Given these gains and costs of migration to the Philippines, analysts think that the country has
not confronted the issue of Filipinos’ international migration head on. Now that migrants have
built that attention in many ways (e.g. political influence through overseas absentee voting), this
is where challenges are forwarded to put migrants and international migration head on in the
development agenda (Zobel de Ayala, 2003). Take note, however, that for so long a time,
migrants – through their contributions, especially remittances – have long been involved in
national development (Bagasao, 2003). At this point of the country’s history, the overseas
Filipinos sector is simply too large to be ignored, and the same goes with migration’s positive
and negative effects to the country