For some foreign Filipino teachers in Hawaii, the journey to the classroom often begins with sacrifice at home. Kristine Cueto, who moved from Pangasinan, Philippines to Waipahu in 2021, and Raymart Jayson M. Fundal, who left Las Piñas City, Philippines for Kailua, came through the J-1 Exchange Teacher Program carrying the same goal: to support their families while building new careers abroad. Their stories reflect both the promise and the cost of migration. In Hawaii, both educators faced dislocation and the challenge of adapting to a new school system and new life.
Cueto and Fundal are a part of what the Philippines refer to as Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who are hailed in their country as modern-day heroes for their work supporting their families and massive contributions to the Philippines economy.
Recent shifting trends of OFWs
As teachers, they also represent a shift of OFWs in recent years. Consul General Arman R. Talbo of the Philippine Consulate General in Honolulu, explains “The Overseas Filipino story has widened and deepened. The world now needs Filipino nurses, IT workers, engineers, and teachers, and they are going to more countries than the old Gulf-and Asia routes.”
He adds, “women have gone beyond caregiving and service sector work abroad; many now lead in professional and technical fields. We are now seen as great builders and contributors in foreign countries and communities we work in. Technology and AI will definitely change the way migration works, and we need to be aware of its impacts and be prepared for them.”
Consul Talbo sees another big shift in how the Philippines sees its people abroad, “not as workers to be counted, but as partners, investors, donors, advocates, and a bridge to a wider world. Our government’s goal is to make working abroad an option, and to provide returning Filipinos the opportunity to work productively in the Philippines.”
He adds, “The other contributions of OFWs include the skills they bring back and the ties they build abroad, not just the amount they wire home each month.”
Dollars pumped into the Philippines economy
OFWs have been a major economic force in the Philippines for decades. In 2025, cash remittances from Filipinos working abroad reached a record US$35.63 billion, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), underscoring the crucial role migrant workers play in keeping the economy buoyant and supporting household spending.
Total remittances are equal to about 7.3% of Philippine GDP. The record US$35.63 billion in 2025, was 3.3% higher than the US$34.49 billion recorded in 2024, BSP figures show.
Estimate of OFWs, demographic, and types of work
The latest official count from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has 2.19 million OFWs in 2024, with women making up the majority at 57.2%. The largest age group was 45 years old and over (25.8%), followed by those aged 30–34 (21.3%) and 35–39 (19.2%).
The PSA says 43.6% of OFWs in 2024 worked in elementary occupations, followed by plant and machine operators and assemblers (15.4%) and service and sales workers (12.7%). While there are gains being made in higher quality jobs, a large concentration of Filipinos still holds difficult, lower-paid, and often precarious jobs abroad, statistics show.
The social and personal costs of OFWs
Behind those billions in remittances are millions of stories of sacrifice and resilience. For decades, labor migration has served as both an economic strategy and a social reality for the Philippines. While remittances are celebrated, they often come with social and personal costs like separation from families.
Consul Talbo said, “both remittances and the social costs of labor migration are real and can be said in the same breath. Remittances lift families and the nation. They also come at a price; children raised by one parent or by grandparents, marriages strained by distance, years lost to working overseas. We must use available resources and technology to mitigate the negative impacts. The aim should not be to send more money. It should be to make leaving a choice, not the only option, which means building decent jobs at home and protecting Filipinos who work abroad. These two are core priorities of the Philippine government.”
Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac, Department of Migrant Workers, said “Your [OFWs] remarkable contributions and sacrifices are the very essence of our nation’s strength and progress.”
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said while speaking to the Filipino community in Osaka, Japan, “I recognize the weight of your [OFWs] sacrifice, and the strength it takes to provide for your families from afar. That is why we will never tire of honoring you and finding ways to improve your lives. You are at the heart of our government’s efforts, and you deserve not only our gratitude, but you deserve our full support.” An estimated 350,000 Filipinos live and work in Japan, including OFWs like nurses and laborers.
Where are OFWs going to for work
Top OFW destination countries from the latest official PSA include Saudi Arabia at 21.95% and United Arab Emirates, 12.4%. The PSA also confirms that most OFWs in 2024 were working in Asia (74.5%), followed by Europe (10.6%), North and South America (9.2%), Australia (4.4%), and Africa (1.3%).
While there are no official statistics on the number of OFWs in the U.S., remittances sent to the Philippines from the U.S. accounts for about $12.8 billion, the largest single source of remittances globally to the Philippines, according to the BSP. Behind the U.S. are Singapore and Saudi Arabia.
Motivation for leaving the Philippines and initial adjustments and realities: Fundal and Cueto
FUNDAL. Fundal came to Oahu carrying the weight of family responsibility and the hope that his work abroad could bring stability to the people waiting for him at home. “My motivation has always been my family. My parents are growing older, my mother is a brave leukemia survivor, and my younger sister has special needs. I wanted to give them the best life possible and return the love they gave me growing up.”
