Labors of Globalization: Emergent State Responses

Protection of temporary foreign workers: the case of Filipinos in Canada

“…The Philippine government adopted an official labour-exporting policy in 1974 when the Middle East oil crisis of 1973 necessitated the need to acquire foreign currency (Bach & Solomon, 2008). The policy was supposed to last for a short time, but the country's dependence on remittances has turned it into a permanent measure (Bach & Solomon, 2008). The policy has since helped to alleviate the pressure of unemployment and to reduce foreign exchange deficits (De Castro, 2010).…”

“…The Philippines has adopted laws and created government departments to protect its overseas workers, including those in Canada. For example, the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 recognizes that Filipino workers' welfare, not their economic value to the country, is to be protected (Bach & Solomon, 2008). Various provisions penalize illegal recruitment (Dacuycuy, 2009) and require the government to pay for return fare of any worker whose employment agency refuses to do so (Migrante International, 2009).…”

States or parties? Emigrant outreach and transnational engagement

“…Desperate for both revenue and legitimacy (Bach and Soloman, 2008; Rodriguez, 2002), Marcos embarked on a two-track strategy to mobilize overseas earnings for homeland development. First, he reached out to permanent settlers in the United States and other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, creating the ‘Balikbayan’ program to attract them back as tourists and investors in 1973 and establishing the Commission on Filipinos Overseas in the President’s Office in 1980.…”

“…On the other hand, state outreach became more responsive and inclusive. First, Congress passed the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, which strengthened the state’s role in assisting OFWs, created an Undersecretary of Migrant Workers’ Affairs, and reserved three seats for OFWs on the 12-seat boards of the OWWA and the POEA (Bach and Solomon, 2008). Second, the state finally extended its outreach to include political rights.…”

African states, global migration, and transformations in citizenship politics

“…Gradually, the perception of African emigrants in their homeland has begun to change from 'traitors' to 'patriots', 'ambassadors,' and/or 'development partners' (Shaw 2007). Rather than stem or reverse this unprecedented emigration of their citizens, many governments have jumped onto the diaspora-development bandwagon of older emigration states (see Patterson 2006, Margheritis 2007, Bach and Solomon 2008 and adopted policies explicitly seeking to engineer or strategically construct and nurture intimate links between African diaspora or emigrant populations and their homelands. Thus, Akyeampong concludes that 'As African migrants enter this global arena, their governments have taken tentative steps after them.…”