The Quality of Life of Muslim Traders in Iloilo City, Philippines

This study attempted to evaluate the quality of life of Muslim traders in Iloilo City. They have traded in this city and resided in its vicinity for several years after migrating from Lanao del Sur when martial law was declared by the then President of the Republic of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos in 1972. Most of these Muslim traders were Maranaos who fled and found their way to the peaceful city of Iloilo. The respondents in the study were the 63 Muslim traders in Iloilo City who were selected through convenience sampling method. In addition, data were gathered for the year 2013-2014. The data gathering instrument was adopted from the Quality of Life Index (QLI) generic version III subjected to computer-process and graphically displayed the weighted mean scores of the total quality of life and subdomains using the boxplot presentation. The results revealed that the weighted mean scores for the overall quality of life with all subdomains of the respondents were above 15. This means that Muslim traders perceived the quality of their life as extremely good while they establish their business in the city. Further, they have accepted and established their current condition in Iloilo City especially on health and functioning, economic status, psychological and spiritual and family domains.

Keywords: degree of satisfaction, migrants, Muslim traders, quality of life