Migration and remittances The Philippine economy's dependence on migration and remittances is unprecedented. The 8.7 million Filipinos overseas lu;,2007 was already equivalent to over a quarter of the 34 million total employed Filipinos then, some 23Yo of the labor force, and nearly a tenth ofthe population of 88.7 million. Remittances have swelled dramatically over the last three decades with a nineteen-fold increase from an annual average of US$823.7 million in 1981-1990 to US$16.4 billion in 2008. Their equivalent share in GDP has correspondingly increased nine-fold from 1.3Yo in 1980 to breach the psychological barrier of 10% in 2005. Deployments of Filipino migrant workers and remittances are high and sustained although generally no longer seeing the peak high double-digit growth rates in some years of the 1980s and 1990s. The number of overseas Filipinos nonetheless continues to rise with deployments reaching a record 1.24 milhon:r;,2007 or an average of some 3,400 Filipinos per day. The Philippines is one of only five countries worldwide that receive more than US$ l0 billion in remittances annually. In 2007 the country was the fourth-ranking remittance-receiving country lr;,2007 exceeded only by India, China and Mexico. These three economies are much bigger though - India's economy is seven times larger than the Philippines, China's twenty-one times larger, and Mexico's over six times larger - so their inward remittances are a much less significant share of their respective economies. Measured as a share of GDP, the Philippines is the 19'h-ranking remittance-receiving country n2006. However the other countries in the Top 20 arc much smaller and, excluding Nepal, their average population is just a little over four million. The Philippines'population is even larger than of these 18 small countries combined (summing to just 78.9 million in 2006). Nepal is the only other relatively large country in these upper ranks but its population of 28 million is not even a third of that in the Philippines. These give the Philippines the dubious distinction of being by far the largest among the most migrant- and remittance-dependent countries in the world. Factors compelling labor export policy From a political economy perspective, sending Filipinos abroad is more politically expedient than addressing basic structural problems. The economic t9