Welfare Benefits and Migrant Workers

Do you think happiness is the goal of everyone's life? If you think so, then bear with us and read the following lines. We know that everyone's happiness is not the same. Happiness, in fact, is so abstract and relative. If we simply narrow down our view of happiness (which is difficult to do), we would probably come up with a discussion involving two different aspects of happiness: material and psychological needs. These two aspects nicely summarize what we, as humans, need.

Let us talk more about our material needs. It is not difficult to find the logic behind the idea that there must be some connection between money and happiness. If there weren't, we would be less likely to stay late at work or struggle to save money and invest it profitably. Note that there are many out there who feel that they have worked hard enough and are satisfied with what they have. But, think about that again, and you will see that most people tend to be happier when they have more. See how cheerful you are when you get a jackpot worth $1,000 or receive a larger-than-usual salary in your paycheck at the end of the month.

The traditional logic behind money and happiness is that the harder you work, the more you earn. The more money you get the happier you are. If someone has a job but he doesn't earn much, then he might work harder. If that won't make any change, then he might consider looking for another job. At first, he might try to find a job near where he currently lives. When he finds it difficult, then migration might be a panacea, especially when the dream job happens to be located in another place, be it in the same country or different country. If we take the logic, then migration might lead to a happier life from the materialistic point of view.

In a Third World country, someone's salary may be not enough to afford a decent life for him and his family. However, in a developed country, he may earn more by working on a similar job. In every place, including in some rich countries, low-skilled workers are needed. Since living standards are higher in rich countries, they will give much better salary for low-skilled workers. This is what attracts many people from the Third World countries to work abroad.

A statistical data from 2006 shows that there are more than 3 million Indonesians working abroad, mostly in Malaysia and Middle East countries. Most of them are low-skilled workers. In Malaysia, a maid from Indonesia may collect 600RM or about Rp1.5 million per month whereas if she works as a maid Indonesia, she may only earn Rp300.000 to 900.000 per month.

Let's look at another example: sport. Sports teams often recruit team members from abroad. For example, many soccer clubs actively look for talented players that are foreign nationals to join their teams. On the other hand, there are many soccer players who want to play in another country's league because with their skill, they don't earn that much in their home countries. As we can see, many players from Asia, Latin America, and Africa play in European leagues. These leagues in Europe are definitely prestigious and have many sponsors so that they can offer high salary to their sportsmen. A dream-comes-true story for a soccer player would be transferred along with a very high amount of money and paid with an enormous amount of weekly salary.

In terms of money transferred in the soccer world, LA Galaxy from the States recently made a history. The club is estimated to pay around $250 million to transfer David Beckham to the club. It is also said that Beckham's weekly salary is about $500,000. A very popular sport in the States, basketball, is also famous as a good way to earn money, especially if you are an NBA player. Although there is a limit, a good basketball player can earn up to $40 million. Now that we have provided you with some stories, we hope that you can understand better why migration can always be seen as a viable option to live better and presumably gives some happiness.

References :
http://bolanova.com/2007/10/03/salary-cap
http://worldsoccer.about.com/b/2007/01/11/david-beckham-signs-for-la-galaxy.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_football_transfers_Winter_2007-08
http://www.suaramerdeka.com/harian/0609/12/nas16.htm
http://www.detiknews.com/index.php/detik.read/tahun/2007/bulan/11/tgl/12/time/145857/idnews/851399/idkanal/10
http://www.detiknews.com/index.php/detik.read/tahun/2006/bulan/03/tgl/20/time/162544/idnews/562163/idkanal/10