daa speech on migration

7/29/2019 DAA Speech on Migration

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IMPROVING GOVERNANCE IN MIGRATION: LESSONS FROM THEPHILIPPINE EXPERIENCE

A paper delivered by Dr. Dante A. Ang, Secretary, Commission on FilipinosOverseas, for the Initiative for Policy Dialogue Task Force on InternationalMigration

Dr. Joseph Stiglitz, co-president of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue,

Professors Jeronimo Cortina, Enrique Ochoa-Reza and Hamid Rashid, co-

chairs for the Migration Task Force of the IPD, my colleague in public

service, Commissioner Marcelino Libanan of the Philippine Bureau of

Immigration, distinguished guests, experts and scholars in migration, good

morning.

I stand before you today to talk about my countrys experience in

international migration. Having wrested with this phenomenon for centuries

now, we can perhaps offer lessons that could be of help to other countries.

The International Organization for Migration meets every year. In the

number of times we were host, weve seen the enthusiasm with which

government around the world participate in the meeting, that they are

become increasingly aware of the link between migration and development

The Philippines is recognized by international organizationssocial,

civic, religious, and educationalas a model in migration management. And

modesty aside, the reputation is well-deserved. Through the years, we have

enacted laws regulating private recruitment agencies that have sprung to

meet the growing demand for jobs overseas and set up government

structures instituting programs for the welfare of the departing nationals. It


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was a process that occurred gradually as we cope with the great number of

people leaving the country in search of opportunities overseas.

Overview of Philippine Migration History

The first recorded Filipino migration was in 1417, when a member of

Sulu royalty, Paduka Batara, led a trade mission to China. In the 18th

Century, when the Philippines was a Spanish colony, many Filipino seafarers

in the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade jumped ship. Some settled in Mexico,

others found their way to the Louisiana bayous.

Our first brush with systematic migration, however, was in 1906,

when we started sending sugar cane cutters to Hawaii. By then the

Philippines had reverted to the United States after more than 300 years of

Spanish rule. To satisfy nationalistic longings of Filipinos, the North

American colossus consented to establish a Commonwealth run by the native

elite, and that required training in government. Against this backdrop, a

wave of scholars called pensionados left to attend American colleges and

universities.

After World War II, Filipinos who served in the U.S. Armed Forces

were allowed to migrate to the United States with their dependents. In

subsequent years, an increasing number Filipinos, this time mostly

professionals and skilled workers, leave for Canada, the US, and Australia as

these countries repealed laws barring the entry of Asian migrants in 1962,

1965, and 1966, respectively.

The third wave of Filipino migration came in the form of contract

workers in the 1970s, when the unemployment rate in the Philippines rose


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to 11.8 percent. Towards the end of the Marcos dictatorship in 1985,

unemployment reached 12.7 percent, the highest ever in the countrys

history. At that period in history, Middle East countries, awash in

petrodollars, had embarked on an ambitious infrastructure development.

The stage was now set for the influx of workers, and the then Ministry of

Labor seized the day. The Philippines has since been the worlds leader in

the export of workers, although other countries have subsequently followed

its example.

Apart from the Middle East, legions of Filipino migrant workers have

also been leaving for South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore since these

countries emerged in the 80s and 90s as economic powerhouses in the

region. The types of occupations also shifted, from construction and

engineering services to communication technology, health care, tourism and

related occupations, and, yes, domestic work/

Categories of migration flows from the Philippines

As of December 2006, an estimated 8.23 million overseas Filipinos1

are found in over 190 countries, and they fall under three distinct

categories: 3.5 million permanent or settler migrants, mostly in the United

States, Canada, Australia, Japan, United Kingdom and Germany; 3.8 million

guest workers known as overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in local parlance,

in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Japan, and, in

recent years, Italy and Spain; and more than 800,000 illegal or

undocumented workers. Because of their status, undocumented workers are

1 2006 Stock Estimate of Overseas Filipinos. Commission on Filipinos Overseas


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most vulnerable to exploitation, thus posing a continuing challenge to the

Philippines as well as to the host countries.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Program

In 1974, the Philippines enacted the Labor Code, which paved the

way for the establishment of the Overseas Employment Development Board

(OEDB) and the National Seamen Board (NSB) to oversee worker

deployment, conduct overseas labor market surveys, and regulate private

sector participation in the recruitment and placement industry.

