Monday 19 / May / 2025
Muscat: With almost OMR4 billion sent home by expatriate workers every year, Oman’s powerhouse economy is driving development across the world.
Entire rural communities, extended families, and microbusinesses are all being funded by expat workers who send their money home to ensure a brighter future for their families.
The Times of Oman spoke to several expats to learn more about how their salaries and hard work are changing lives in the cities, towns, and villages they call home. Across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and the Philippines, hard earned rials are powering projects and sending children to school.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday took time to thank Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) for their hard work in boosting the economy by acknowledging their sacrifices and great economic contributions.
“We admire our Filipino migrant workers for their selflessness and courage in enduring the hardships of living away from home to provide for their families,” he said.
According to data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Central Bank of the Southeast Asian country, the total amount of cash transfers by OFWs from Oman stood at $345 million in 2017.
Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister, Nasir-ul-Mulk, recently tasked the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development to engage with foreign countries, particularly those in the Gulf region, to increase employment opportunities for Pakistani workers.
Approximately 10.2 million expatriates left Pakistan from 2009 to 2018, coming mainly to Gulf countries as skilled and unskilled labourers.
In Pakistan, the economic contribution of expatriates is just as vital as it is in the Philippines and India.
Pakistani Finance Minister Miftah Ismail confirmed during a recent budget speech that the remittances of overseas Pakistani workers had jumped from $13.9 billion 2013 to $19.3 billion over the last five years. He expected remittances to reach $20 billion by the end of the year, which would be a record for Pakistan.
According to a report from the World Bank, there are 250 million international migrants around the globe. Intra-regional migration is a major phenomenon in Europe and Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Income gaps and inequality, demographic imbalances, and environmental change suggest that migration pressures will continue for the foreseeable future.
In 2015, the ratio between the average income of high-income and low-income countries stood at 70:1. It will take decades before the gap is closed.
A recent World Bank report showed that the Philippines is the third highest recipient of remittances in the world, after India and China.
Maria Delgado, who works as a receptionist for a property company in Oman, supports a family of her own in Mindanao in the Philippines.
“My husband and I live here, but because we have to support many back home, our son stays with our grandparents,” she said. “Whenever we go home to see him on holiday, he always cries when we have to leave and says, ‘mama don’t go.’ There is nothing more painful than seeing a child cry for his mother or father.”
“Sometimes, my husband and I will go separately at different times of the year, so that my son gets more time with his parents,” she added. “Together, we earn some OMR800 and we share our flat with two other families so that we send the maximum amount of money home. This is the responsibility of any individual.”
She is one of an estimated 2.3 million Filipinos working outside their country from April to September 2017, according to data compiled by the Philippines Statistics Authority. Of that number, 30,000 live in Oman.
“Many of the numerous neighbours and relatives to whom my parents distribute this money ask us when we will come back to Mindanao, but these jobs that we have are extremely important to everyone,” said Delgado.
Idriss Sufyan, a Bangladeshi cleaner working in Oman, shared a similar story.
“Before coming to Oman, I was a waiter at a restaurant back home,” said Sufyan. “I came here to earn more money because that was not even enough to feed my family.”
“I earn about OMR250 to OMR350 every month,” he added. “I spend maybe OMR50 on myself every month because I share a room with four other people, and the rest is sent home.”
“Apart from my parents, my wife and my child, I also have to spend on my extended family like my cousins, because we are required to help all of our community members back home,” he explained. “All in all, the money I send home helps about 15 to 20 people. We also use this money to buy seeds to grow on land that we own. We then sell these crops in the market, but we don’t get a lot of money from them.”
“Back home, this is a fortune for my family,” remarked Sufyan. “Without this money, they would not be able to survive. I have put my son in an international school because I don’t want him to end up like me.”
Sufyan is well respected in his community on the outskirts of Chittagong, where he plans to build a house from his hard-earned money.
“A decent house with a cement roof costs about two million taka (OMR9,000),” he recounted. “However, I don’t tell people there that I am a cleaner. Otherwise, their respect for me will fall. If I tell them that I mop floors and clean toilets for a living, what will they think of me?”
Like Sufyan, the earnings of Naved Ali from Pakistan are a vital lifeline to his relatives in Sialkot, where his wife, four children, and extended family survive thanks to what he earns as a worker at a furniture store in Ruwi.
“My father used to own a small shop in town, but he knew that if we ever wanted to grow, we would need to earn money,” shared Ali. “The economic situation in Pakistan is unsafe at present.”
“I have four children, all of whom go to an English-medium school, and by the grace of God, they always come first in class,” he said. “There are many factories near Sialkot, but the population is high, which means that many people are between jobs. They come to my wife for money because they know I work overseas, so I have to help a lot of people back home.”
