Other realities SOME analysts believe that economic- and migration-related realities that the pandemic dragged this year will lead to lesser remittances for countries that got higher remittances last year. Caron and Tiongson noted return migrations will disable migrants from earning extra incomes and sending more remittances. The Philippines, for example, repatriated and assisted some 327,511 land-based and sea-based migrant workers last year. Estimates from Sri Lanka show about 60,000 migrants returned in 2020. Weeraratne also doubts 2021 remittances will be more than last year for Sri Lanka. She noted this may be due to lower migrant worker departures, as current and returned migrants displaced from their jobs “have sent most savings and terminal (employment) bene ts.” Takenaka and her ADB colleagues recommended that migrants’ origin-country governments should further help returned migrants and their households receive remittances. Displaced migrant workers and departing migrants stranded at home, the ADB analysts add, can be assisted through job referrals, skills training and entrepreneurship assistance. In the long run, Takenaka and colleagues said, nancial education and skills training can help migrants “improve their capabilities as well as their resilience to (economic) shocks.” Water’s scent GUCO said that just like the Covid-19 virus, the experiences of 2020 have brought unseen scars and pain from invisible wounds. He said when the lockdown on Valetta was lifted, he immediately went to the Grand Harbor to remember the scent the sea water brings. This, he said, is one of the memories of the prelockdown period he wants to recall; not the anxieties the mobility restrictions brought. No matter how one explains things to family members, they may never understand, he said. “They believe that since I live in Europe, I earn big time,” Guco said. “They ask money from me; but during those times, I cannot give any. There will be moments in which you will just keep things to yourself. Hence, he says, he tries to ll his lungs with the scent of the sea water 0:00 5:07 as the scent of money has become a faint memory for his olfactory senses.