By institutionalizing the overseas employment program, then

President Ferdinand Marcos envisioned an increase in national savings and

investment levels, and in the long run, the transfer of skills that is essential

in the expansion of the countrys industrial base.

In 1982, OEDB and NSB were fused, resulting in the Philippine

Overseas Employment Administration. Since then, this agency has been

responsible for regulating private recruitment agencies, setting benchmark

on acceptable working conditions in the receiving countries, and

adjudicating cases on illegal recruitment as well as labor disputes.

One key aspect of the setup is the enforcement of joint liability

between the local recruitment agency and its foreign principal. Under this

policy, a worker who feels provisions in his work contract are violated by his

employer has the legal option to seek redress in Philippine courts against his

recruitment agency.


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At about the same time the POEA came into being, the Welfare

Training Fund for Overseas Workers, which was created to maintain a pool

of skilled Filipino workers, was reorganized into Overseas Workers Welfare

Administration (OWWA). Aside from its original responsibility, OWWA now

also imposes a fixed migrant worker-employer contribution for every work

contract. The amount serves as premium payment to provide migrant

workers insurance benefits on top of those already extended by their

employers. Originally, the coverage was confined to indemnity in case of

death and disability, whether partial or permanent. Now, the benefits

include small interest loans for the departing worker and retraining

scholarship upon his return, as well as micro financing for livelihood

projects.

After democratic rule was restored in 1986, civil society made its

presence felt in public policy making, and that included insistence that the

government address the social costs of labor migration. At that time, it had

become common for children of school age to have fathers in the Middle

East or mothers in Hong Kong or Singapore.

The Migrant Workers Act of 1995

The much execution of a Filipino domestic helper in Singapore named

Flor Contemplacion, who media reports say was unjustly convicted of

murder, drew an outcry. By no means was Contemplacion the first overseas

Filipino worker to run afoul of the law in another country, but advances in

communications technology have brought the reality in sharp relief. The

local media, powerless to influence events outside the country, turned its


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ire on Filipino Foreign Service officials, accusing them they did not do nearly

enough to defend Contemplacion in court and pressure the Singapore

government to spare her life after her conviction.

Amid calls for a more proactive government, the Philippine Congress

enacted the Migrant Workers and Other Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995. The

legislation created the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers

Affairs, under the Department of Foreign Affairs, charging it with the

responsibility of providing on-site legal assistance to overseas Filipinos in

distress, with provision on the allocation of fund for the purpose. It also

instituted a one-country team approach, placing all attach services

under the administrative leadership of the Head of Mission or the

Ambassador in matters concerning overseas Filipinos in distress.

Through the Migrant Workers Act, the Philippines has developed a

government framework, whereby it seeks to ensure the well-being of

Filipino migrants, at all stages: pre-employment, pre-departure, on-site

deployment and, finally, reintegration.

On the pre-employment level, the POEA, based on information

gathered in more than 80 Philippine embassies and consulates, could ban

the deployment of workers to any country deemed unsuitable as a

destination either because of its deteriorating law and order situation or its

inability or unwillingness to protect the interest of guest workers. Once a

ban is imposed, POEA will not approve any work contract of workers in the

country subject to the prohibition. Unfortunately, people often find ways to


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leave for that country no matter what when the pull of higher wages

beckons.

