Press
Release
October 7, 2008
Contact: Michelle Mittelstadt
202-266-1910
mmittelstadt@migrationpolicy.org
WASHINGTON – The Migration Policy Institute today released
a new report on how the Philippines manages its major temporary
migration system, one that is unparalleled in scale and scope
worldwide.
The new MPI Insight, Managing
Temporary Migration: Lessons from the Philippine Model,
examines how one traditional migrant-sending country proactively
manages a large-scale, systematic and legal movement of temporary
migrant workers. The report details the Philippine system’s strengths and challenges, and examines whether
it offers lessons for other labor-exporting countries as well as for destination
countries.
Every year, more than a million temporary migrant workers leave
the Philippines to work as nurses, domestic workers, factory
workers or engineers all over the globe. In 2007 alone, Filipino
temporary migrants worked in over 190 countries, each one bearing
an employment contract issued and certified by the Philippine
Overseas Employment Administration.
Legal movements of temporary workers
on this scale are unmatched elsewhere in the developing world.
For many international observers, the Philippines’ system
of managing temporary migration has unrivaled sophistication,
and is a model for other developing countries.
“For all its successes, however, the Philippine
model has its imperfections,” said
MPI Associate Policy Analyst Dovelyn Rannveig Agunias, who authored the report. “There
are some inherent conflicts when the agency responsible for protecting migrant
workers’ welfare also is charged with maximizing work opportunities abroad.”
“Other countries interested in emulating the Philippine example must overcome
this challenge of dual mission,” Agunias added. “And they also must
find ways to provide sufficient funding and personnel, which the Philippine Overseas
Employment Administration presently lacks.”
Despite what she called the
POEA’s “mixed record,” Agunias’ report
concludes the Philippine model offers many important lessons for other developing
countries hoping to expand their temporary migration programs and benefit from
greater global labor mobility.
The report is available online at: www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/Insight_POEA_Oct07.pdf
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The Migration Policy Institute is an independent, non-partisan,
non-profit think tank dedicated to analysis of the movement
of people worldwide. Founded in 2001, MPI provides analysis,
development and evaluation of migration and refugee policies
at the local, national and international levels. It aims to meet
the rising demand for pragmatic and thoughtful responses to
the challenges and opportunities that large-scale migration,
whether voluntary or forced, presents to communities and institutions
in an increasingly integrated world. |
