Politics and hospitality: the case of the Philippines' humanitarian response to the Vietnamese “Boat People” diaspora.

Abstract

The Philippines is the first country in Asia and third in the world to establish a procedure to protect refugees and the stateless by creating a Refugees and Stateless Persons’ Protection Unit (RSPPU) under the "Inter-Agency Agreement on the Protection of Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Stateless Persons in the Philippines" signed on October 2017 (The Manila Times, 2017). This effort - among many others - has further established the Philippines' strong humanitarian stand on the plight of refugees and the politically persecuted. Given this position, this research sought to identify the factors that drive and influence the country’s continuous humanitarian approach towards the issue. The researcher investigated the case of the Vietnamese “Boat People” who sought refuge in the Philippines from 1979-1996 and found that the Philippine government’s adoption and implementation of humanitarian policies towards them was primarily driven by ideational factors in the form of international norms, ideology, identity, values, traditions and sentiments. These ideational elements can be found in the international, state, and non-state levels of humanitarian approach. The results of the study would help fill the knowledge gap on the Philippines' refugee law and on political culture vis-à-vis international relations. Ultimately, it would benefit policymakers, interest groups, humanitarian advocates and the general refugee population.