Take the case of US military camps in Iraq. All Philippine passports

are stamped with a notation not valid for travel to Iraq, yet an estimated

6,647 Filipino workers2 are employed in camps run by an American private

security company. A quick investigation shows, these workers fly to a transit

country such as Kuwait or United Arab Emirates.

POEA also conducts pre-departure briefings consisting of a quick

review of the laws, customs, and practices in the host countries where the

workers are headed.

On-site assistance is perhaps the most important feature of the

countrys migration governance. In 27 countries with high concentration of

Filipino nationals, the Philippine Embassy or Consulate includes an Overseas

Labor Office, which looks after the interest of Filipino workers in distress.

Staffed by a labor attach and a number of welfare officers, the

Overseas Labor Office also runs a halfway home for such workers and

formulate and implement exit strategy in the event of catastrophe or

widespread civil disturbance.

The Philippines always coordinates with the International

Organization for Migration and other relief agencies to facilitate large-scale

repatriation, as in the case of the Iraq Desert Storm and the Lebanon crisis.

If it has to, however, the country, through OWWA, is ready to undertake a

large-scale repatriation of its nationals in that volatile region. And OWWA

2 Cimatu (September 2007). Report to Senate by the Special Envoy to the Middle East.


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has enough funds to do it, too, thanks to the contributions of the workers

themselves.

The National Reintegration Center, established under the Department

of Labor and Employment, helps the returning migrant worker find

livelihood in his own country. The process of reintegration, which starts

while the migrant worker is still abroad, includes counseling on livelihood

opportunities currently available in the country.

Once the workers are back to the country, the government opens up

to them a wide selection of courses to prepare them for jobs in the

hospitality trade and the booming business outsourcing industry. For those

who wish to go into business acumen, it offers microfinance schemes

through cooperatives.

Other legislations affecting overseas Filipinos

For the past 10 years, remittances of Filipino migrants have

contributed US$87 billion to the Philippine economy.3 In 2007, remittances

reached all-time high of US$14.4 billion, accounting for about 10 percent of

the countrys Gross Domestic Product.4 In comparison, the Official

Development Assistance the country receives from its trading partners came

to only US$1.25 billion.5

3 Central Bank of the Philippines4 Tetangco (2008). Governor of the Central Bank of the Philippines5 Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism


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It is this vast amount of remittances that keeps the country afloat

economically.

In grateful appreciation of the role played by migrants, President

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed, Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, Overseas

Absentee Voting Act, and Citizenship Retention and Reacquisition Act. The

Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act hews closely to the provisions of the United

Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime, which the Philippines

ratified two years earlier. Its stated purpose is to provide Filipino migrants

the legal remedies against sexual exploitation, work contract substitutions,

forced labor, and debt bondage, among others.

The Overseas Absentee Voting Act grants Filipino citizens residing

abroad the right to vote in Philippine national elections in absentia, thus

making them feel they have a stake in the countrys political affairs.

On the other hand, the Citizenship Retention and Reacquisition Act

restores citizenship lost in the process of naturalization. Under the law,

former Filipinos can exercise all the rights of citizenship in the country of

their birth. They can own land in the country, engage in business, and

practice their profession, things foreigners cannot do.

Permanent migrants and the Commission on Filipinos Overseas

No picture of the countrys migration history would be complete

without a discussion of those who settle permanently abroad. In fact, there

are 2.4 million Filipinos falling under this category, nearly half of the

diaspora. Of this number, 70 percent reside in the US and make up the

second largest Asian minority in that country. To a certain extent, the


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coontiuous stream of migrants of this type may be attributed to family

reunification policy, where the principal immigrants are allowed to petition

their family members to join them. Like the US, Canada, Australia, New

Zealand, United Kingdom, and Germany look favorably at family

reunification in varying degrees.

At this point, let me point out that Filipinos who acquire foreign

citizenship maintain their ties with the mother country, at least with their

relatives left behind.

