Extending the Arms of the State: Overseas Filipinos and Homeland Development

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Extending the Arms of the StateOverseas
Filipinos and Homeland Development
Neil G. RuizPh.D. CandidateDepartment of
Political ScienceMassachusetts Institute of
Technologynruiz_at_mit.edu
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What Motivated my Research?

• Discovery of my Transnational Home
• A Personal Journey Familial Connections with
  those left behind in the Philippines
• Counterfactual Case if Parents Never Migrated
• Research Question How are states channeling the
  resources of their overseas population into
  developing the country of origin?

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Key Focus of Presentation

• The role the Philippine State has played in
  facilitating/hindering the Filipino Diaspora from
  being a resource for economic development in the
  Philippines?

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Overview

• Filipinos at Home and Abroad
• Capturing the Four Resources of Migration for
  Homeland Development in the Philippines
• 3) Lessons Drawn from the Philippine Case
• 4) Making Use of the Four Rs of Migration for
  Homeland Development

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Filipinos at Home

• Forty Years Ago, Philippines was considered The
  Asian Nation most likely to succeed
• Now, it has be considered
• East Asias Stray Cat (Vos 1996)
• Demographics
• Population 84.6 million (growing at 2 per year)
• GDP per capita 3,840
• Unemployment Rate 11
• Population below Poverty Line 40
• Filipinos are Leaving because of Little to No
  Opportunities at Home
• More talk about how to market Filipinos abroad
  as there was about marketing Filipinos goods
  abroad

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Filipinos Abroad

• Push and Pull Factors
• Push High Unemployment, Economic Crisis at Home
• Pull Demand for Labor in the OPEC countries in
  1970s, Need for skilled manual workers and
  skilled service workers in 1980s/1990s in Middle
  East and Asian neighbors, and Ageing populations
  in Industrialized Countries
• Exporting Labor as State Policy
• Marcos began in the 1974 in response to push and
  pull factors
• Created Overseas Employment Development Board
  (OEDB)
• Demographics of Filipinos Abroad
• Population 7.5 million spread through 141
  different countries
• Rate of Deployment 800,000 leave per year as
  documented contract workers
• What they do Range from domestic workers,
  entertainers, seafarers, to nurses and doctors
• Remittance Sent annually
• Officially 7-8 Billion
• Unofficial Estimates 11-14 Billion
• More than Double of Official Development
  Assistance (ODA)

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Stock Estimate of Overseas Filipinos as of
December 2002
Source Commission on Filipinos Overseas, Stock
Estimate of Overseas Filipinos, Released in
first quarter, 2003. Asia (West) includes Saudi
Arabia and Middle East countries.
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Linking the Philippine State with the Filipino
Diaspora

• R.A. 8042 Migrant Workers and Overseas
  Filipinos Act of 1995
• An Act to institute the policies of overseas
  employment and establish a higher standard of
  protection and promotion of welfare of migrant
  workers, their families and overseas Filipinos in
  distress, and for other purposes

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The Four Rs of Migration

• Resources of the Migrant
• 1) Remittances
• 2) Returns
• Resources of the Sending Country
• 3) Recruitment
• 4) Representation

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(1) Remittances
Source Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank
of the Philippines).
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Programs for Remittances

• State Programs
• Mandatory Remittances
• Saving Schemes
• Social Security System (SSS) Flexi-Fund
• Pag-ibig Overseas Program
• Proposed OFW Savings Bond Program
• Reducing Costs and Increasing Savings/Production
• Asian Development Bank (ADB) study
• Philippine Overseas Employment Administration
  (POEA) Visa Electron Card
• Philanthropy
• Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO)

• Non-State Programs
• Unlad Kabayan Migrant Services Foundation
• Economic Resource Center for Overseas Filipinos
  (ERCOF)
• Migrant Hometown Associations

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(2) Returns

• State Programs
• Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA)
  Emergency Repatriation Fund
• OWWA Reintegration Program
• Re-Placement and Monitoring Center
• Technical Education and Skills Development
  Authority (TESDA)

• Non-State Programs
• Balikbayani
• Brain Gain Network (BGN)
• Science Technology Advisory Board (STAC)

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(3) Recruitment

• State Programs
• Philippine Overseas Employment Administration
  (POEA)
• Travel Advisory/Information Dissemination

• Non-State Programs
• Private Recruitment Agencies
• Pre-Departure Orientation Seminars (PDOS) by
  NGOs and Recruitment Associations
• Brain Gain Network (BGN)

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(4) Representation

• State Programs
• Labor, Welfare Attaches, and Filipino Resource
  Centers
• Office of Legal Assistance for Migrant Workers
  Affairs (OLAMWA)
• R.A. 9189 The Overseas Absentee Voting Act of
  2003
• R.A. 9225 Citizenship Retention and
  Reacquisition Act of 2003

• Non-State Programs
• Numerous NGOs from the very radical (Migrante)
  to the more practical (Economic Resource Center
  for Overseas Filipinos)
• NGOs played major role in passage of
  Absentee-Voting and Dual Citizenship Laws

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Lessons from the Philippine Case

• Strengths
• Elaborate Institutions, Laws and Policies for the
  Diaspora
• Regulation and Monitoring of Overseas Contract
  Labor and Emigration
• Representation Abroad

• Weaknesses
• Problems of State Capacity
• Distrust of Government
• Labor Export Delaying Domestic Economic
  Development

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What Can States Do for their Diasporas?

• Remittances
• Provide mechanisms for reducing costs of sending
  remittances, mechanisms for channeling
  remittances for development
• Returns
• Create networks and programs for eventual return
  and re-integration
• Domestic Economic Development policy to create
  more jobs at home
• Recruitment
• Monitor recruitment of labor export
• Protect the diaspora abroad through mechanisms of
  the sending state
• Representation
• Provide full citizenship rights of the sending
  country abroad

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Recommendations for Using the Four Rs for
Development
Making Using of the Four Rs for Development
Road to Success Build Linkages between the
Different Actors involved making use of the
Resources of Migration
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Thank you!
nruiz_at_mit.edu