Josephine Nisperos

Story

Reason for leaving homeland – Limited employment opportunities, children’s future, political chaos, graft and corruption and other maladies that render the Philippines’ hopelessness for a bright future have made me decide to leave the country and seek for the ” brighter” side in Australia.

My husband was a bank employee for more than 20 years, while I joined the government service and stayed for nine years until I resigned last July 2008. While we held top positions in our respective organization and have paid high taxes from our jobs, we felt dissatisfied with the benefits that the government and our employers have extended and commensurated our skills and abilities for many years. We felt we dont have a bright retirement future as we observed those who have retired ahead of us.

We have served our respective organizations with utmost dedications and excellent services and we find that odd and discouraging as we continued to work for more years. We find our children with dark and vague future as unemployment rises and government system in chaos.

We have ideals and dreams for our country ,just like everybody else. We dreamt of a government that

look after its people, secure jobs and cares for the environment. We never find that in the Philippines. We have grown tired and hopeless for the government to cure the system and mend its ways for its people. We felt it has reached its lowest pit of hopelessness. People just never care and the systems worsened.

The journey was not quite easy as we decided to dispose all our properties for monetary support, gave up our jobs, stopped my children’s schooling in college, and cut ties with our employers who have become part of the family for several years. We faced uncertainties and so many questions that left unanswered until now. It is quite difficult because we arrived in Australia as sponsored migrants ( by relative ) and not as permanent residents.

We feel descriminated in some ways as we applied for jobs . Our skills, work experience and academic qualifications were never considered just because we are not permanent residents , even if we pledge to become one. We could not attain the permanent residency status, unless we comply with the 2 -year residency and one-year full time employment period. We have limited choices for employment as we applied for odd jobs that do not correspond with our work experiences and academic qualifications. My husband and I earned university degrees and masteral studies that had not been utilized since we arrived in Australia. We applied to more than 20 government agencies and private organizations, all replied that our applications were unsuccessful because we were nnot permanent residents. We believed, we were also refused with our applications for housing rentals because we were not permanent residents. How can we ever find a place of our own. Are we forever be migrants without a permanent place ? This becomes a dilemma for the family, some of us thought of returning back to the Philippines.

Impressions on Arrival – We were too overwhelmed and same time, scared and uncertain as we arrived during the winter. We never expect the harsh weather. We thought we would never be able to find job during the winter as it was quite difficult to commute daily . We admired the beauty and peace of the place, quite different from the the place where we left off.

We hope we will be able to find that brighter side in Australia as we continue with our journey for the future.

< Back to the Stories