Concepcion, Emil Angelo L.

English 12
12 – Ogilvie

A CRITICAL ESSAY ON “Economic Effects of the Brain Drain”

“Economic Effects of the Brain Drain” paints a picture of the situation. It says that the

Philippines relies too much on its remittances to get by, and backs the main points with sources e.g.

statistics for migration, unemployment, etc. The essay is logically sound, but the supporting details

are lacking in specificity. This essay will fill these gaps in specificity and expound on the supporting

details, with supporting sources, mentioned in the paper.

Content

Firstly, the title is not true to the content. While the title is “Economic Effects” the paper

speculates what would happen if the Philippines kept relying heavily on remittances, thus it should be

changed to “How Brain Drain affects the economy” for the essay’s content to fit, and to address past,

present, and future issues without moving out of the bounds of the topic. Additionally, sections of the

paper, though logically sound, could possibly be dismissed as speculation because there are no

sources backing the statements. This section will address the statements most critical to the essay.

The final sentence in the section “The Mediocrity of the Average Filipino Worker”, which states that

“Compared to the standards of the Filipino graduates over the past decade, the decline is becoming

more apparent and is not getting any better at present”. This is false; the International Labour

Organization Country Office for the Philippines said in their 2017 report that the country’s HDI (HDI

is Human Development Index, which takes into account life expectancy, a decent standard of living,

and access to knowledge) performance has steadily increased over the last three decades. (12).

Another would be the at the start of “The Mediocrity of the Average Filipino Worker”, where the

essay states that implementation of an education following the international standards has been

lackluster and rushed. The essay does not specify what educational system has been implemented,

which is problematic since no opinion can be formed without an example, thus this paper assumes that
Concepcion, Emil Angelo L. English 12
12 – Ogilvie

the essay is referring to the K-12 program. If the essay is referring to K-12 as lackluster and rushed

then this statement is supported by Rappler’s 2016 article, reporting on the protests of people about

K-12, saying that it was “rushed and railroaded” into enactment, with several underlying problems

such as; teachers being trained late, SHS in schools with no access to electricity or water, etc.

(Geronimo). Here, the importance of specificity and citing of sources is critical as the essay was

throwing around blanket statements e.g. “implementation of an education following the international

standards” and is figuratively stabbing at the air hoping to hit something; if the essay had cited

sources and was specific, then there would be a significant amount of rigor to the critique and would

have delved deeper into Filipino context.

Significance

Lastly, the essay states that “remittances have become [the Philippines’] lifeline”, but it

doesn’t define what remittances are. The essay also states that the rushed implementation of a globally

oriented education has led to Filipinos that are becoming increasingly average – which has been

proven to be otherwise, but for the sake of the argument, what would be the significance of having an

increasingly average workforce? These are the significant points that the essay brings up, but doesn’t

explain their significance.

The essay only mentions how the country is excessively reliant on remittances. Let’s first define what

a remittance is; it is the act of transferring money from country to country. Thus the essay is referring

to the transfer of money of the OFWs/OFs to the Philippines – which is described as a portion of the

total earnings transferred to their families. In Gerardo P. Sicat’s essay “Worker Remittances and the

Philippine Economy” he outlines the signficance of remittances for the Philippine Economy, which

are (1) “Buttressing the country’s net receipts of dollars”, substantially adding to the country’s

earnings in foreign exchange, and is comparable to the Philippines’ export of goods. (2) “Rising living

standards across the country”, as remittances to households translate to income that can support these

households’ expenses and can be used to improve quality of life. (3) “Propping up the country’s

macro-fundamentals”, which improves the nation’s finance and allows the country to increase the

amount of foreign goods and services bought. With the definition of remittances, and the weight that
Concepcion, Emil Angelo L. English 12
12 – Ogilvie

these remittances carry; the author can now hypothesize that if the remittances were taken away, then

a large portion of the Philippine economy would crumble – a portion almost equal to Philippine

exports.

Next, what is the significance of having an increasingly average workforce? To answer this,

we turn to the Bruno Burlando’s paper “The knowledge paradox: why knowing more is knowing

less”, which simply states that the more a society advances in scientic knowledge, the less that each

individual in the society knows on average. Society is essentially a patchwork of different fields of

knowledge, and these gaps in knowledge are overlapped by people with varying specializations; it is

problematic when society is “averaged out” with a large portion of people knowing the same material,

at the same level, because there would be no specialization. And while there would technically be no

gaps in knowledge in the society, there would be a knowledge gap (and skill gap in the case of the

workforce) between the society and the world; the patchwork of knowledge addresses this as people

can solve problems they otherwise couldn’t with only their expertise. This is the signficance of

having an increasingly average workforce.

Conclusion

The essay misses out on information that would have improved the essay. It did not specify

and back with sources statements like “the decline is becoming more apparent and is not getting any

better at present”, and “The problem however is that the implementation has been lackluster and

rushed” robs the essay of the chance to approach the issue of Brain Drain with a significant amount of

rigor, and the opportunity to examine the Philippine perspective in depth – which this essay has

provided examples of.

Significance of points raised is also lacking, giving outlines rather than giving the points

weight. This is seen in the essay’s treatment of remittances, and their significance to the economy, and

the problem of having an increasingly significant workforce. The latter which the essay missed the

chance to expound on, and the former a topic the essay did not delve into. Both of which have been

given examples and sources to back up and emphasize on the significance of the points.
Concepcion, Emil Angelo L. English 12
12 – Ogilvie

To conclude, the essay does not follow specificity, forgets to back up significant statements

and does not expound on the statements it provides. It is logically sound, and statistics are backed up,

but it misses out on opportunities to develop rigorous arguments. Overall its attempt to paint the

situation of how brain drain affects the Philippine economy ended up in an outline, a good outline,

however an outline does not give life and weight to its arguments and insights.

Sources

International Labour Organization. “Decent Work Country Diagnostics: Philippines 2017”.

2017, https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-bangkok/---ilo-

manila/documents/publication/wcms_588875.pdf

Human Development Department East Asia and Pacific Region. “PHILIPPINES SKILLS

REPORT: Skills for the Labor Market in the Philippines”, 2010,

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EASTASIAPACIFICEXT/Resources/226300-

1279680449418/HigherEd_PhilippinesSkillsReport.pdf

Senate Economic Planning Office. “K to 12: The Key to Quality Education?”, 2011,

https://www.senate.gov.ph/publications/PB%202011-02%20-%20K%20to%2012%20The%20Key

%20to%20Quality.pdf

Geronimo, Jee Y. “2015: Protest against K to 12 at its loudest, reaches the Supreme Court”,

Rappler, 2015, https://www.rappler.com/nation/116948-2015-news-yearender-k12

Sicat, Gerardo P. “Worker Remittances and the Philippine Economy”,

https://www.cfo.gov.ph/news/from-overseas-filipinos/481-worker-remittances-and-the-philippine-

economy.html

Burlando, Bruno. “The knowledge paradox: why knowing more is knowing less”, Cornell

University, 2017, https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.07227