to recognize my master’s degree from the Philippines. I was lucky to have started with some PhD subjects and I got a recommendation letter from my adviser. But other Filipinos, they will have a problem [with having only 10 years of education].

Perception of Germany’s policies Indian and Latin American engineers are being attracted by Germany I do not think Germany is trying to attract Filipino engineers to go here. India and Latin American engineers are the ones they are attracting to go move here. But you know we also don't know Germany. We only know the US. Exposure is what we need. So whenever I go back to the Philippines, when they ask if my son is American, and I say he's German, they comment like, "oh so he speaks English". Pressure to finish studies to get out of Germany What we actually feel is that they pressure you to finish your studies so you can get out of the country. Germany does not want foreigners to stay and Germans also experience similar problems as foreigners I actually don't think they [Germany] want foreigners to stay. I don't know. People here are very competent. They are all highly qualified. If they want to do that, I really think Germany knows how to do it but it's not convenient to stay here in Germany. They have a maximum period of 12 years of being in a university. If you don't have a tenure track, they kick you out. It's their problem. It's a project-based work. You change your projects so often. So of course if it's a project for 3-5 years, you are forced to move every so often. It's not something that could attract people like me. It's a problem among Germans, how more with foreigners? …[Maybe I would stay] if I could stay on a tenure track. Especially when I start a family. You would opt for an arrangement where you could stay in one place. So when you move, it's not because you're forced or you have to but only because you want to. If that policy would change...if it's stable...I don't know...because what if Germany's strategy is actually to move the 'cream of the crop' so that they don't only stay in one place? Let these excellent people move around in all the institutions, in all the cities. I mean look at Germany, there are no Ivy league schools because they make all schools good. There is no 'UP vs others' like in the Philippines. All the universities here are excellent. Maybe that's also because experts move around here so maybe by not concentrating your talents in one place you make other universities good too. I don't know....It's not an easy thing to solve. You have to be more agreeable to their policies, their economy. To deal with it...I prefer something stable now. Yeah...It's really hard. After 5 years, you think what now? If you have a family, your children don't stop growing after 5 years. How do you get a professor position? You go through the 'eye of a needle'.

Understanding of Germany of the Philippines

Germany has to understand the bandwagon mentality of Filipinos Another thing is the bandwagon mentality of Filipinos especially during the time of Marcos. You just need one person in the village who would go to Germany, and you can expect that people will follow. You know, my uncle worked in Saudi, he's an electrical engineering, and he’s already retired. He said that the competitive salary that was received by Filipinos in the past, it's lower now because of the Indians. Indians agree to half of the salary given to Filipinos. So he told me, it's not worth it anymore. Germany should know that Filipinos are willing to go out of the Philippines I think German [employers] have to accept that Filipinos speak English. But they also have to know that we are willing to go out of the country if we know the language so they should provide language support. Most of the people I know in the Middle East, they are civil engineers. They are there because there are just so many things being built there and there is no language requirement.

Philippine government authorities have a role to play too

POEA has a role to play I think our POEA (Philippine Overseas Employment Administration) has a role to play too. They only advertise Middle East jobs. They don't post openings in Germany. Well, they only post about the nurses’ jobs but not engineering. Philippine embassy should provide support to migrants They could at least help by having a list of certified translators and provide support to facilitate recognition of qualifications to skilled workers, especially since the number of Filipino students is increasing. There was a meeting before regarding the issue of master’s degrees in the Philippines not being recognized in Germany. [Interviewee also commented on adapting the mind-set of the employees at the Philippine embassy to the specific situations of the Filipinos in Germany; original quote was removed as per request]

German language German government cannot solve the language barrier Language barrier really plays a big role. But that is something that the German government cannot provide a solution to. Actually, I cannot think of any solution that the German government can do to solve the language barrier. If they want to attract highly skilled, they should provide recruitment support and this should start from the source country. They should provide support for German language in the Philippines, documents processing, although they do that somehow, but it's only specific to certain

programmes like nurses. They even send tutors for nurses to learn German. But they don't do that in other fields. You really wouldn’t easily find a job in Germany if the level of your German language skills is not ok. Unless you go to an international community like universities with international programmes and international organizations. I can understand the German government of course because of the costs and I know that it will not be accepted easily by the German society because they want to prioritize domestic issues and the locals. The government, even if they internationalize their government staff, you cannot really impose that on the people working in the government to speak English because the users of their services are largely Germans. Maybe they can introduce English at an earlier stage in the population so that the German population will be more bilingual. It will help to internationalize the country. That would break the communication barrier and that would encourage perhaps migrants to go to Germany because language is a big hurdle.

