The Paradox of Cooperative Migration Diplomacy in the Global South: Inter-Sending State Cooperation, Multilevel Diplomacy Strategies, and the Philippine State

Abstract How and why do sending states in the Global South cooperate under anarchy? Despite their significance, IR scholarship has largely overlooked the sending states’ strategic logic and use of labor migration as a foreign policy tool. Using the Philippine state as a single case study, I argue that Global South sending states strategically manipulate complex interstate power dynamics to solidify inter-sending state coalitions and enhance bargaining power by employing multilevel cooperative diplomacy—bilateral (learning), multilateral (cooperation), and global (positioning). Methodologically, I employ semi-structured interviews (N = 15) with state and non-state actors, process tracing, secondary sources, and decade-long field observations. Rather than viewing migration diplomacy as zero-sum, the Philippine state adopts a positive-sum, human-rights-centered migration diplomacy, fostering global coalition-building while pursuing material and ideational interests. Overall, this study advances IR debates on foreign policy and South–South labor migration by recentering the neglected inter-Global South–South sending-state migration cooperation in an anarchic international system.