TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION

TRANSMIGRANTS

Are immigrants whose daily lives depend on multiple and constant interconnections across international borders and whose public identities are configured in relationship to more than one nation-state.

Within the Philippines, there has been much speculation about the costs of migration:

The problems borne by migrants;

Anxieties about the destabilizing impacts of migration on families;

Apprehensions about materialism, and so forth.

In a strange twist, the Philippines has become so successful as a labor exporter that it has failed to develop and strengthen development processes.

The target to send a million workers every year is a telling indicator that migration will be an important part of the country’s future development plans and prospects.

• Even without government involvement, labor migration from the Philippines likely will persist thanks to social networks, social capital, and social remittances that have flourished.

• Filipino society has become migration-savvy, having developed the ability to respond and to adjust to the changing demands of the global labor market.

•Although it is acknowledged that migrants and their families have benefitted from labor migration, the economic impacts beyond the family level are less tangible.

•While it is acknowledged that remittances have buoyed the country’s economy, the development impacts have not been clearly felt.

Perceptions of the international labor market woven their way into the educational and work aspirations of Filipinos.

Individuals make decisions based on perceptions of what would be beneficial for them.

But those decisions can have a cumulative effect on communities and the country.

•While the Philippines cannot stop people from leaving, the country will need to explore how migration can be an instrument for development.

•The Philippines can learn much from international discussions and reflections on migration and development taking place in other countries.