The Role of the State in the Globalisation of Labour Markets: The Case of the Philippines

The burgeoning literature on ‘globalisation’ tends to identify it as an economic and cultural process, paying little attention to the associated restructuring of the state. Not only does the state sponsor globalisation, but also it ‘globalises' itself in the process. Perhaps the most significant dimension of this new development is where labour markets are integrated with global capital circuits under state sanction. The systematic and state-promoted export of temporary migrant workers has transformed the Philippine state, economy, and society. In this paper I examine the globalisation of labour from the Philippines in terms of its magnitude, its historical development, and its impact on restructuring state functions. I argue that the shift of attention on the part of the state to maintaining the economic functions of international labour circuits tends to undermine its national regulatory function thereby compromising the broad legitimacy of the state. These propositions are examined through a case study of the structuring of the Filipino state in pursuing its well-known labour-export policy.