A friend of mine told me this story. he went to visit China and was astonished by the size of the steel mills there. They made the local one he was working for look like a garage. To go from one office to another, you had to ride a golf cart.

But that was not what greatly impressed him. What did were the managers who came to greet him and tour him around. They were mostly young, some in T-shirts and jeans, some in shorts, adorned with the trappings of yuppies: expensive watches, the latest cell phones, signature casuals. Many toted degrees from Ivy League schools in the United States.

Why didn’t they work in the US after studying there? my friend asked. His hosts couldn’t grasp the concept. Why in God’s (or the party’s) name should they? they said. The point of studying abroad was coming home and putting what they studied to use.

In any case, they added, China was booming. It offered more opportunities and conferred a higher social status on managers, particularly those who had studied abroad. This was many years ago, long before the recession kicked in in the US. As it turned out, coming home was a prescient choice, if it was a choice at all.

I remembered this when I read about Edgardo Angara pleading with Filipino students abroad to come home and put to use what they’ve learned for God and country. “Let’s make our students abroad feel they have the support and commitment of the government.”

It’s not a bad call, in principle. Particularly these days when the greener pastures are turning brown with the recession. In fact, the pitch ought to be made to Filipinos abroad generally and not just to students, particularly those who have retired but are still in possession of skills, apart from their senses.

This call, however, has little chance of being heeded in the immediate future.

For many reasons., not least the mindset of studying abroad to bring home knowledge and skill is not ingrained in the Filipino. Quite the opposite. The notion of someone who took an MA or Ph.D. in an American university coming home to teach in UP or some other school is regarded as an act of insanity. Despite the desolate landscape of the US today, characterized by closed malls, closed factories and closed minds, we still think our compatriots are lucky to be there. When I was there last June, several people asked me why I hadn’t thought of living there, assuring me that with my skills I wouldn’t go hungry. I just smiled, finding the challenge of arguing for a paradigm shift too daunting.

Quite apart from that, the last thing Filipino students abroad can count on is that their government is behind them. Or probably more to the point, the first thing they can count on is that their government is behind them—lifting their wallets from their back pockets. That’s true, in fact, not just of Filipino students abroad, that’s true of Filipinos abroad. Hell, that’s true of Filipinos at home.

Not all the complaints of Filipinos abroad about their country are whiny. Or not all the reasons they cite for not wanting to go home are petty. Some of them are perfectly understandable. Chief of them is that at least countries like the US have rules, the Philippines does not. At least countries like the US offer means of redress, quite apart from avenues of success, the Philippines does not. You’re a Filipino in the US, you’re a second-class citizen. You’re a Filipino in the Philippines, you’re nothing.

All this brings me—surprise, surprise—to the good news. Angara’s plea may not be heeded under his favorite government, but it may be heeded after it’s gone.

What gives me to hope is the spirit of voluntarism that has sprung up of late in all its epic glory. I do not just mean our spontaneous or instinctive coming together in the aftermath of the typhoons, though that is impressive enough in itself. Truly, the Filipino ceases to be a disaster in times of disaster, rising beyond himself to come to the aid of the beleaguered. Or to those more beleaguered than he. It is a sight to behold.

More than that, I also mean the spirit of voluntarism that has risen in support of Noynoy Aquino’s candidacy. That is the astonishing thing. That Filipinos should show bayanihan or community spirit after calamities is normal, that Filipinos should show kabayanihan or heroism before elections, that is not so normal. The volunteers aren’t just coming from the youth, they’re coming from young and old, artists and artisans, saints and sinners. I know this because I’ve gotten numerous inquiries from people who want to help their favorite candidate and directed them to the appropriate volunteer groups. They want to help for no other reason than that they do, the same compulsion they feel for relief work. Maybe it’s the same thing: They want to give relief to the country—in a more permanent way.

That’s what gives me to hope Filipino students, retired Filipino doctors and engineers, and just about all of our compatriots abroad who ache to do something more in life will want to come home and help, whether they are harking to a plea or not. Conscience is its own plea.

People do need a reason to call a place home. People do need a government that does not drive them away by a rule that banishes justice and the hope for a better world. People do need a government that keeps them home by giving proof their talents are not wasted but used—the creative genius of the Filipino in particular—to fan the country to a dazzling flame. It will take more than global recession to push our compatriots out of expatriation, it will take national inspiration to pull them back into repatriation.

A deeply distrusted government goes and a deeply trusted one comes in, who knows?

Like bedraggled soldiers, they might all be home before Christmas.