It is the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), which keeps the

ties strong between the emigrants and the country of their birth. While

POEA and OWWA cater to the needs of labor migrants, CFO strengthens the

political, economic, and cultural ties between the migrants and the country

country, with the end in view of harnessing their potential for national

development.

CFO is responsible for providing advice to the President and Congress

of the Philippines on the development of policies that affect the Filipinos

overseas. It is for this reason that much of the recent laws expanding the

political and economic rights of overseas Filipinos were incubated in the

Commission.

Institutions are in place, and the laws are strictly enforced to ensure

the welfare and well-being of migrant workers. We cannot declare victory,

however, until the countries that host our people join us in the fight against

exploitation and abuse. In addition to the legal protection they must extend

to the guest workers within its shores, such countries have a moral


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obligation, we believe, help us mitigate the negative consequences of

international migration.

Future policy directions for governance in migration

Migrants of both sexes can fall victim to abuse and exploitation, but

women are especially vulnerable. The increasing number of women joining

the exodus in response to the demand for entertainers, caregivers, and

housekeepers brings this reality home.

Female workers in bars and nightclubs deal with men who think they

are entitled to sex for the price of a few drinks. However, the woman

placed in such a situationand this occurs practically everydaycan always

stand up and leave the drunken customer.

Unfortunately, maids and housebound caregivers do not have such

escape route. The husband may force himself into her or the lady of the

house may inflict harm on her at the slightest provocation, and theres not

much she can do about it.

In a 2001 survey, the Asian Migrant Centre found out that 22 percent

of Filipino foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong experienced abuse, the

most common of which was verbal. The figures are even higher for

Indonesian and Thai domestic workers.6

The most numerous and the worst cases of abuse occur in the Middle

East, especially in those countries where people have a low regard for

women, especially foreign women. Early this year, the Philippine

government imposed a deployment ban of domestic workers to Jordan citing

escalating cases of abuses against domestic workers.

6 Asato (2004). Negotiating Spaces in the Labor Market: Foreign and Local DomesticWorkers in Hong Kong. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2004.


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Upgrading human resource development and training

The POEA started implementing a training program for household

service workers last year. The intention is to upgrade the skills of migrants

falling under this category so that they can enter more desirable labor

markets such as Spain and Italy. It has also adoptedthe first and so far the

only country to have done soa minimum wage for this type of workers. The

goal is to give maids the salary commensurate to their education and skills

and to stop the race to the bottom practice so prevalent in many

receiving countries. Of course, we could prohibit recruitment of maids

altogether, but such a drastic measure would only result in unauthorized

migration for women desperate enough to land a job in a foreign country,

no matter what.

Here, let me correct the impression that we are so obsessed with labor

export. To us sending our excess labor abroad is only a part of national

economic strategy. Our ultimate goal is to train a highly skilled workforce

for the local industry that is now in the process of expansion.

Encouraging Migrants to Become Entrepreneurs

A study conducted by the Asian Development Bank in 2004 shows that

most earnings of overseas workers are used to finance excessive

consumption. It is thus recommended by this regional lending agency that

the government do something to educate overseas Filipino workers on the

productive use of capital. The agency warns that


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The compensatory nature of remittances presents a moral hazard or

dependency syndrome that will likely impede economic growth as recipients

would tend to reduce their participation in productive endeavors.

The challenge is two-fold: first, to create a climate that is conducive

to small start-up busineses; and second, to encourage migrant workers and

their families to save and invest.

Along this line, OWWA offers low interest loans to organized migrant

family circles for the purpose of financing a community grocery store.

In an effort to reduce the risk of business losses, the Department of

Trade and Industry and the Philippine International Trading Corporation

have set up a counseling center to assist migrant workers and their families

who decide to establish small- and medium-scale enterprises.

From all indications the strategy is paying off. It is noted that the

franchising industry owes its growth to the investment of overseas migrant

workers who have decided to turn their earnings into something that would

sustain their familys needs in the long run.