Influence of communities in the Philippines

Communities in the Philippines influence motivation to go to a certain country When we go to Lipa City, we see along the way a section where you find ‘Italian’ houses. The houses are big and beautiful. In that small town, most of the people there migrated to Italy. They call that place ‘Little Italy’. That is a big factor that influences one’s motivation to go to a certain country. That has not happened yet among Filipino migrants in Germany.

Appendix I: Table of suggestions from German experts

What Germany can do better in attracting highly qualified individuals according to the German experts Communicate our policies that Germany is an attractive place for highly qualified individuals

Expert 1: The official position would be: we have to market or to communicate our liberal policies so that people know about Germany being an attractive country for skilled and highly skilled people. And I think that’s the official government position. Personally, at least focussing on skilled migrants, not highly skilled, but on skilled migrants, I have the feeling that Germany has a very technocratic understanding of attracting certain migrants. Like, I am not perfectly familiar with the Filipino example. But they came up with the idea of attracting nurses in 2012/2013 and then they agreed on a certain number of 500 or 1000 which were allowed to come to Germany with a highly technocratic selection process and I don’t know if this is a framework which is attractive for foreign workers. I think … the numbers, it sounds like a pilot project and not like a skilled migrant policy. Very small scale. Expert 2: Germany needs to do a better job to talk about what has been done in the past in terms of the legal infrastructure. The OECD in 2013 summarized their report on Germany that Germany is now one of the most open countries. And they are absolutely right. I did my comparative of stuff on Germany and Canada. In some parts Canada is more liberal in other parts Germany is more liberal. So Germany is now on the same level as Canada when it comes to openness for third country nationals so the most important task for Germany right now is to do a better job in communicating what has already been achieved.

Avoid technocratic approach to migration

Expert 1: The official position would be: we have to market or to communicate our liberal policies so that people know about Germany being an attractive country for skilled and highly skilled people. And I think that’s the official government position. Personally, at least focussing on skilled migrants, not highly skilled, but on skilled migrants, I have the feeling that Germany has a very technocratic understanding of attracting certain migrants. Like, I am not perfectly familiar with the Filipino example. But they came up with the idea of attracting nurses in 2012/2013 and then they agreed on a certain number of 500 or 1000 which were allowed to come to Germany with a highly technocratic selection process and I don’t know if this is a framework which is attractive for foreign workers. I think … the numbers, it sounds like a pilot project and not like a skilled migrant policy. Very small scale.

Pilot a point system policy I mean you still have in Germany those discussions introducing certain criteria based point systems and I think they will introduce a pilot on this in Autumn this year. From my understanding many immigration countries move into a mix between supply and demand systems which like for Germany last year’s Canada was the role model and Canada moved into a mixed system between supply and demand side system and Germany would potentially move in a quite similar direction so not only focussing on or not anymore on the demand side of the German labour market but also on the demand side. We see similar hybrid policy frameworks in Germany like in Canada or other traditional immigration countries. Canada is using a point system and is perhaps a role model in that sense but then the US has a very bad immigration policy system, in a structured way, but in spite of its immigration policy it still attracts a lot of highly skilled or qualified workers. Do you think that adopting the point system would cure the former solution of Germany? No, it wouldn’t cure, it would be an additional framework. From my understanding, Canada is not only focussing on a point system, they have supply and demand side policies in place and in Germany a point system would not replace the framework we have in place right now but it would add to it.

