Infrastructuring repatriation: The Philippine sending state and the return of migrant workers caught in disruptions

Abstract

AbstractRecent crises signal a timely consideration of how sending state regimes can be understood in their complexity beyond the dominant themes of labour brokerage and export in existing literature. This article calls for an expanded analysis of sending states by attending to their understudied role in disruption‐induced returns, particularly in repatriation. Examining the case of the Philippines, it argues that the interplay of actors, institutions and policies in the sending country not only systematically deploys Filipino migrant workers, but also configures a repatriation infrastructure that mediates their return during crises and distress situations. Based on qualitative interviews with over 30 repatriation actors, the study analyses how regulatory, collaborative and adaptive interactions within the infrastructure facilitate migrant returns but also trigger critical challenges and complications. The discussion shows how repatriation figures in the workings of the sending state, shaped by a dynamic assemblage of power relations with shifting operations in migration governance.