Encouraging return migration

It is estimated that more than 3,000 Filipinos leave the country

everyday. Obviously, all these people will have to come back sooner or

later. This is especially true in the case of overseas Filipino workers in

Middle Eastern countries, where permanent migration is prohibited outright.

The Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 provides the

administrative machinery to address return migration flow. The Re-


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placement and Monitoring Center, created by that law and placed under the

Department of Labor and Employment, provides and mechanism to

reintegrate returning migrant workers into the Philippine society, and this

means identifying their skills and directing them to the appropriate industry

that might need their services.

In 2007, the National Reintegration Center was created, specifically

to help returning migrant workers readjust to life in the country after years

of absence. The Center offers assistance in the search of another job here

and abroad or, if the migrant workers have the aptitude, in establishing a

business venture.

In 1985, the Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA) was created to

make the country a retirement haven for former Filipinos and foreigners.

The program has so far attracted 2,620 retirees, whose especial

requirements generate 10,480 jobs. Feeling there is need to do more,

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered the agency to coordinate more

closely with the private sector to develop residential subdivision that take

the need of retires in consideration.

The Philippines is also capitalizing on its large pool of health

professional to turn the country into medical tourism Mecca. It can do it

too, with low-cost but high standard medical services. Consider the

following example: The cost of heart value disorder repair is about $48,000

in US7; the same procedure can be availed of in an internationally

accredited hospital in the Philippines at 20 percent of that amount8. As for

concerns about quality of healthcare and competence of health workforce,

7 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (2000)8 Medical care rates of the Medical City Hospital in the Philippines (2005)


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the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations

(JCAHO), an independent, nonprofit organization, puts two private hospitals

in the Philippines at par with 15,000 other healthcare organizations and

programs all over the world. It is also a known fact that next to Indians,

Filipinos constitute the largest group of foreign-born physicians and nurses

in the US.

Other private hospitals in the country are in the process of acquiring

he same accreditation

Harnessing diaspora philanthropy

In the last five years, remittances sent home by migrant workers

through formal banking channels accounted for about 9.4 percent of he

countrys Gross National Product. However, a 2004 ADB study shows that

many of the workers utilize informal means of sending money to relatives

back home, so the actual amount of foreign exchange inflow in much higher

It is the nature of Filipinos to seek out their own kind. That explains

the fact that there are over 4,000 organizations, alumni associations, and

professional groups in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and

Germany. All members are proud of heir roots and deeply interested in the

development in the motherland. They contribute cash for the construction

and repair of schools, churches, and water systems in the old hometown.

They grant scholarship to poor but deserving students, create livelihood

opportunities, finance feeding programs for undernourished children.


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For lack of a better term, the academe and non-government

organizations refer to this phenomenon as diaspora philanthropy, where

migrant associations organize to assist development efforts in the home

country.

CFO established Lingkod sa Kapwa Pilipino or LINKAPIL to manage the

outpouring of assistance from Filipino individuals and groups abroad. The

total amount of cash donations went up to record highs in the aftermath of

Mount Pinatubo eruptions in 1989 and disastrous Central Luzon earthquake

in early 1990s. Over the past two decades, the agency received and passed

on to intended beneficiaries P2 billion worth of donations.

CFO, through LINKAPIL, serves as a conduit between Filipinos

overseas and the mother country.

In 1991, the Office of the President instituted a program to recognize

and honor Filipino individuals and groups who contribute to national

development

Lessons from the Philippine experience

The lessons weve learned in migration management are all hard-

earned. There was no benchmark against which we could measure our

progress. Some programs succeed, while others fail to make the grade.

However, failures, as well as success, serve us well. We keep them in mind

We lay bare our experience so that other countries can profit from it.

Hopefully, these countries would someday be able to enrich the pool of

knowledge from which we too could draw for our edification.


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Here, based on our experience, are recommendation that you may

want to consider as you promulgate your response to international

migration.