Redefine role of embassies Expert 2: Germany traditionally did a very bad job in this regard. But now they do better. You might be familiar with the website makeitingermany.com – I think it is a pretty good website, very much influenced but the online information services of Canada and Australia and other classical immigration countries. Germany is now increasing starts to communicate virtually what it has to offer in the realm of immigration policy but Germany also starts to redefine the role of its embassies and other institutions abroad. They tended to stay away from immigration in the past, but now the embassies, the consulates and other institutions to start to understand themselves as ambassadors and information points for potential immigrations to Germany – but it is now only starting.

Decrease linguistic arrogance Expert 2: What is still visible in Germany, is linguistic arrogance, that is for sure, particularly in small and medium enterprises. I mean this linguistic arrogance means that employers have unrealistic expectations in terms of the proficiency of the German language. We all know that German is not the easiest language in the world but what reports increasingly told us in the past is that German employers increasingly report about labour shortages on the one hand, but on the other hand are not willing to hire persons who are not perfect in German. And that is a big problem. This would mean that part of your questions is that no, they are not ready yet. There are some companies which established English as a second company language maybe big multinational companies but mainly small and medium enterprises have this attitude that it is

only possible to come to Germany if you are fluent in German which is completely unrealistic because German is not the lingua franca in the world. We might regret that but it is how it is.

Employers have to do its part Expert 2: I don’t think … see what policy can do about that. That is the problem of the employers. Germany did a lot the government or policy actors did a lot in making the rules liberal and open. We can talk about international students who have now great opportunities to stay in the country and look for a job. 18 months after they graduate from the university. That is one of the most open and broad opportunities in the OECD world but I mean it is employers are not willing to hire persons without 100% fluency in the German language. This is their problem. I think policy or the government can’t do anything about it because it is up to the employers. I think, there is a nice German word, the ‘Leidensdruck’, the intensity of suffering is maybe a good translation [Comment: it actually means a pressure created by suffering]. If the pressure is to strong, reactions will follow. Before that, there is only suffering but no change], is not high enough for some employers. If the demographic development makes it increasingly more difficult to find the right persons, this attitude of linguistic arrogance might change in the future. But I don’t see something that the government can do about it. I was thinking about a policy by Merkel to actually bring German language schools to different countries in partnership with those countries. But do you agree with this? Perhaps bringing German language to other countries especially where labour supply would be high. Could that be a government policy? Well of course the Goethe Institutes are quiet active in this way to provide infrastructure to learn the German language. And I think the number of German learners worldwide increased in the last couple of years. But the problem is that it is hardly possible to learn German to a level which makes it acceptable for employers so far. It is really difficult to learn German, to speak it fluently. I mean this is the problem right now. We see the reluctance of employers right now who want to hire people who speak German but not fluently. But that’s the problem right now. I can understand that small and medium enterprises working in mechanical engineering would have severe problems in 100% changing its company policy from German to English. But I don’t think it would be a problem if this company would also accept persons who are not absolutely perfect in speaking German. I mean the infrastructure provided by Goethe Institute and other institutions for learning the language, fine. But it doesn’t solve the problem of this kind of high standards applied by German employers in terms of German language skills so far. You don’t think that it could be something that could be negotiated on the curriculum level, with the department of education for example? Would it be desirable?

What needs to be changed is the mind of the number of employers. Changing mind-sets can’t be dealt with in political terms. The employers must get aware of. I think the government can do a lot in making the country open and competitive but not in this regard, I see limited options. Expert 3: I think the most part of immigration for highly qualified persons is to strengthen the bridge between foreign students at the universities and moving into work places afterwards. It is the easiest yet most effective part I think.