But this journey has also been about professional and community growth. “Beyond providing financial peace of mind for my family, I am here to serve the children of Hawaii,” Fundal said.
He’s had nine years of teaching special education and is currently based at Kainalu Elementary School. Before moving, he had already spent six years teaching in the Philippines. Fundal said he arrived with fears of isolation, unsure how he would adjust to life in a new country. “Before I left, I was terrified. I imagined I would struggle alone with no one to help me transition,” he said.
Fundal describes that he is not alone and gave a heartfelt example. “In reality, I was enveloped by the Aloha spirit. When my batch of J-1 teachers went without a salary for the first two months in 2023, local neighbors and the Filipino community stepped in with food and groceries. Professionally, adjusting to a new school curriculum and writing complex American IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) was hard, and the language barrier with mainland teachers was challenging.”
Beyond the classroom, Fundal has tried to root himself in the community that welcomed him. He volunteers by teaching Tagalog classes at the Filipino Community Center in Waipahu, helping local Filipinos strengthen their connection to language and heritage.
At school, he credits his principal, Resha Ramolete, along with his special education team, co-teachers and others in his support circle for helping him grow into the role. Through those relationships, Hawaii has become not just a workplace, but a community in which he has found both purpose and belonging. “I am deeply grateful to my principal for believing in me and helping me become the best version of myself. I am also thankful to my special education team, my co-teachers, my landlords (Keoki Fraser in Waimanalo and my Ilocano family in Kailua), and my kind neighbor who drove me to school every single day.”
CUETO. Cueto is a Special Education teacher at August Ahrens Elementary School in Waipahu, Hawaii, one of the largest elementary schools in the state. She also serves as SPED Department Chairperson. She was among the first five Filipino J1 teachers hired in Hawaii and helped open the door for others to follow.Like Fundal, Cueto’s motivation for coming to the U.S. for work is rooted in family, determined to build a better future for her daughter and support her parents.
She described her decision to leave the Philippines. “I decided to work abroad in 2019. The plan was set, my heart was ready and then the pandemic hit, and I had to wait until the embassy reopened in 2021. Those two years of waiting tested my patience, but they never changed my mind. I was a single mother, and that was reason enough. I wanted to give my daughter the life she deserved. I wanted to repay my parents for everything they had given me. And I wanted to be someone who could help others in need. Those hopes were what carried me through every uncertain moment.”
Many OFWs talk about the difference between their expectations of moving to the U.S. and the realties when arriving. Cueto said, “I imagined it would be a happy life. Most people dream of America, the opportunity, the comfort, the promise of something better. I was no different. But when I arrived, I quickly learned that America has a way of humbling you. The early days were hard in ways I had not expected. I had no car. I waited for buses, walked miles carrying heavy bags of groceries, and got lost more times than I can count. The comfort and familiarity I had in the Philippines simply were not there. I was surviving on my own, because everyone else had their own life to manage.
“Friends helped wherever they could, and those small kindnesses kept me going. Coming as a J1 SPED teacher also meant starting over professionally. I felt like a blank sponge, knowing I had experience, but needing to learn everything anew in a different system, a different context, a different world. I told myself every single day that I could not fail my administrators, and I could not fail my family. Most of all, I could not fail my daughter,” Cueto said.
Gains of working abroad
Many OFWs earn significantly more than they could in similar jobs at home, allowing them to provide for their families’ daily needs, pay for education, cover medical expenses, and invest in housing or small businesses. In many households, remittances from abroad have become the foundation of financial survival and upward mobility.
FUNDAL. Fundal said the income he earns abroad has helped secure the care his family needs, easing the burden on relatives who had long been carrying the load. His parents can afford maintenance medicines, and his mother’s treatment has continued. Most meaningful to him, he said, is the progress of his younger sister.
He explained, “being away has allowed me to secure their health and survival. They can finally afford their maintenance medicines. Most beautifully, it has transformed my sister’s life. With the resources I send, she now receives private, home-based life skills tutoring. Because of this, her seizures have stopped, and she is learning to become independent. She is the very reason I became a Special Education teacher in the first place. Seeing her progress, even from afar, makes every single sacrifice worth it.”
Fundal said, “Leaving home brought smiles back to my parents’ faces. My parents are aging and require high-maintenance medical care, my grandmother is 99 years old, and my sister experiences seizures due to her disability. My working abroad also lifted a heavy burden off my Aunt, Tita Susan Abiog in New Jersey, who had been supporting us alone for years. Together, we have secured my family’s health. Without this opportunity as an OFW, I honestly do not know if my mother would have survived her battle with leukemia. Today, they are taken care of.”
