Migrants smile

In all the major cities I have been to I kept noticing poignant smiles of Filipino. New York, London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Hongkong and almost everywhere you could find Filipinos the raison d'etre is to escape poverty in the country. I am just wondering about the perflexing smile though. As regards to the smile of Filipino migrant workers it is sincere but there is a hidden sense of bitterness. I was expecting a sort of victorious and vivacious smile for someone who had escaped the fangs of hunger and lack of sheer material wealth. But their smile is an evidence to the contrary. It is not a smile of total fulfillment.

Their smile is a concealment of a worse condition than poverty. The misery of not being loved, wanted and cared for. The misery of being away from what you call your own.