We have to exercise our imagination even as we "snap back to grid."

'There appears to be a historical misunderstanding at foot, and the idea of what a mestizo was in the Philippine context has been lost'

While it started labour export as a stop-gap measure, the Philippine government now aggressively exports Filipinos. Labour migration has helped address the short-term needs of migrant families and the economy, and has benefitted migrant-receiving countries, local elites and the government, but also poses serious long-term problems to migrants, Filipinos, and the country.

Fears that the fall of the Islamic State’s caliphate in Iraq and Syria and the return of the Afghan Taliban would give rise to a new wave of terrorism in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines have proven largely unfounded.