CUETO. Cueto said on the benefits of working abroad, “leaving home changed everything for my family in ways that are real and concrete. I was able to pay off all my loans and debts, a weight I had carried for years, finally lifted. I was able to send my family on trips they had never been able to take before, buy things we could only look at from a distance, and eat at restaurants that once felt out of reach. Most importantly, I was able to secure my daughter’s education and give her a foundation I never had at her age. Every sacrifice had a return, and watching my family’s life improve made it all worth it.”
Sacrifices
Life overseas can also bring challenges in the workplace and the wider community. Every remittance sent home tells a story of distance: a parent missing birthdays, a child growing up through video calls and promises of a better future.
Some OFWs must adapt to unfamiliar languages, cultures, and labor systems, while others face difficult working conditions, job insecurity, or the risk of exploitation. OFWs frequently spend years away from their spouses, children, and parents, missing important family events and even times of crisis. Separation can create loneliness and homesickness. Loved ones they leave behind commonly feel isolation and strains in family relationships.
FUNDAL. Fundal said the hardest part of life overseas is the distance from his family. He cannot be there for every illness or emergency, a reality he described as agonizing. Yet he returns again and again to the same conviction: that his purpose is to serve both the children in his classroom and the family whose future depends on him. For Fundal, the journey to Hawaii has become more than a job abroad. It is a story of duty, faith and the quiet persistence required to build a life across an ocean.
He said, “It is agonizing to be oceans away from an aging family and a sister with special needs. I want to be right by their side when they are sick. Because I cannot be there physically, I pray harder every day and surrender their safety to God.”
CUETO. Cueto said the gains were concrete, but never simple. The hardest cost, she said, was the five years she spent away from her daughter. “Every day I went to work and poured myself into teaching and caring for other people’s children, knowing I could not do the same for my own. I missed her school events, her milestones, the ordinary everyday moments that a mother is supposed to be present for. Five years. I missed five years of being by her side. That is something no amount of money or career achievement can fully make up for, and I carry it with me always,” she said.
Cueto sees both hardship and transformation. What began as a journey driven by necessity became, over time, a story of endurance, leadership and a mother’s determination to become someone her daughter could be proud of.
Highlighting some of her moments in Hawaii, she said “I initiated building a sensory room, started a student coffee cart in partnership with Waipahu McDonald’s, organized our school team to join Special Olympics, initiated parent training programs, and mentored teachers and staff across our department. I also found love, a husband who loves me, my daughter, and my family unconditionally. I have now completed my five years of J1 service, and I look back with a full heart.
“I am grateful for the hardships that shaped me, for the people who believed in me, especially my mentor/ vice principal Mr. Ronie Martinez and Ms. Kelly Pila and for every moment that reminded me why I came here in the first place. I left home with nothing but love and a dream. I crossed oceans not to find myself, but to build a life worthy of the people who were waiting for me back home. America humbled me. It broke me open. And in that breaking, I discovered what I was truly made of. My students and my workmates were not just a work, they were my reason to show up, my reason to keep going, my reason to be better. When you love what you do, it stops feeling like a job. And for five years, it never did. I did not just survive the distance; I let it grow into someone my daughter can be proud of. Hawaii, you will always have a piece of my heart.”
Communication, maintaining close relationships: Guia and Medrano
Despite the distance, OFWs say modern tools of communication like video chats and social media help them share daily updates, celebrate special moments and maintain close relationships.
Ryan G. de Guia, a Computer Science teacher at Fern Elementary School, is from Capas, Tarlac, Philippines. “Conversation with my family was limited because of the time difference. Trying to parent, comfort, and guide them through a screen makes me feel the distance every single day is also a challenge. But I always make sure they know every single day that all the sacrifices I am making here are entirely for their future,” he said.
Erick Medrano, a Cultural Exchange teacher specializing in science education at Highlands Intermediate School in Pearl City, recently relocated to Hawaii from Banna, Ilocos Norte, Philippines. He signed up to be an OFW to grow both personally and professionally. “Moving here was a big deal, but it’s given me a lot of chances to help my family back home. Now, I can make sure they have what they need every day. What makes me really proud, though, is that I can help pay for my niece and nephew to go to school. It was hard to leave home but seeing how my job here is helping my family and paying for their education makes it all feel worth it. My family is doing okay now, and that’s all because of my job in Hawaii. It’s a great feeling to know that I’m making a difference in their lives,” he said.
On communication and maintaining a close relationship with family, Medrano said, “We talk all the time using things like FaceTime and social media, so it feels like we’re not missing out on anything. My family has always been good at understanding each other, and that’s what makes it easy for us to stay connected and support each other, even when I’m working in a different country. We just make it work, and it feels like nothing has changed.”
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