Do not underestimate network effects

Expert 2: Absolutely, absolutely, and in this regard the embassies and also the other institutions working abroad come into play. This could be something that could work. I know from the American universities that most of those universities have branches abroad. The Ivy League universities have their offices in China and wherever because the university market is a big market but the German universities don’t. Maybe it is necessary to…maybe the network effect is underestimated and needs to become visible in these countries to create these kind of networks which are so important to shaping the migration decision. Expert 3: Immigration from European countries has taking place especially from Romania, Bulgaria and Poland – Germany was a bit reluctant with this migration. It put into practice within the treaties of the annexation that the labour migration from the new Eastern members will take place at the latest possible date so it started mainly after 2009/2010. And at that time the labour market situation was better than it was in 2000. And certainly the prioritize the EU. There are certain parts where they suspected they would be a need for labour migration like IT experts from India but it was never such a big project that it feed on itself. If you look at the Indian community in Germany, it is still rather small. It is far smaller than in Britain or even in the Arab countries. The influx is greater. It is very similar with Philippine immigration, there is not a big group in Germany. So it does not feed on itself. Whereas European immigration, there are larger groups within the country, they have infrastructure, they have networks, so it is feeding on itself. More important for the migration decision and the destination place of the migration is whether you have networks there.

Structural changes in entering the labour market

Expert 3: Enterprises are always interested in shortages being filled by large amount of people. They usually support immigration. It depends on the position if it is easily filled with immigrants. It depends of the kind of education the immigrants have. It depends on language knowledge. It depends on knowledge of how things are done here. So, usually it takes time that immigrants move into higher positions. You have these

phenomena in most of the countries. For example Canada had the policy of only immigrating highly qualified persons. They did not first in highly qualified positions, they first had to know how things are done. Usually, empirical evidence in Germany shows that the move towards higher positions is somewhat more dependent on the kind of certificate you need for it that is a bit more restrictive than in other countries like in Britain where you don’t have that vast area of certificates but if persons are in the positions in Germany as they usually work for similar wages and positions than the natives then there is a kind of structural work that has to be done not a cultural phenomenon.

Education policies and family policies are the most important

Expert 3: Migration is part of labour gap and demographic gap policy but it is only a part of it. What are the other policies? I already told you that for labour gaps always education policies are the most important thing. Most switches and mismatches of the labour market are part of the education policy and not of the immigration policy, it is just a small part of the larger picture. With the demographic gap it would be family policies and later on it would also be kind of adaptation policy to new situations of changing population growth. Immigrations is part of it but not the only one.

Promote cultural exchange Expert 3: I think the main object is more that there is a kind of exchange taking place. That is the important thing, the cultural exchange. I don’t believe in this simple logic of competition on high potentials and things like that. Because, it is very short sighted in perspective. It has no duration perspective of people move into places, people living in places like that.

Understand underlying reasons for migration

Expert 4: Yes, also people come to Europe for employment because they think it is better job or income. And very often they have already family members or friends here in Europe. So, yes that’s a lot of employment migration. So migration distinguishes between the different reasons for migration. Employment is an important one and education is another important one. Family reunion is another important. Family formation is another important one. Family formation means that they meet partners in another country. That are very different reasons for migration. And of course they are related because many people who migrate, for example for education, they stay on to get a job and that’s also some policies it is increasing the policy in Europe and has been in the United States for a long time, that people who studied in these countries, the best are asked or given a job and then the people are more likely to stay for a couple of years or for a long time. Expert 4: What I have seen is merely for employment and education for young people, so reunification is of course very limited. Some have of course, when people migrate for education then they stay, they of course

try to bring their partners to Europe. So, of course, family reunification is a consequence of the decision to stay after college, the university training. Because most people bring their, some people bring their partner but most people bring not.

Invest in the language of the host country

Expert 3: It is more dependent on the language and the certificates that you have. Language is an important part. It is usually most things are done in Germany in working language German. Most immigrants from India or PH don’t speak German or just at a basic level so they would not usually be able to start in the Germany firm, speaking German participating in all the exchanges in the firm. So they would have to learn languages. Expert 4: No, people should … who intend to stay in a country should invest in the language of the country. In many organisations including universities, English is becoming much more important. Because that attracts people and they know that these people only stay for a couple of years. For example the Max-Planck-Organization but also your organizations the Hertie School. English is a language which is used in day-to-day communication. So, but, if you would work in Hamburg university, in Berlin or Rostock university of course German is the language used because it is for the Germans. So if someone wants to become a professor either in Hamburg or in Rostock university or a senior researcher, then the person should invest in the language. Language is a major investment that people should make if they want to be mobile

Establish English hotspots Expert 4: So, therefore a person who finished a school, a Master’s level or even a PhD degree, and then let’s say moves to China and says, okay I am going to study Chinese – so you should study much earlier, that is why migration is extremely selective. And people who speak several languages have much more advantages. And I think Germany should preserve the German language, it should not shift everything to English but there should be Hotspots where is English is the main language, like the Hertie School. Because the Hertie School is more internationally oriented. A school very different from, let’s say other schools in the country and that’s fine in my view.

