Migration means mobility and freedom. The free movement
of people along with their skills and talent, families and colleagues, culture
and sports, science and technology, capital and investments, is the natural
sibling of free trade of goods and commodities.
The world is far from real free trade in goods and free
mobility of people, but the regional and global trend is towards more freedom,
not less. The numbers to confirm this are freely available -- rising exports and
imports, rising foreign investments, rising tourism.
While we are generally familiar with the number of
Filipinos and other ASEAN migrants moving abroad, we are less familiar with
foreign migrants who settle in the Philippines and other ASEAN countries. The
numbers below are interesting. (see table)
The numbers show the following:
1. While there are more than 10 million Filipinos living
and working abroad (workers and professionals, students, dependents), there are
only 0.2 million foreigners who have migrated here, more or less permanently.
The number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) based on Philippine Statistics
Authority (PSA) is only 2.3 million, not 10 million, as explained in the table.
2. Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia are the most migrants-friendly
in the ASEAN. Perhaps they allow foreigners to own residential lands. These
countries are also the top international tourism destinations in the region.
3. Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam are the least friendly to
foreign migrants. While the first two are weak in exports and attracting
foreign investments, Vietnam’s case is weird because it is a big exporter, its
annual merchandise exports is twice that of the Philippines, yet just a few
foreign migrants relocate there permanently.
4. Indonesia has a different path in migration. Nearly
two million in 1960, down to more than one million in 1970, and only 0.3
million in 2015. Meanwhile, the number of Indonesians working and living abroad
is rising, similar to the Philippine case.
While short-staying foreign tourists and visitors would
stay in hotels, migrants would stay in apartments and condos. They contribute
to rising demand for housing. Filipinos who work and live abroad do not
necessarily abandon or sell their houses and condos here, they keep these to
stay when they come home, or allow relatives and close friends to use them.
The housing shortage is a big problem for the Philippines
and other developing countries.
In a speech by Vice-President and Housing and Urban
Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) Secretary Leni Robredo during the
BusinessWorld Economic Forum last July 12, 2016, she said that the 1.4 million
backlog as often reported could even reach 5.5 million, “if we will be able to
have an honest-to-goodness inventory of all who do not have decent houses…. We
are looking at a model demonstrated by Singapore and Hong Kong to be able to
combat this problem.”
Data for Hong Kong is added in the table. Its 7.5 million
local population + 2.8 million migrants + around 1-2 million tourists anytime
(27.8 million tourist arrivals in 2014) is big considering its small land area.
Yet housing is not much a problem there.
A quick solution to address the huge housing backlog in
the Philippines is to encourage the building of more residential condos and
townhouses not so much for ownership but for rental. There are at least two
advantages for this.
One, more and more Filipinos are mobile these days. They
may be working in Quezon City or Bulacan the previous years, they might move to
Las Piñas or Cavite or Cebu in the next few years, or move abroad. Given the
bad traffic condition in Metro Manila, living closer to work is a better
alternative than driving long distance daily.
Two, there is less initial investments in renting than in
buying a house. There is also less financial and emotional attachment to their
previous house when they move out if the community has deteriorated, like
getting flooded more frequently, more traffic congestion, more crime incidence,
and so on.
What HUDCC and other housing-related agencies, local and
national can do, is to reduce the bureaucracies and taxes for developers of
condos and townhouses. These costs are ultimately passed on to unit owners,
which they pass on to their unit lessors.
If there are more residential condos and apartments
available, their price will naturally go down due to competition. Cheaper
housing is one of the most important programs that any government can do for
its people.
Bienvenido Oplas, Jr. is the head of Minimal Government
Thinkers and a SEANET Fellow.
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See also:
BWorld 73, Transco and the big beneficiaries of feed in tariff, July 27, 2016
BWorld 74, Pres. Duterte's anti-corruption programs and Transparency Intl., July 30, 2016
BWorld 75, How to profit from urban congestion, July 30, 2016
BWorld 76, Solar can never power the PH and Asia, August 06. 2016
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