There is a stigma of working in the Middle East among middle/higher class in the Philippines that if you are not a construction worker, truck driver, engineer or domestic helper, one would not go there to work. Is this a misconception?
Yes it is a misconception that people who work in the Middle East either hold blue-collared jobs or on the other side of the spectrum, engineers. You’ll meet a lot Filipinos working in different industries holding different positions and not just limited to what is stated above. From the IT industry alone, you’ll find Filipinos who are technicians, system administrators, programmers, developers, web designers, systems analysts. If you go to hotels, you’ll find Filipinos working as managers, chefs, chambermaids, bellboys. Even in the airline industry in Qatar, there are Filipino managers, secretaries, human resource specialists, and are ground and flight crew.
If you actually do a research, I’m sure that more than 50% of what you consider middle class in the Philippines are those whose dads/moms work in the Middle East. An IT technician’s salary from a good company is equivalent, if not more than, to what a manager in the Philippines gets.
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