Despite that the wave of industrial development that has 【M1】______
swept much of East Asia in recent decades, the country of 80
million remains extremely poor, mismanaged and still' was 【M2】______
predominant agrarian. But the Philippines docs play a visible 【M3】______
role in the global economy, thanks largely to a single export
commodity—its people. According to the government, I mil
lion Philippines will go abroad as contract workers this year, 【M4】______
the biggest exodus ever. "The Philippines has already sur
passed Mexico as the largest source of migrant labor in the
word," says Manolo I. Abella, a migration specialist at the
International Labour Office in Geneva. In all, about 8 mil
lion Filipinos—an astounded one tenth of the country's 【M5】______
citizens—currently work overseas to support families back home.
They remit more than ＄ 7 billion annually, according to the
government, and that's only' official transfers. A recent Asian 【M6】______
Development Bank report put the real figure in the ＄ 14
billion to ＄ 21 billion range a sum that dwarfs both foreign direct
investment and aid flowing into the country, and amounts
3 2 percent of GNP. In the past, the Philippines 【M7】______
is shamed by its inability to create enough good jobs to keep 【M8】______
its people at home. But hard economic reality—a 14 percent
unemployment rate and one of the highest poverty indexes in
the world (nearly half the population subsists on less than ＄ 2
a day)—has shifted the sentiment. Today, in a move that
countries like Indonesia and Bangladesh are likely to emulate
itself, the government takes the position that, like it or not, 【M9】______
the overseas workers constitute nation's biggest comparative
advantage in an increasingly borderless world. And so Manila
makes it easy for its citizens to immigrate, and works hard, 【M10】______
through its embassies, to see that their rights as foreign workers
are protected.
【M1】