The Politics of Shelter and the Economics of Remittance- A Misplaced Priority
The Politics of Shelter and the Economics of Remittance- A Misplaced Priority Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™ March 4, 2026 The Filipino diaspora is a cartography of longing: a map drawn in the margins of passports, in the ledger lines of remittance receipts, and in the quiet architecture of family homes rebuilt with money sent from afar. To speak of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) is to speak of a nation that exports care, labor, and hope. It is also to speak of a state that must reconcile two contradictory obligations: to protect its citizens abroad and to steward the macroeconomic flows—remittances—that sustain domestic consumption and fiscal stability. When a head of state counsels migrants to “find their own place of safety abroad” while simultaneously commissioning studies on remittance patterns, the juxtaposition is not merely rhetorical; it is emblematic of a governance problem that is at once ethical, administrative, and epistemic. --- The Humane and the Bureaucratic There is a ...