1) Migrant protection as Cornerstone of Labor Export. Obviously, a

government has limited options when it comes to protecting its nationals in

a foreign country. It is therefore necessary for such a government to

conclude agreements, wherever possible, with receiving countries to set

minimum standards for the protection and welfare of migrant workers. To

begin with, it should adopt a wage floor and insist on the need for humane

treatment that is consistent with international laws. 2) Highly trained

workers key to success of labor export program. A country earns its

reputation from the quality of workers in the global market migrant. It is

therefore important that it should set minimum education requirements for

workers in all job categories and put in place a training program that will

enable them to meet those requirements. Apart from providing departing

workers with the right mix of talent and skills demanded by the receiving

countries, the program, if religiously implemented, would also ensure that

the domestic labor pool is constantly replenished with competent workers,

which is so critical for national, long-term development.

1) A labor export policy should not lead the country toneglect the imperative of national development.

Remittances provide the country with much needed foreign

country, but they cannot replace trade as a driver of

development. Still, there is need to expand the countrys

industrial base against the day when demand from rich


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countries for migrant workers dries up. It is only through

growth in trade that industries can offer higher wages to

retain workers and encourage return migration.

4) A government must deal with problems associated withinternational migration. As tempo of out-migration increases,

the government must provide an adequate regulatory mechanism

to curb illegal practices in the recruitment process and to arrest

and prosecute the criminals that prey on the vulnerability of

migrant workers.

The responsibility receiving countries

It was mentioned in the early part of this paper that countries hosting

migrant workers have to share the responsibility of mitigating the negative

consequences of migration.

Migration is a two-way street. It occurs because one country has

excess labor that another needs. So much has already been said about

migrant sending countries, so let me now shift the discussion to the

receiving countries.

According o the UN Population Diovision, the population of developed

countries are projected to become smaller and older as a result of below-

replacement fertility and increased longevity. In the absence of migration,

the study points out, decline in population size will be greater and ageing

more rapid. Few believe that fertility in thos countries will recover

sufficiently in the foreseeable future to remedy the situation. The paper

concludes that population decline and population ageing will have


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profound and far-reaching consequences, forcing Governments to reassess

many established economic, social and political policies and programmes,

including those relating to international migration.

The truth be told, most developed countries have ambiguous if not

negative perceptions about international migration, when there is very little

empirical evidence to suggest that migration, authorized or not, cause an

undue burden on the host countries social services. Quite contrary, studies

have shown that migrants often occupy jobs that resident nationals shun,

such as that of sanitation, household work, factory work, education, and

health services.9 These are jobs that are clearly essential to public health

and safety, if not a contributing factor to a countrys competitiveness and

productivity. Of course, the September 11 terrorist attacks against the

United States did invoke feelings of xenophobia, discrimination and

paranoia, which cast immigration in altogether sinister light.

But perhaps the best possible evidence that origin countries have

failed to engage receiving countries insofar as migrant rights is concerned, is

the dismal ratification status of the 1990 International Convention on the

Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their

Families. As of May 2007, no major migrant receiving country has ratified

the Convention. Despite having entered into force in July 2003, the absence

of support coming from major receiving countries creates a gap in terms of

protection migrants are entitled to in their host countries. The same

9 Garson (1999). Where do illegal migrants work? The OECD Observer.


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hesitation seems to pervade negotiations under Mode 4 of the General

Agreement in Trade-in Services (GATS)10, as it remains to be at the tail end

of the agenda for liberalization, perhaps because of political sensitivities

attendant to the issue.

Regardless on the trend of negotiations concerning the liberalization

of services under GATS, receiving countries should realize that problems

attendant to migration cannot be addressed by sending countries alone.

Stricter border controls and tighter entry requirements do not address

unauthorized migration, it only perpetuates an underground economy for

smugglers and traffickers to continuously exploit economic migrants, as

evidenced by the United States experience with Mexico. It is within the

interests of both sending and receiving countries to keep migration orderly

and managed, thus, international cooperation remains essential.

