Following the oil crisis of 1973, public policy focused on generating foreign exchange and creating job opportunities by encouraging construction contracts of Philippine companies and exporting local labor. National labor policy thus planted the seeds for a major program for Filipino migration to different parts of the globe.
In the decades that followed, migrant workers joined the global Filipino diaspora, at that time largely concentrated in Northern America. The drive to optimize labor’s economic values accelerated the exodus of Filipinos, such that by the 1980s, Filipinos living overseas reached about one-tenth of all Filipinos. Together with their onshore families, they accounted for more than half of all Filipinos. Remittances from overseas Filipinos reached a proportion that established them as the foundation for Philippine economic stability and growth.
But the progress spawned by the Filipino diaspora has generated heavy social costs in terms of the impact on onshore families and personal circumstances of migrant workers themselves. Returning migrants, whose savings have been depleted while attending to family financial pressures, face the challenge of finding replacement income.
The exposure of overseas Filipino to a diverse set of environments in different countries has fostered a keen sense of awareness of governance standards and performance. EDSA ’86 and the resulting Constitution exposed a portal for political participation by overseas Filipinos in the country’s governance.
The growing diversity of the concerns of overseas Filipinos, on the one hand, and the divergence between perceived issues and reality, on the other, have created an increasing momentum to the advocacy aspirations and activities of the overseas Filipino community. At the same time, the international community has recognized migrants-related issues as a recurring dialogue and intervention priority.
Responding to their own concerns in their host countries and the desire to redress Homeland concerns, overseas Filipino groups in different countries have banded together. While there is no single “umbrella” organization for all overseas Filipinos, networking and linkages among various overseas Filipino groups have given rise to a sense of commonality of goals. There is a growing consciousness of a unity of purpose.
The 17-year lobby by the overseas Filipino community for the 2003 passage of the Overseas Absentee Voting Law (OAVL) placed the diaspora into the national political map, albeit initially as an inconspicuous dot. Increasingly, the Filipino diaspora has widened its involvement in broader, strategic issues, including, inter alia, the Dual Citizenship Law, Party List Congressional representation of overseas Filipinos, charter change debates, equal rights for overseas Filipinos and a possible one political organization for all overseas Filipinos.
Recognizing the need for a cohesive strategy and set of initiatives to address their prioritized concerns, a large group of stakeholders in various countries started discussing in 2006 the possibility of an international conference convened for that purpose. In early 2007, stakeholders proposed holding a stakeholders’ planning meeting to prepare for an international conference in May 2008.
More than five dozen stakeholders signed up to participate in a July 28, 2007 Planning Conference held at the AIM Conference Center in Makati. In that conference, the stakeholders reached a unanimous consensus on the theme for a May 8-11, 2008 International Conference: “Building the Global Filipino Nation for Effective Governance”. The Global Filipino Nation will include overseas Filipinos, their families and all onshore Filipinos who share a common goal of promoting effective governance for the Homeland.