Migration networks: a case study in the Philippines

"In an attempt to consider contract labor and other forms of temporary migration from the Philippines within the context of several interacting processes, I will first examine aspects of the international economy and government policy that set the stage for labor movement. It will then be argued that international migration flows emerge as a complex set of links that connect individuals and communities to the national capital region and ultimately to places abroad. This approach acknowledges that structural imbalances provide conditions for potential movement, but that this potential is translated into movement flows only when links between various people, places and mediating structures are actually activated through social networks. Once these links are established, a cascading system of migration emerges that is held together by a series of interpersonal relationships."