Crossing Borders, Crossing Seas: The Philippines, Gender and the Bounding of Cumulative Causation
| Published date | 01 February 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12022 |
| Date | 01 February 2016 |
Crossing Borders, Crossing Seas: The
Philippines, Gender and the Bounding of
Cumulative Causation
Peter Loebach* and Kim Korinek*
ABSTRACT
In this study, we assess how the composition of migrant workers varies with migration preva-
lence within Filipino communities. Specifically, we test the hypothesis of past cumulative cau-
sation scholars that increased migration prevalence results in a decline in migrant selectivity.
The Philippines has a social, political and geographical context that differs from that of many
other countries characterized by high migration. In this study, we consider whether these dif-
ferent contexts and contingencies might alter the process by which the social phenomenon of
cumulative causation occurs. Multiple fixed-effects models were estimated at the municipality
level, with the dependent variable in each model being a demographic characteristic related to
the propensity to migrate: marital status, age, sex and years of education. We find, consistent
with cumulative causation theory as posited by Douglas S. Massey, that increased migration
prevalence did yield a decline in selectivity for education and marital status. However, migra-
tion prevalence had no effect on the gender composition of migrants, while time did impact
the gender composition, suggesting sustained selectivity by gender attributable to global
demand for specifically gendered, migrant labour.
INTRODUCTION
Faced with the dual problems of high unemployment and staggering foreign debt, in the mid-
1970s, then President Ferdinand Marcos instituted policies encouraging exportation of labour as
part of a plan to industrialize the Republic of the Philippines. These policies set in motion massive
waves of out-migration that have transformed the Philippine society and economy. In 1990, the
number of Overseas Field Workers (OFWs) numbered 446,095. Ten years later, total OFWs had
nearly doubled, to 841,628 (Scalabrini Migration Center, 2000), and by 2005 the number exceeded
1 million (POEA, 2005). Other scholars have observed that this volume of migration, and the flow
of remittances in its wake, has engrained a “culture of migration”amongst Filipinos, and a corre-
sponding readiness to emigrate to earn a livelihood (Asis, 2006; Martin et al., 2004; Tacoli, 1999).
But have such a policy orientation, and its resulting demographic reality, created communities in
which emigration encompasses larger and less selective segments of population over time? These
are the questions we seek to address, with the goal of better understanding the dynamics of migra-
tion in Philippine society.
* Department of Sociology, University of Utah.
doi: 10.1111/imig.12022
©2012 The Authors
International Migration ©2012 IOM
International Migration Vol. 54 (1) 2016
Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. ISSN 0020-7985
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