Every stroke of an hour,
more than a hundred Filipinos are crossing borders to
seek greener pastures. What does this hold for the Philippines,
now and in the future? Many studies have been done
in the attempt to explore the social and economic consequences of international labor migration.
As more dimensions are unveiled, more unanswered questions are
unravelled, and among these is the interconnectedness of this phenomenon with
population and development factors.
This fourth series of the State of the
Philippine Population Report (SPPR) attempts to look more deeply into the population
and development  dimensions of overseas labor migration. How do Filipinos’
international labor movements relate to the population factors and events in
the country? Is population a factor in the migrants’ decision to leave and work in
foreign lands? And, in turn, how does overseas labor migration affect the
population situation in the country? These are some of the questions that
SPPR IV seeks to answer. More importantly, this report calls for
decisions and actions from policymakers and stakeholders in order to optimize the
positive impact of international labor migration, while mitigating its negative
consequences, on individuals, families, communities, and the Filipino nation as a whole. 
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