Higher Education, Migration and Policy Design of the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002

In examining the nexus between higher education and migration policy, scholars explore the institutional level (i.e., how universities compete for students) and individual migrants' perspectives (i.e., motivations to pursue higher education and emigrate), but little is known on the role of the states in creating a policy environment for these actors to operate. From the policy design of the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002, this study accounts the state's role in promoting emigration by designing nursing policy that educates Filipino nurses for foreign employment. By identifying and accounting for the competing motivations of policy actors inside and outside the domain of higher education, it concludes that in the design of nursing policy these policy actors integrate nursing education to the overarching state policy on labor export for economic development.