Rethinking return from the ‘left ahead’: the case of Filipino migrant workers in transnational spaces in Rome Italy

ABSTRACT

Taking a transnational approach to return migration, this article draws significance on the onsite migration experiences of migrant workers, dubbed as ‘left ahead’. Integrating transnationalism dimensions with the return preparedness framework, the study explores the return discourses ‘from above’ through institutional actors and policies in the Italy–Philippines migration nexus; and ‘from below’ through the narratives of migrant Filipino workers in the city of Rome. The article shows that return framings were seen as a process of preparation, rather than of permanence to the linear binary flow of human mobility. Such preparation is done by the migrant workers through economic, political, and socio-cultural transnational activities, which underscored the vitality of examining host-home links that migrant workers sustain under the conditionalities of both countries. The article highlights the vitality of the onsite stage of the migratory process, where development should also take place. It necessitates to critically look at how migrant workers are able to mobilize their resources under the host-home country conditions. The article supports the imperative of ‘deterritorializing’ development for the migrant workers for them to fully exercise their agency towards shaping their successful return.

KEYWORDS:

• Return migration
• transnationalism
• labor migration
• return preparedness

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Research Fund of the Institute of Development Policy (IOB), University of Antwerp, Belgium.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Return is identified as one of the three Rs in the migration-development equation. Even if they would not return immediately, migrants are considered development contributors through the links and investments they maintain with their home countries. Returning migrants were seen as change agents who could accelerate development at home through remittances and skills transfer (Martin & Sirkeci, 2017).

2. Return willingness in Cassarino’s return preparedness framework was operationalized in this study by means of determining the return intentions of the respondents and how their intentions to return may or may not precede to their actual return behavior.

3. The names of the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) interviewed are pseudonyms to observe full anonymity and confidentiality.

4. The Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) serves as the overseas operating arm of the Philippine government in the implementation of labor policies and programs for the protection of the rights, welfare, and interests of Overseas Filipino Workers in various destination countries (Philippine Overseas Labor Office, 2016).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ma. Karen Serrano

Ma. Karen Serrano is a Development Communicator from the Philippines. She earned her graduate degrees in International Studies at the University of the Philippines and her advanced degree in Globalization and Development at the University of Antwerp in Belgium under the VLIR-UOS. A communicator of development results, Ms. Serrano has worked for various international organizations and national government agencies in the Philippines for over 10 years, where she served as a communications consultant; policy researcher; and project officer. Her specialization and research interests focuses on regionalism, international labor and return migration; political psychology; and politics and sociology of development.

Loresel Abainza

Loresel Abainza is an associate researcher at the Institute of Development Policy (IOB), University of Antwerp in Belgium. Her research interest includes the intersection of migration, trade, poverty and entrepreneurship using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Her PhD research in Applied Economics focuses on return migration–development nexus. As a researcher at the IOB, she was heavily involved in the interuniversity research cooperation between the IOB and the University of Cuenca in Ecuador through the VLIR-IUC Project on International Migration and Local Development.

Germán Calfat

Germán Calfat is professor emeritus of Development Studies at the Institute of Development Policy (IOB), University of Antwerp, in Belgium. His research interests are International Trade, Migration and Development. He has published in journals such as Journal of Development Studies, Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of Economic Integration, CEPAL Review and Migration and Development.