Governing through Filipino migrant communities: citizenship, self-governance and social entrepreneurship

Abstract

The paper sets out to understand the emergence of a particular alignment within the context of contemporary governance of cross-border mobility. The first element comprises of overseas Filipino workers claiming that their altruistic actions, in the form of social entrepreneurial activities and investments in the Philippines, can help counter the growing social costs and the culture of overseas work, wherein Filipino youth are at risk of continuing the same kind of situation as their migrant parents; and the second, mobile and transnationally connected Philippine non-government organizations (NGOs) translating their expertise on migration and development through strategies such as community empowerment and risk management. Quite a number of NGOs reach out to OFWs and inject social entrepreneurship and financial literacy programs articulating socioeconomic rights to OFWs beyond their precarious work, and are designed to harness the potentials of cross-border migration and development in the Philippines. The specific cases of domestic workers in Italy turning into social investors and entrepreneurs signify the emergence of active citizenship coupled with cultural norms and values - a novel articulation of citizenship within spaces of migrant associations or "community".