Bring jobs to where the labour is Expert 4: By the Blue Card, like the Green Card in the US. Second is, they will probably have in the future and already have now more joint ventures with companies in other countries such as being made in some countries, cars are no longer made in Germany, they are made in China or Brazil. And that is probably also, they will shift jobs to those countries where labour is available. And it is also occurring that many of our, most of our cloths are not made in Germany or Italy but in Bangladesh, in Vietnam and so on.

Provide correct information Expert 4: I think it is a big mistake to think that Canada, Europe and the US is milk and honey. Cause I think, I know people from UK and from Europe who went to the Middle East because they made much more money. And so they stay a couple of years or longer, that’s .. if you are a migrant before you go to Canada, US or Europe, you might have more income more salary, but also the cost of living is much higher. That means that the net benefit does not only depend on the salary level but also on the cost of living. By providing correct information and this is the only thing. Providing the correction information on the direct consequences, opportunities and constraints and for instance if Europe could say: okay, you have to speak the language, otherwise do not even think about migrating to Europe, it might be for your education, you do not need to speak the local language when you take some college education in Europe but if you are thinking about working in Europe you have to speak the language. Yes, there is brain drain, that is correct. What Europe can do to attract highly skilled people to provide clear information and to provide security. There is a lot of programs to attract highly skilled people and in our sector of academic research it is to attract the best students and to attract the best PhD candidates and the best post-docs. If a university or institute advertises for a position, it does not matter where that person comes from. If that person comes from Columbia or from Ghana, it does not really matter because this person will get that job if that person is very good. [????: 23:55-24:00] So then okay, very often this person becomes disappointed because first the information that they got is incomplete, that for instance that the taxes and security payments and so on .. so people pay for social security but only benefit if in certain criteria, people contribute to pension but they can only benefit, if they stay for at least five years in the country. Most positions are three years, so they don’t stay. I have several post-docs from India, from Bangladesh, from everywhere, and these people leave the country and lose a lot of money because this types of information should be available, but also the portability of this social security is extremely important. That people. their accumulation of rights of health insurance of social insurance should be clear and people should be able to take it when they leave. And that is not possible because social security is very much organized on the country basis. There are number of things, clear information and inform people very well about the lack of portability and then universities or institutes or businesses should be much more involved in making sure that people receive what they expect to receive. It is a very important issue.

Understand the role of diasporas Expert 4: Yes, these programs exist, programs on how the countries of origin should use the diaspora in the host countries. The World Bank has done work on how the diasporas can be used to strengthen the trade

with the country of the origin. And similar can be done to attract more migrants – what it would mean is, that hosts to attract and integrate migrants would also make use of the diasporas already present in the host country. The diasporas are also used by the governments as you know, for example the Turkish government used the diaspora – Turkish people living in Germany – to promote the Turkish policies. And Erdogan, when he was in Germany a couple of years ago, when you see his statement, that the Turkish living in Germany should be loyal first to Turkey and only secondly to Germany. That is a very important political statement, but Indonesia has done the same for Indonesians living in the United States, so diasporas are used by governments as element, for their foreign policies. What do you think Germany or Europe could do to attract more highly qualified individuals? And maybe if you agree to the brain drain that could happen from the developing countries being attracted to more developed countries.

