At the beginning of 2011, the most expensive cities (excluding rent) are:
- Oslo, Norway (CPI 149.26)
- Stavanger, Norway (145.65)
- Zurich, Switzerland (143.93)
- Geneva, Switzerland (143.71)
- Bergen, Norway (142.46)
- Basel, Switzerland (141.12)
- Lausanne, Switzerland (136.41)
- Lucerne, Switzerland (133.04)
- Perth, Australia (130.15)
- Copenhagen, Denmark (123.87)

The least expensive cities in 2011 are Indian cities: Coimbatore, Pune, Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad, followed by Islamabad and Karachi in Pakistan.

Rent is the most expensive in New York, followed by San Francisco (USA), Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) and Lucerne (Switzerland).

Cities with the lowest rent are Changchun (China) and Karachi (Pakistan).

On the country level, the most expensive countries in 2011 are Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, Australia, Ireland and the Netherlands.

The least expensive countries in 2011 are India, Pakistan, Bolivia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand and Macedonia.

Right now, for example, a Filipina woman is trying to get her passport back from her previous host family that took it from her two months ago. She had problems and did not get along with the family, and now she wants to leave, says the Filipino General Consulate in Denmark to the online newspaper Avisen.dk.

Without her passport, she is unable to use the plane ticket that was supposed to bring her back to the Philippines, says General Consul Poul Krogh.

“The woman has been with her host family for a year, but when she wanted to leave she couldn’t get her passport back. Now the case is being processed at the Filipino embassy in Oslo,” he says.

The woman left the family because she was no longer able to work 14-15 hours per day. She was ordered to clean the host family’s home as well as with other members of the family, which goes strictly against all the au pair regulations.

Women fear losing their visa
Also the Churches’ Integration Services (KIT), which is in contact with the majority of the Filipina au pairs, have had several inquiries from au pairs whose families have seized their passports.

Recently, a woman was forced to work at the host family’s restaurant in the town of Skagen in northern Jutland. The family had taken her passport from her so that she could not leave.

KIT gave the woman a ticket to go to Norway where she was able to stay with friends, but she never got her passport back. She never reported the case to the police, which is not unusual according to Hans Henrik Lund, the leader of KIT. He says that the au pairs are afraid of being deported, because they no longer work as au pairs.

”The power is always with the Danish family, who can threaten to report the au pair to Immigration Services if they don’t do as they are told. And the Filipina women are well aware that their chance of winning is quite poor if they report the case themselves,” Hans Henrik Lund explains.

A hidden problem
Only on rare occasions, the authorities are informed when passports have been seized.

“But just because it is not reported it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen,” says Mette Pårensgaard, who is Office Manager at the Au Pair and Intern Office at the Immigration Services.

She says that every time the Immigration Services have information meetings for the filipina au pairs, the women ask about what to do if their families seize their passports. They have all heard that this has happened to others.

”We tell the girls that they should never ever hand over their passports. The host family can have a copy of the passport if they absolutely insist,” says Mette Pårengaard.

Illegal and humiliating
Having your passport taken away from you is a violating and traumatic experience, says language teacher Anne Grautier, who has taught about 1000 Filipina au pairs at a Danish language school.

“The girls are devastated – they feel declared incapable of managing their own affairs. Very humiliating for them,” she explains.

Neither the Police of Northern Zealand nor Europol have been able to inform Avisen.dk about the number of Filipino passports that are reported stolen or lost in Denmark every year.

From ScandAsia

http://avisen.dk/gidsel-trick-vaerter-stjaeler-filippinske-pas_130036.aspx

“There are still apprehensions on the part of Norway particularly on the issue of ‘brain drain’ and the language training,” Lagman said in an interview.

“But we have 60,000 nurses produced every year, and enrollment for such course is not going down. We have an oversupply of nurses and we do not see a draining in our medical pool by increasing our deployment overseas,’’ he said.

According to Lagman, most European countries are now looking at the impact of social migration and do not want to take advantage of countries that are experiencing the brain drain phenomenon.

Norway labor and health officials are expected to visit the Philippines within the year to continue talks on ways to create employment for Filipino health workers.
Norway is open for employment and has huge requirement for nurses, said Lagman.

Should the deployment of Filipino nurses to Norway pushes through, he said the Philippines will be gaining so much not only from the job opportunities but also from the skills learned by the workers while in that country.

Currently, he said the country offers good compensation for health workers ranging from $3,000 to $7,000 per month.

Earlier, Norway had opened its doors to Filipino engineers and offering salaries ranging from $5,000 to $7,000 per month.

