I Am Where I Think I Will Work: Higher Education and Labor Migration Regime in the Philippines

The Philippine government has received praises from international organizations for its exemplary management of labor migration. The country has one of the most sophisticated institutionalized mechanisms for out-migration of workers, and it serves as a model of government-led labor migration management. It is, therefore, no surprise that research on labor migration policy of the Philippine government is plentiful. However, there is paucity of research on the role of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in the Philippine's labor migration industry. In this article, I examine the role of CHED and the Technical Panels (TPs) in the production of the globally competitive Filipina/o worker. For this article, I draw on relevant literature on the topic and take nurse education, which is rooted in the colonial system established during the US-American occupation, as an example of how CHED and the TPs could be more linked to labor migration. By using the colonial difference as a space that offers critical insights and interpretation, this article illustrates how coloniality remains hidden under the cloak of modernity, particularly in the Philippine higher education system.