Create conditions in which highly skilled can select their destinations

Expert 4: It is not just a salary, but everything that comes with it. Housing can be much more expensive if a person moves to a place for just a couple of years. And people cannot buy because many people these days, and I talk about the academia, I don’t know about the business sector, people move from one temporary job to another temporary job. Even for a post-doc, you go from one temporary job to another job. And that means that you are unable to purchase a home. Which means that the cost ist much higher than when you are able to purchase something. Young people don’t think about that and young people don’t think about pension because it is so far away but it is really very important and it is inadequate information, just look at the website of Hertie or Max-Planck, there is always no information about that on there. Because they say it is a private issue. It is not the concern of the employer but of concern of the person. If you want to attract highly skilled people, you have to create the condition in which highly skilled people select their destination. And that information should be complete. I have a rather strong views on that because I have experience with that.

Avoid De-Skilling Expert 1: It is very hard to generalize. What sounded quite familiar to me was your nursing example, because we have a qualitative research project at the institute as well about mobility, so we interviewed Spanish migrants in Germany during the last year and they told us quite similar stories like your Filipino nurses you just mentioned. For the Spanish nurses, it is the same story, they have a higher education in Spain. And for them being a nurse in Germany is deskilling on one hand and on the other hand it is not a good reputation for them when they come back to Spain afterwards. They left Spain the last couple of years

due to the economic situation. And in the beginning, they were in a honeymoon phase in Germany and have the feeling it is good to have a job here and it is better than in Spain and then after a couple of months or during the first year they experienced that its better being in Germany than being unemployed in Spain but if I want to go back to Spain in the next couple of years then the work experience I acquire in Germany is not really a plus for my CV, when I come back to Spain. There was a story we heard quite regularly from Spanish nurses. From what you told about the scientists, I am not sure. At least the Spanish perspective is different but that might … the Spanish scientists we interviewed were quite happy. They worked at private research institutes or universities in Germany. Their story was they had better research environment and better resources and better opportunities to pursue their research interests than they had in Spain. They were quite happy. They had an interest in Spain or they had the general feeling that they profit from their years abroad in Germany when they once go back to Spain. But that might be … I am not sure .. at least hardly explained by a certain selective migration – it might be that someone from the Philippines to Germany would also go to the US and there is not much difference but for the Spanish people going to Germany, it would be a difference for them to go to the United States. So we have a selection of Spanish people coming to Germany … a different selection to your Filipino migrants you interviewed in Germany, but I am not sure about that.

Immigration Law Expert 2: And then there are certain parts in the law that in my view could be improved. I mean first and foremost refers to certain details […] I think Germany has a pretty good legislation in terms of labour migration but it needs to do a better job in communicating these kind of things. The second thing would be, I think we all tend to overestimate the effect of immigrations policies. There are so many other features which make a country attractive or unattractive for highly skilled workers who have different options of where to go to. Only a tiny part of this bundle refers to immigration legislation. I say, and a lot of colleagues agree on that, that the American immigration legislation is a nightmare it does definitely not contribute to the magnet effect that American has the lion share in highly qualified skilled persons worldwide. They are coming to US despite the bad immigration legislation. So there must be something else makes them come to America. Of course that is the language, of course the research infrastructure for academics and scientists and the return on human capital. We should be aware that changing the immigration legislation contributes only a tiny bit to the overall attractiveness to the country. This rather an awareness thing.

Interview Questions for Highly Qualified and Qualified Filipinos in Germany

Notes:

Consent form

Record interview

Name: ____________________________________

Respondent Code: ___________________ (Occupation/Gender/Age/Level of

Education/ Number)

Good day. My name is Paulyn Duman and I am a student at the Hertie School of Governance in

Berlin. I am writing my thesis on highly qualified and qualified Filipinos and their motivations

in migrating abroad, with a particular focus on Germany. Thank you for accepting my interview

invitation. Before we start, I would like to ask you to read and sign the Consent for Participation

in Interview Research.

Questions, Probes and Prompts Interviewer

Remarks

Demographics: Age, Highest educational attainment, school, with/without

children

1. Can you please tell me about your “migration career”?

Probes (Pull factors):

Residence title

Profession

Year migrated to Germany

Migration career, when and where did you move?

Years of working in Germany

Information about the job and tasks

Position in the organization/company

Employer (government, private sector, academia, NGO)

Direct hire or through other means

Salary and salary difference; Benefits; Coverage in social insurance, pension

Prompt: How do your benefits in Germany fare with your previous benefits

(in the Philippines or in other countries)? Better or worse? In what way?