Apart from Norway, Lagman said Denmark is also open for Filipino workers although details on possible employment are yet to be discussed.

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/262768/norway-may-hire-filipino-health-workers

Harald asks: “Hvem er Esther?“ Then the students read out loud: “Esther er den søteste jenta på skolen.” Literally “Who is Esther?” “Esther is the nicest girl at the school.”

When entering JeaHa Norsk Foreign Languages Center in Manila you are met by a Norwegian and a Filipino flag put together on the wall in the small hallway.

Intermediate and newbies
There are two classes in the language school this day, beginners and intermediate. Harald Frydenlund is teaching the trained and his wife Jeane is teaching the newbies. Jeane is Filipina herself and has lived in Norway for 19 yeas, where she worked as assistant teacher in schools and kindergartens.

The classes go on in both Norwegian and English, but mainly Norwegian as answers and questions are written on the whiteboard in Norwegian:
“Papa sitter i stolen og soler sig.” Which the Filipino students then more or less cautious read out loud.

In front of the whiteboard Harald in his blue canvas trousers, blue polo t-shirt, brown deck shoes, and steel glasses perfectly fits the picture of the Scandinavian teacher.

Two worlds – Norway and Philippines
The subject for debate in the intermediate class this day is important moments in life. The Christian confirmation, the age of criminal responsibility, and the legal age.
One thing that especially surprises the Filipinos is the criminal responsibility age and how prisons are in Norway, according to Harald.
“The inmates have their own cell with television, bed, table, good food, and partly open doors,” he says. Which seems to be in sharp contrast to Filipino standards by the reaction of the students.

Norway ASAP
Allen Jawali is one of the students in the in intermediate class. Her dream is to work as a nurse in Norway. She is registered at a agency who helps her find the job overseas, but she will only be able to go if she improves her Norwegian:
“It’s like a big competition in my agency. Only the persons with the best language skills have the possibility to go to Norway,” says Allen Jawali.

Allen explains that the Norwegian pronunciation is very difficult for her, but that she hopes that she will soon go to Norway with help from her skilled teacher.

To know your background
Harald and his wife have lived three years in the Philippines with their two children, and for now the family doesn’t know when it will return to Norway:
“Originally, before leaving Norway, Jeane and I spoke about 2-5 years here and then back. But right now I think it could be ten years,” says Harald.

The couple decided to move to Philippines because they thought their children should know their background, as Jeane is Filipina.

And then after living a while in Philippines Jeane got the idea to start a Norwegian language school:
“I saw an ad in the paper about foreign language classes and got the job,” says Jeane and continues: “Soon I realised how high the prices and bad quality was offered the Filipinos. Then I proposed Harald that we should try to make our own. And so we did.”

The dream about Norway
The Norwegian government demands all new citizens to speak Norwegian, everyone has to pass a exam to prove their language skills.

JeaHa Language School has a cooperation with an agency who sends Filipino nurses to Norway. And for them it is a good opportunity to train language skills while staying in the Philippines, and then be ready for their new life in Norway when they arrive.

But also other types of students come to Harlad and Jeane’s school:
“Many of our students come here because they want to work in Norway, but others come here because of love. They have meet their Norwegian love and decided to move together in Norway and they also need to learn Norwegian.”

“We started this school to help Filipinos, who like Jeane, have a dream about Norway. We simply help them to make this dream happen.”

Hello everybody. How’s life going? Well for me here in Oslo, Norway, just fine but still cold and freezing…hehehe. Soon snow will fall, I don’t want to imagine myself walking in the snow, you know why? Brrrrr…i will freeze to death! It’s just a month and 10 days since I came here and of course my body will not adapt that so easyly.

Now the place is very cold and I can see ice on the grass but it’s not snow yet. The temperature is going down, around 5pm its -0 degree. Brrrr…I don’t want to go out anymore, after I came from school i just want to stay inside and turn on the heater’s temperature so high. Funny thing is I still want to walk and walk in town after school and look for cheaper shop i could find even if it’s freezing outside.

Well you can see what I’m wearing. Three clothes plus one thick coat, gloves, hat, and thick scarf.

Tonight we will watch the movie ‘This Is It’ by Michael Jackson, we don’t want to watch it yesterday because it’s the first day of releasing the movie and we are sure the cinema is full, also tomorrow and until Sunday, but I hope tonight we will not be rushing with people.

Well I will just tell you what is it really about, I’m also curious and excited about the movie, who is not, right?

See you again.

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