An analysis of the linkage between legislators’ behavior and electoral support: The case of the Filipino labor emigrants and the Congress of the Philippines

Abstract

This dissertation investigates one of the most popular phenomena - labor emigration, specifically zeroing on its impact on the legislative process by looking at the linkage between the behavior of legislators in terms of their performance as to the number of legislative measures they file in Congress, and the support of the overseas Filipinos including the Filipino Labor Emigrants (FLES) or Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in terms of the number of votes they cast for the legislators. This dissertation advances the hypothesis that, the more legislative measures legislators file in Congress that will benefit the FLEs or OFWs, the more votes they will get from this sector of the Philippine society, much more so if such legislative initiatives are publicized.