Lived or work in another country in the past

Studied in Germany; other country

Why did you leave the Philippines?

Probes (Push factors):

Hometown in the Philippines; Movement to Manila

Work in the Philippines; Job when he/she left the PH

Reasons for leaving the Philippines Unemployment; Conflict; Disasters or

natural calamities; Persecution; Extreme poverty

Family issues; children’s health; parents’ health

2. How did you find your job?

Prompt:

a. Did you use any German information portal or services to get

information to find jobs like Make it in Germany website,

Bundesagentur für Arbeit website or Germany hotlines, etc?

b. How about portals in the Philippines? POEA website? Any

recruitment agency website? Did you attend career fairs? Did you see

posters or announcements on bulletin boards?

c. Did you have personal contacts who helped you find your job? Do

you have organisations in the Philippines or Germany who helped

you find a job? Online communities?

Personal contacts or networks in Germany

Prompt: What role did they play in your decision to go to Germany?

Connection with Filipino communities in Germany, other parts of Europe,

or other parts of the world; Church community

Prompt: What role does the Filipino community play in your life?

Remittances

Prompt: Who do you send the money to?

3. Can you tell me about your experience in moving to Germany?

Bureaucracy

a. What was your experience in finding housing, registration in

Bürgeramt, in Finanzamt, in Ausländerbehörde, etc

b. What were the costs in going through administration, paying taxes,

getting married?

c. Did you get support from a friend, family member, agency?

What was your experience with your qualifications being recognized

in Germany?

d. Did you attend any Orientation course in Germany? Integration

Courses? Who provided it?

e. How much support did you get from your employer? From your

personal contacts?

f. Did language barrier play a role in your experience in Germany?

g. Did you receive social benefits in Germany? How was your

experience?

h. How was your experience in finding a Kita or Kindergradten for your

children?

i. Are you a member of any organisation in Germany? Betriebsrat

(Work councils), position in organisations? How active are you?

Family reunification

Prompt:

j. Do you have plans to bring your family here? How was your

experience with the family reunification? Who are for you your family

(spouses and children? Does it include your parents? Extended

family? Others?)

k. How was the experience of your spouse when he/she moved to

Germany? In finding work? What were the challenges that you

faced?

l. Did you consider your children’s school options in your decision to

move to Germany? How did you decide? How did your consideration

of the opportunities for your children affect your decision to migrate?

Personal Behavior in Germany

Language spoken at home; TV programs watched at home

Which languages do you have a command of? Written, spoken?

Frequency of visiting the Philippines

Prompt:

How often do you talk to your personal network in the Philippines? Family?

Friends?

Are you still active in your organisations back home? How active are you?

Are you politically active in the Philippines?

3. Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?

Probes:

Duration; Plans; Reasons for staying

Prompt:

1. Do you think Germany is doing enough to attract high skilled person?

2. What do you think Germany is lacking? What can it do to attract more

people in your field?

Plan to move to another country; Top destinations; Before or After being in

Germany; Reasons; Costs

Prompt: If you say financial constraints, is it an actual or perceived

constraint?

Citizenship change or plans to do so

Naturalisation experience, if any; Costs

Hertie School of Governance GmbH Geschäftsführung: Bankverbindung: Prof. Dr. Helmut K. Anheier Deutsche Bank Berlin www.hertie-school.org BLZ 100 700 00, Konto Nr. 71922900 BIC DEUTDEBB Sitz der Gesellschaft: Berlin Vorsitzender des Kuratoriums: IBAN DE23 1007 0000 00719229 00 Amtsgericht Charlottenburg HRB 97018 B Frank Mattern Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: Dr. h.c. Frank-J. Weise

Hertie School of Governance – gegründet und gefördert von der Gemeinnützigen Hertie-Stiftung

Hertie School of Governance, Friedrichstraße 180, 10117 Berlin

Prof. Dr. Michaela Kreyenfeld Professor of Sociology Hertie School of Governance Friedrichstraße 180 10117 Berlin Tel. +49 (0)30 – 25 92 19-323 [email protected]

