UNITAR Online Catalogue
CIFAL Philippines - The Role of Front-line State Bureaucrats in the Gulf Region
Background
Does Proactive State Protection Policy Lead to Better Worker Welfare?
The Role of Front-Line State Bureaucrats in the Gulf Region
Traditional scholarship has identified labor-sending states—acting through the agency of their frontline state bureaucrats—as “powerless rule takers” due to their limited sovereign power to exert legal, economic, and diplomatic influence over destination countries. The asymmetric
power relationship has generated a policy dilemma for many labor-sending states: states like the Philippines must choose between protecting their citizens’ labor rights and welfare and maintaining labor market access in the Gulf region.
Drawing from 100 in-depth qualitative interviews and field observations with Filipino diplomats, labor and welfare officers, and domestic workers between 2011 and 2016, this paper investigates the complex roles and
impact of the Philippine state’s pro-active migration protection policy on the migrant labor rights and welfare in Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE.
The empirical findings contribute to the larger theoretical debates on the role of the state in international migration by shifting the discourse to the human agency of the state (mainly state bureaucrats) to understand how labor-sending countries determine policy outcomes in the authoritarian destination countries.
Event Objectives
- Disseminate the result of research on migration diplomacy in select countries in the Gulf Region
- Problematize the current status of state protection policy in relation to worker welfare
- Solicit insights from various stakeholders for posible recommendation to decision and policy-makers
Content and Structure
The lecture provides an opportunity for government officials, academicians, and members of civil society organizations and business sector to discuss and problematize the role of bureaucrats in reaffirming the state protection policies for Filipino migrant workers.
This lecture is divided into four segments: Opening, Research Presentation, Open Forum, and Closing.
See Annex 1 for the Program of the Lecture
Methodology
The lecture will provide an opportunity for the research presenter to discuss the insights of front-line bureaucrats and migrant workers in the state policy-worker welfare nexus in select countries in the Gulf Region. As this event also aims to solicit opinions from various stakeholders, an open forum will be conducted after the lecture.
Targeted Audience
This lecture targets government officials, civil society organizations, private sectors, and academicians involved in promoting the rights of Filipino migrant workers.