Into the unknown: Migration and the politics of identity in four coastal municipalities in Southwest Panay, Philippines

Migration has been a great part of fishers’ struggle to survive and prosper, to escape various forms of insecurity and respond to opportunities. In the Philippines, the drastic decrease in fish catch due to overfishing and overexploitation have causes many fishers to migrate to richer fishing grounds. This paper examines the link between in-migration and identity in the coastal municipalities of Miagao, San Joaquin, San Jose de Buenavista and Anini-y in Southwest Panay, Philippines. It looks at how in-migration shapes notions of “community” in these areas and how identity and constructions of the “Other” at the community level take place. Drawing from a household survey of migrant fishers as well from key informant interviews and focused group discussions with coastal communities, the study surmises that migrant fishers, who came mostly from other Visayan islands and Mindanao to take advantage of richer fishing grounds in Panay have remained mostly poor and marginalized. Many have remained as informal settlers, have poor access to health and education and have held few membership and leadership positions in organizations at the community level. While they have been integrated into the local fishing economy as sources of new fishing technology and as poorly-paid workers and suppliers of fish catch to wealthy brokers, their access to fishing grounds, resources and markets was only largely possible through the mediation of “native” middlemen and bosses. While they try to maintain good relationships with other fishers and members of the community, their ability to access political and economic resources have been largely conditioned by their ability to navigate both their own notions of what it means to be an “outsider” and constructs imposed upon them by local power structures which have drawn an invisible yet restrictive line between them and the “natives”.