Consent for Participation in Interview Research I volunteer to participate in a research project conducted by Ms. Paulyn May Duman, a Master of Public Policy Candidate from the Hertie School of Governance. I understand that the research project is part of Ms. Duman’s master thesis designed to gather infor-mation about motivations of highly qualified and qualified Filipinos in migrating abroad, with a particular focus on Germany. I will be one of approximately 9 people being inter-viewed for this research. 1. My participation in this project is voluntary. I understand that I will not be paid for my participation. I may withdraw and discontinue participation at any time without penalty. 2. I understand that most interviewees in this research project will find the questions interesting and thought-provoking. If, however, I feel uncomfortable in any way during the interview, I have the right to decline to answer any question or to end the interview. 3. Participation involves being interviewed by Ms. Duman from the Hertie School of Governance. The interview will last approximately 30-45 minutes. Notes will be written and audio will be recorded during the interview. 4. I understand that the researcher will not identify me by name in any reports using information obtained from this interview, and that my confidentiality as a participant in this study will remain protected. Subsequent uses of records and data will be subject to standard data use policies which protect the information of individuals and institutions. 5. My employer will neither be present at the interview nor have access to raw notes or transcripts. This precaution will prevent my individual comments from having any negative repercussions.

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6. I understand that this research study has been reviewed and approved by the master thesis supervisor of Ms. Duman at the Hertie School of Governance. For questions, the Hertie School of Governance may be contacted through email at [email protected] or at phone number +49 (0)30 259 219 -114. 7. I have read and understood the explanation provided to me. All my questions were answered to my satisfaction, and I voluntarily agree to participate in this study. 8. I have been given a copy of this consent form. ____________________________ ___________________________ Signature of Interviewee Date, Place ____________________________ ___________________________ Signature of MPP Student Date, Place Note: This Form is based on the Sample Consent Form from Stanford University,

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mailto:[email protected]

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https://web.stanford.edu/group/ncpi/unspecified/student_assess_toolkit/pdf/sampleinformedconsent.pdf

Interview Questions Outline for Philippine Expert, by Paulyn Duman,

Hertie School of Governance, Berlin

I. Nature and Scope of Work, particularly focusing on Overseas Filipinos

II. Philippines’ labor export policy, pillars of migration policy, and current trends

a. Temporary vs. Permanent vs. Circular migration

b. Preferred regions and existing bilateral agreements; OFW in various regions and what

influences the flow

c. Targets in deployment of Filipinos highly skilled workers, benefits of the Philippines

from OFWs of different skill levels, and policies of the PH for OFWs

III. Highly skilled OFWs competing for the labor market and PH policies and programmes

to be competitive

IV. Short-term and long-term policies of the Philippines and future steps

Interview Outline for German Expert on Migration

By Paulyn Duman, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin

I. Nature and scope of work related to migration topic, particularly in Germany

II. Pillars of Germany’s migration policy

III. Germany’s policies and programs to attract highly skilled migrants; achievements and

challenges; labor and demographic gap

German ministries and agencies

o How are they coordinating, advertising, collaborating with source countries?

o What is the strategy and how does it work?

o Does EU Blue card work?

o Do the changes in the Residence Act work in attracting highly qualified

professionals?

o Does Germany have preferred states as source countries?

Businesses

o Are the employers ready to hire highly skilled foreigners?

Migrant communities

o Does Germany have the absorptive capacity, such as infrastructure, alien office

capacity, Kindergarten, etc?

IV. German society’s attitude towards migrants, refugee crisis, and labor market shortages:

How does this affect the government’s policies?

V. Future steps of Germany

What programs and polies Germany plans to implement to fill labor and demographic

gaps?

Appendix N: Bottlenecks and Shortage Occupations in Germany, as of December 2015

Statement of Authorship

I hereby confirm and certify that this master thesis is my own work. All ideas and language of others are acknowledged in the text. All references and verbatim extracts are properly quoted and all other sources of information are specifically and clearly designated. DATE: 4 April 2016 NAME: Paulyn May Duman SIGNATURE: