Philippine Migration Research Network

NARRATING PANDEMIC IMMOBILITIES IN THE NATION OF EMIGRATION

In celebration of the Month of Overseas Filipinos, the Philippine Migration Research Network (PMRN), with the support of the Philippine Social Science Council, co-organized a book launch with the UP Department of Geography and the UP Population Institute on November 28, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., at the Pilar Herrera Hall, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of the Philippines Diliman. The event drew 75 in-person attendees.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, immobility shaped the experiences of Filipinos in a nation known for its migrant workers. Public health restrictions and successive lockdowns halted and limited mobility both within the Philippines and across borders.

Dr. Yasmin Ortiga’s book, Stuck at Home: Pandemic Immobilities in the Nation of Emigration, asks a central question: What happens when workers encouraged to emigrate are suddenly unable to leave? The book argues that “migration governance involves not only regulating people’s movement, but also managing the meaning and implications of how they remain in place,” and examines competing narratives of immobility through the experiences of cruise ship workers and nurses who were prevented from leaving during the pandemic.

“This gem of a book is an invitation to reflect on what we have learned from the crisis of the pandemic. It offers lessons, questions, and cautionary tales to enlighten us as we move forward in the spheres of research, teaching, advocacy, and policymaking,” said Dr. Marla Asis, PMRN Steering Committee member, in her blurb for the book. Dr. Asis, Senior Researcher at the Scalabrini Migration Center, served as a discussant during the launch alongside Dr. Evangeline Katigbak-Montoya of the De La Salle University Department of International Studies.

The Month of Overseas Filipinos is celebrated every December through Proclamation No. 276 issued by President Corazon C. Aquino to honor overseas Filipinos who contributed to restoring Philippine democracy and advancing national development through their taxes and remittances. In 2007, Administrative Order No. 202 created the Inter-Agency Committee for the Celebration of the Month of Overseas Filipinos (IAC-MOF), of which PMRN is an active member.

The book launch of Dr. Ortiga, a PMRN member, contributes to an important conversation on migration from the perspective of the sending country—an area that remains underexplored in migration studies. Discussions on migration regimes and governance continue to play a key role in advocating for effective, pro-migrant policies in a post-pandemic Philippines where mobility and migration remain central to our national narrative.

Join us for the official book launch of Stuck at Home: Pandemic Immobilities in the Nation of Emigration!

Discover how the Philippines’ aspiring migrants and returning workers navigated and negotiated the meaning of immobility during COVID-19.

🗓 November 28, 2025 (Friday)
🕑 2:00–4:00 PM
📍 Pilar Herrera Hall, CSSP, UP Diliman

Listen to and join the migration conversations with Dr. Yasmin Y. Ortiga, book author and member of the Philippine Migration Research Network, and discussants Dr. Marla Asis of the Scalabrini Migration Center and Dr. Evangeline Katigbak-Montoya of the De La Salle University.

In collaboration with the UP Department of Geography and the UP Population Institute, with the support of the Philippine Social Science Council, this event is PMRN's contribution to the celebration of the Month of Overseas Filipinos.

(Register through the link in the comment section)

Calling all migration advocates, policy professionals, and researchers!

Join us in an online session that will spotlight the importance of research and data in advancing migration and development efforts.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐞:
From Evidence to Impact: The Role of Research in Migration and Development

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬:

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟. 𝐓𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐛𝐚𝐢
Topic 1: “Migration Research for Policy Innovation and Development”

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟. 𝐀𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐫
Topic 2: “Migration and Development: Evidence from the Philippines”

📅 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: December 09, 2025, Tuesday
⏰ 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞: 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM (Philippine Standard Time)
⏰ 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦: Zoom and FB Live

𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤: https://bit.ly/CFOMigrationTalks

This event is open to the 𝐏𝐔𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐂. Be sure to secure your spot and join insightful conversations related to the Filipino diaspora!

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𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘍𝘖 𝘔𝘪𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘍𝘖 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘰𝘯 𝘬𝘦𝘺 𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢 𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵.

CONGRATULATIONS, PMRN!

Officers of the Philippine Migration Research Network (PMRN) attended the 45th Anniversary Forum and Milestone Celebration of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) on June 16 at Marriott Hotel, Pasay City to join meaningful discussions on various migration-related themes and receive the CFO’s certificate of appreciation for PMRN’s valuable role in “advancing the cause and promoting the welfare of overseas Filipinos”.

For more details, visit this page:

PMRN bags CFO’s valuable partner recognition, joins diaspora discourse - Philippine Social Science Council Officers of the Philippine Migration Research Network (PMRN) attended the 45th Anniversary Forum and Milestone Celebration of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) on June 16 at Marriott Hotel, Pasay City to join meaningful discussions on various migration-related themes and receive the CFO’s...

Conversations with PMRN: Local Governments and Global Migration

In this podcast episode, discussants focused on the role of local governments in global migration governance and processes. Dr. Stefan Rother shared some key points from his recent work entitled Making Space for Cities: The Mayors Mechanisms’ quest for actorness in global governance fora on migration and refugees. He argued that cities are now important actors in global migration as they are taking on a more active role in influencing the policies and processes governing global migration.

Access the podcast through https://bit.ly/pmrn-podcast-rother

LOOK: The Scalabrini Migration Center, Inc. hosted a Migration Dialogues session today in their office, featuring the research work led by Dr. Marta Bivand Erdal and Dr. Karen Liao (Manila team) from the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) Migration Centre.

Dr. Erdal and Dr. Liao discussed PRIO's quasi-longitudinal research project, Migration Ryhthms in Trajectories of Upward Social Mobility in Asia. The study analyzed the drivers of middle class growth in Asia and the role of migration flows in being and becoming middle class in four major Asian cities, including Manila. They found out that some notable factors in middle-class growth of Asian households are income, education, and the ability to afford basic needs and schooling; the underexplored role of internal migration and staying in place; and the role of other family members and relatives and their norms, values, and the capacity to tackle crises.

The team also launched the Migration Rhythms, a creative project with Positive Negatives aimed at translating the findings of the study into a comics and animation, to effectively communicate to the broader lay audience. You may freely access the materials here: https://positivenegatives.org/story/migration-rhythms/.

Some members of the PMRN Steering Committee such as Prof. Jorge Tigno, Ms. Stella Go, and Dr. Jeremaiah Opiniano attended the event. Dr. Marla Asis of SMC moderated this afternoon's session.

HAPPY 29TH ANNIVERSARY, PMRN! 🎉🎉🎉

On February 24, 1996, leading migration scholars in the country organized the Philippine Migration Research Network (PMRN) as a multidisciplinary community of researchers contributing to the understanding of migration in human development and social transformation. It aims to advance knowledge and understanding of national and international migration trends and developments.

The direct impetus for the establishment of PMRN was UNESCO’s major program in the Social and Human Sciences, the Management of Social Transformation (MOST) Programme, which aimed to promote “international, comparative and policy-relevant research on contemporary social transformations and issues of global importance.”

In its 29 years, PMRN, with the support of the Philippine Social Science Council (PSSC), led and shaped migration and knowledge creation and sharing in the country. As a research network, PMRN has organized numerous discursive spaces such as roundtable discussions, fora, webinars, and conferences to study migration trends and issues. In 2018, PMRN hosted the International Conference on Philippine Labor Migration which brought together at least 170 Filipino and foreign academics, researchers, migration scholars, government officials, and civil society and private stakeholders in a dialogue to interrogate the past, present, and future of labor migration in the Philippines.

Aside from knowledge sharing activities, PMRN has also been active in publishing various research work on migration such as its most recent publication, Looking Back, Moving Forward: Philippine Migration Issues, Policies, and Narratives (2021; edited by Prof. Jean S. Encinas-Franco). As a key stakeholder in policymaking and public discourse on migration, PMRN is also a member of different migrant advocacy networks such as the Philippine Migrant Health Network (PMHN), and the Inter-Agency Committee on the Celebration of Month of Overseas Filipinos (IAC-MOF).

Today, PMRN continues to advance our knowledge and understanding of the trends and developments in migration here in the Philippines and abroad. We celebrate PMRN's crucial role in leading and shaping migration knowledge creation and sharing, advancing migration studies in the country, and influencing policymaking on migration.

Mabuhay ang PMRN! Join us and register through bit.ly/pmrn-membership.

[ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION]

This is an open invitation to a Round Table Discussion on “Gulf Migration from the Philippines Beyond Labor: Exploring the Nexus Between Filipinos and UAE Cities” to be held at the Pilar Herrera Hall, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP) at the University of the Philippines Diliman, on 12 March 2025 (Wednesday). Please refer to the attached poster and tentative program (in the comment section) for further details.

This RTD is an initiative of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences (JSPS) Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on “Ethnographic Studies on the Filipino Migrants in the UAE” under Assoc. Prof. Naomi Hosoda of Nagasaki University and is jointly organized with CSSP, the UP Diliman Department of Political Science, and the Philippine Social Science Council (PSSC) with the Philippine Migration Research Network (PMRN).

To register, please answer the following link: https://forms.gle/GT9eXpkcZrkde3KSA
https://forms.gle/GT9eXpkcZrkde3KSA
https://forms.gle/GT9eXpkcZrkde3KSA

[NEW PODCAST EP OUT NOW!]

MIGRANTS AS AGENTS OF CHANGE

Listen to The Scholar Chronicles podcast by Dr. Loh Kah Seng, a historian of Singapore, featuring esteemed Filipino migration scholar Dr. Mina Roces of the University of New South Wales. Dr. Roces narrates how her research work emphasizes the agency of migrants by viewing them as agents of social change and not necessarily as victims of repression. She also delves into the utilization of migrant archives on Facebook, in aid of interviews, as valuable repositories and spaces for the voices of migrants who suffer from unjust acts away from home and in a foreign land. Balancing between agency and victimhood, Dr. Roces finds migrants fighting for their place in the city.

In this episode, she talks about the overall landscape of Philippine women in politics and the agency of Filipino migrants, as well as how to cope with academic rejection.

Scan the QR code to learn more from this insightful podcast episode on Youtube and Spotify!

