ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we explore the relevance of recent policy shifts within global
structures governing international migration and how the control-protection-
dynamics are played out in the specific case of cross-border economic
migration in Asia. In other words, our focus here is on intra-regional
migratory flows, in particular between Southeast and East (SE/E) Asia. The
Asian region is comprised of origin, transit and destination countries, and
the sub-region of SE/E Asia hosts the world’s largest labour-exporting
country – the Philippines – which has in recent years overtaken Mexico as the country with the highest number of workers deployed overseas. Fur-
thermore, the Filipino overseas migrant population is the most widely
dispersed – in close to 200 countries and territories depending on the sources.
It has the most diversified migrant population in terms of skill levels, type
of migrants and destination countries. The feminization of migration is also
clearly pronounced: of all newly deployed and land-based overseas migrant
workers, women represent between 61 and 72 per cent for 1998-2002 and
between 69 and 72 per cent for 2000-02 (Asis 2005). Twenty-five per cent of the world’s seafarers are Filipinos, working on foreign-owned vessels. If
seafarers and rehires were included, the gender distribution would be about
balanced.