In October 2008, the Philippines will host the 2nd Global Forum on

Migration and Development with the theme, Protecting and Empowering

Migrants for Development. The forum shall have three roundtable

discussions focusing on: migration, development and human rights; the

stronger development impact of legal migration; and policy and institutional

coherence and partnerships. I feel that the focus of the forum also seeks to

answer the question of how governance in migration can be improved in the

regional and global levels.

10 Mode 4 refers to Movement of Natural Persons, defined as the supply of a service by a

service supplier of one Member, through presence of natural persons of a Member in theterritory of any other Member.


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First, we believe that the protection of migrants should be a

shared responsibility of both sending and receiving countries, inasmuch as

both benefit from their contribution in their respective economies: in terms

of remittances for the former, and in terms of productivity for the latter.

Migrant workers are entitled to decent work and wage conditions and the

mobile nature of their work situation should reflect on policies related to

the portability of their social security benefits. Migrant workers should be

free from exploitation and abuse and should be provided equal and

impartial access to judicial and quasi-judicial remedies, should they find

themselves in distress. Part of this shared responsibility is the recognition

that migrants can be active agents of development in their host and origin

countries, and that part of the solution lies in reducing emigration pressures

from host countries by leveraging on remittances to spur development in

origin countries.

Second, we believe that legal migration provides the best

framework for achieving development in home countries. This means

sending countries, if they have none, should create unencumbered

structures that facilitate migration orderly. Host countries, on the other

hand, should strive to create greater transparency in their migration

frameworks and labor market needs. As much as practicable, host

governments should seek to establish global communities that create

linkages between the host and origin countries in terms of training,

education and employment. These global communities not only serve to


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enhance the integration of migrants in their host communities, it also

provides a mechanism for their return in their home countries and

facilitates transfer of skills and technology.

Lastly, we believe that receiving countries should take a more

proactive role in regional consultative processes insofar as mitigating

the consequences of brain drain and leveling the playing field insofar as

trade in services is concerned. Education is a form of public investment

that origin countries fail to utilize when their nationals migrate due to the

pull of higher wages. As such, we feel that remittances do not fully

compensate the opportunities that are lost to a country whose skilled

workforce opts to migrate. We applaud receiving countries which have

instituted reverse brain drain arrangements or developed ethical guidelines

for recruitment of health professionals from developing countries.11 Where a

fully liberalized trade in services is untenable, increased trade and foreign

direct investment in origin countries may substitute for migration and

further reduce emigration pressures through local job creation.

As I draw this presentation to a close, I wish to share with everyone

thoughts about the Filipino diaspora by a Filipina teen who won the 2004

International Public Speaking Competition sponsored by the English Speaking

Union. In her winning piece, she said:

11 This is particularly true in the case of the United Kingdom and Bahrain.


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A borderless world presents a bigger opportunity, yet one that is not

so much abandonment but an extension of identity. Even as we take,

we give back.

We are the 40,000 skilled nurses who support the UK's National Health

Service. We are the quarter-of-a-million seafarers manning most of

the world's commercial ships. We are your software engineers in

Ireland, your construction workers in the Middle East, your doctors

and caregivers in North America, and, your musical artists in London's

West End.

Nationalism isn't bound by time or place. People from other nations

migrate to create new nations, yet still remain essentially who they

are. British society is itself an example of a multi-cultural nation, a

melting pot of races, religions, arts and cultures. We are, indeed, in a

borderless world!

Leaving sometimes isn't a matter of choice. It's coming back that is.

Indeed, a very poignant description of the Filipino diaspora from one

so young and so hopeful. I hope that my presentation has contributed

significantly to our discourse this morning and towards moving the global

dialogue on migration forward.


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From the Philippines, our heartfelt thanks for your time and

attention. Mabuhay!

daa speech on migration

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