Pod Academy

"The Filipino is a truly global labour force. Filipino workers can be found in hundreds of countries around the world.  It is astounding to think that this archipelago in the middle of the Pacific can produce so many people who leave for so many destinations around the world," says Dr Robyn Rodriguez, assistant professor of Asian American Studies and author of Migrants for Export: How the Philippine State Brokers Labor to the World. In this podcast, first made for New Books in Asian American Studies, part of the New Books Network,  Robyn Rodriguez explores 'labour brokerage' with Christopher Patterson of University of Washington. Labour brokerage describes how the Philippine state mobilises its citizens and sends them abroad to work for employers throughout the world while generating profit from the remittances that migrants send back to their families and loved ones remaining in the Philippines. Christopher started by asking Robyn how she came to write about ‘labour brokerage’. Robyn Rodriguez:   I was bo