Migrating Beyond Networks: The Implications of the Philippine State’s Labor Export Program for Migration Theory

• In Event: 200 - Section on International Migration Paper Session. New Directions in Migration Theory

Abstract

This article uses the example of the Philippine labor export program to argue that the current theoretical framework for understanding labor migration underestimates the potential impact of sending states on migrant flows. An analysis of the development of the Philippines’ migration since the inception of the labor export program in the 1970s, both in terms of the migrant flow leaving the country each year as well as demographic performance of Philippine workers in global labor markets, demonstrates shifts in the direction and composition of migration that cannot be explained without taking into consideration sending state policies. While few other states have been able to reproduce the Philippine state’s impacts on labor migration, the Philippine labor export program’s impact on labor migration is an anomaly that requires migration theory to reexamine its understanding of how sending states can affect migration.

Author

• Suzy K Lee, New York University