MANILA – The Philippine Migration Research Network (PMRN), with the support of the Philippine Social Science Council (PSSC), organized a hybrid forum entitled “What Future for the Filipinos in Sabah?” held on November 29 2024, 2:00pm. to 4:00p.m. at Pav 1314-16, Palma Hall, University of the Philippines Diliman and Zoom. The event raised awareness and insights regarding the Mindanao-Sabah migration corridor and statelessness.

In cooperation with the UP Population Institute and Scalabrini Migration Center, the forum looked into the experience of Filipinos in Sabah and their future through the personal sharing of Dr. Linda A. Lumayag, Head of the Big Data, Research & Information Department of the Malaysian Employers Foundation, and Mr. Kenneith Licudine, a Filipino who is living in Sabah. The forum was moderated by UP Department of Political Science Prof. Jean S. Encinas-Franco.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE SITUATION OF FILIPINOS IN SABAH

Dr. Lumayag began her discussion with a historical background of Sabah, particularly highlighting the intergenerational problem of statelessness due to the porousness of the Philippines-Malaysia border and the Philippine claim to Sabah. Such a situation highlights the lack of access to government services and rise of undocumented Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). Her sharing delves into the troubles Filipinos face in the region such as the inaccessibility of social services, healthcare, and education due to the status of being stateless.

“[We] cannot rely on [the] Malaysia Government if we’re claiming that Sabah is part of [the] Philippines… [The] Philippine Government should provide [for] them…,” Dr. Lumayag stated.

Dr. Lumayag concluded her discussion by expounding on different areas of research for migration scholars to explore and study regarding the situation of Filipinos in Sabah and Malaysia. In particular, these areas include reverse migration, dynamics of cross-border movement in contested zones, the issue of statelessness and access to social services and pathways to citizenship, and the vulnerability of children, youth, and women in contested areas.

A PERSONAL STORY OF ADVERSITY TO ADVOCACY

Mr. Licudine, a son of an Ilocano and a Zamboangueña born in Lahad Datu, Sabah, gave his personal account of experience growing up in Sabah as a stateless person. At a young age, Mr. Licudine faced an identity crisis born out of being stateless. This status restricted possible opportunities for him. He shared that “only one Alternative Learning Center (ALC) accepted me… But I cannot complain because of my background.”

Despite the adverse conditions, he persisted and was eventually registered as a Filipino citizen and graduated from the University of Santo Tomas Department of Civil Engineering last 2023. He is now going back to Sabah, where he grew up, as a project engineer and to involve himself in civil society work to inspire stateless children that a bright future awaits them.

Mr. Licudine concluded his sharing by proposing several solutions to the Philippine Government and academic scholars. He proposed negotiating with the Malaysian Government regarding the formal education of stateless and undocumented children and creating a Philippine Schools Overseas in Sabah to institutionalize formal schooling and empower the growing number of ALCs run by Filipinos. In order to address statelessness among Filipinos in Sabah, he also suggested that the Department of Foreign Affairs “increase the presence of documentation” and accessibility of Philippine government services to Filipinos overseas.

The event closed with a fruitful discussion during the open forum revolving around the solutions to the barriers to formal education, healthcare, and social security, formalization of existing adoption processes, and the efforts of the Philippine Government, through the Commission on Filipinos Overseas and its Chairperson Sec. Dante “Klink” Ang II, to aid migrants and stateless Filipinos in Sabah and include them as critical stakeholders in the government’s policies.

In line with the celebration of the Month of Overseas Filipinos, the PMRN, along with PSSC and other key partners and organizations, are encouraged by this forum to commit to doing more work on statelessness and conflict resolution to avoid precarious situations and enable migrant Filipinos and stateless people toward prosperity, security, peace, and development.

[LECTURE]

Dr. Mina Roces, a Filipino migration scholar and Professor of History at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, is inviting those interested to attend her A.R. Davis Memorial Lecture entitled "When Home is an Empty Italian Villa in the Philippines: The Semiotics of Consumption of Filipino Domestic Workers in Italy, 1980s-2018" on November 21, 2024 (Thursday), 2pm (Manila Time).

She argues that the remittance house, empty of permanent occupants but full of material objects, is where migrants have redefined ‘home’ as the place which expresses their new identities as middle class, Europeanized Filipinos. The transnational location of Filipino migrants allows them to straddle two classes simultaneously: holding lower-class in Italy but achieving middle-class in the Philippines. However, their metamorphosis into middle-class Europeanized Filipinos can only be celebrated in the Philippines inside their magnificent house.

Please click the link in the comment section to register your online attendance to the lecture.

You can now read Dr. Florian Alburo’s discussion paper entitled “𝐎𝐅𝐖: 𝐌𝐢𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭”.

The paper discusses the phenomenon of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) by reviewing its past and present trends, structural issues, and development context and situating it within the themes of development and migration.

Dr. Florian A. Alburo is a Professor Emeritus of the UP School of Economics. The paper was presented at the Philippine Migration Research Network International Conference, The Past, Present, and Future of Philippine Labor Migration: 50 Years and Beyond on July 19, 2024 at the Philippine Social Science Center.

[You may scan the QR code or click the link below to access it.]