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In October 1978, the Institute of Labor and Manpower Studies with the support of the International Labor Organization undertook a survey of Filipino temporary workers in Iran. By temporary workers we mean workers whose employment overseas is governed by a working visa which may or may not be coterminus with a contract of employment. We interviewed a sample of 310 workers employed in Tehran and three other provinces of Iran and at various occupations.

Our concern for temporary migration of Filipino workers was prompted by the fast growth of the overseas job market particularly in the oil-rich countries of the Middle East. Whereas, according to official Ministry of Labor statistics, there were only about 3,700 Filipino contract workers overseas in 1969, the number had risen to 87,767 in 1978. Numerous questions pertaining to the "export" of contract workers were thus being raised: Who were leaving the country? Are they the better educated and highly skilled workers? Were workers acquiring new skills overseas? How much foreign exchange was being remitted to the Philippines? How have these remittances been used? In other words, what have the migrant workers gained from working abroad and what has the Philippines gained by promoting the export of manpower?

The answers to these questions would have significant implications on present Philippine policy and would provide certain directions for policy and program reformulations.

As an initial step towards finding these answers, the study of Filipino migrant workers in Iran was conducted. Iran was chosen because it is one of the Middle East countries which have accounted for a considerable proportion of contract workers placed overseas. Further, the occupations of the Filipinos in this country range from professional and technical to production and service occupations.

The findings of this study may have lost some of their relevance. Nevertheless, the value of these findings in terms of providing insights into the problem of temporary migration remains.

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*Study conducted by the Institute of Labor and Manpower Studies.