161 PERSPECTIVES Kasarinlan: Philippine Journal of Third World Studies 2007 22 (1): 161-91 PERSPECTIVES Should governments encourage migration? Manolo Abella Chief Technical Adviser International Labor Organization Asian Regional Programme on Governance of Labour Migration Bangkok, Thailand abella@ilo.org It would seem self-evident that governments will not want to encourage migration since it will not be in their interest. Encouraging migration can lead to the weakening if not the dissolution of the state, which after all only exists because its citizens have voluntarily agreed to incorporate themselves by relinquishing some of their individual rights in return for social order and for civil rights guaranteed by the state. Migration, at least of the permanent variety, is by contrast an act of opting out of the social contract with one group of individuals (the origin state) and joining another (destination state). Assuming that no state wishes to ìself-destruct,î one could assume that governments (used here loosely as the chief agency of the state) would not want to encourage migration. Encouraging migration can only be interpreted as a sign of serious failure of the state, an indication that the polity created by social contract among its citizens has not brought about the expected benefits. On the other hand, it is more understandable why governments would want to encourage migration since expanding membership (more individuals joining the social contract) means more hands