Scalabrini Migration Center, Inc.

10/04/2026

Fr. Anthony Paganoni, CS, founding director of the Scalabrini Migration Center, passed away on April 9, 2026, in Arco (Trento, Italy). Fr. Tony was one of three Scalabrinians who established the mission with migrants in Manila in 1982. In 1987, he established the Scalabrini Migration Center, probably the first research center in Asia dedicated to the promotion of the holistic and interdisciplinary study of migration. The first research undertaken by SMC was exploring the impact of overseas employment on the adolescent children of migrant workers. He also launched the magazine, Asian Migrant, which served as an important reference for researchers, policymakers, advocates and others who are interested in migration issues. Deepest thanks, Fr. Tony, and Godspeed.

Con tristezza e profonda fede nella resurrezione, vi informiamo della morte del nostro confratello P. Antonio PAGANONI, avvenuta ieri, 9 aprile 2026 alle 21:30 presso l'Ospedale Civile di Arco (Trento), dopo una breve ma grave malattia.
Preghiamo per l’eterno riposo di P. Antonio.
L’eterno riposo dona a lui, o Signore,
e splenda a lui la luce perpetua.
Riposi in pace.
Amen
__________

Com tristeza e profunda fé na ressurreição, informamos-vos do falecimento do nosso confrade Pe. Antonio PAGANONI, ocorrido ontem, 9 de abril de 2026, às 21h30, no Hospital Civil de Arco (Trento, Itália), após uma breve mas grave doença.
Rezamos pelo descanso eterno do Pe. Antonio.
Dai-lhe, Senhor, o eterno descanso,
entre os esplendores da luz perpétua.
Descanse em paz.
Ámen.
__________

With sadness and deep faith in the resurrection, we inform you of the death of our brother, Fr. Antonio PAGANONI, which occurred yesterday, April 9, 2026, at 9:30 p.m. at the Civil Hospital in Arco (Trento, Italy), following a brief but serious illness.
Let us pray for the eternal rest of Fr. Antonio.
Eternal rest, grant unto him, O LORD,
And let perpetual light shine upon him.
May he rest in peace.
Amen.
__________

Con tristeza y profunda fe en la resurrección, les informamos del fallecimiento de nuestro hermano el P. Antonio PAGANONI, ocurrido ayer, 9 de abril de 2026, a las 21:30 horas en el Hospital Civil de Arco (Trento, Italia), tras una breve pero grave enfermedad.
Oramos por el descanso eterno del P. Antonio.
Dale Señor el descanso eterno.
Brille para él la luz perpetua.
Descanse en paz.
Amén

23/03/2026

SMC is pleased to share that the March 2026 edition of the Asian and Pacific Migration Journal (APMJ) is now available online through SAGE Journals’ official website. It features six Research Articles and three Book Reviews.

Link: https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/AMJ/current

18/03/2026

The Scalabrini Migration Center had a constructive exchange with relevant local government offices of Malolos City, Bulacan on March 11. Participants representatives were of the offices of the City Mayor, Vice Mayor, Association of Barangay Captains, Health, Social Welfare and Development, Training, Employment and Cooperative Office and three officers of the OFW Family Circle of Malolos.

Malolos City and Calumpit in Bulacan and San Pablo City and Bay in Laguna were the research sites of the Child Health and Migrant Parents in South-East Asia (CHAMPSEA) research project. CHAMPSEA conducted data collection activities in these sites in 2008, 2016 and 2023. SMC is grateful to the local authorities, resource persons in the barangays, and the surveyed families and households for their cooperation and trust. As part of its research practice, SMC returns to the research sites and shares and discusses the findings with the communities.

Dr. Marla Asis and Ms. Eunice Tejada presented highlights from the CHAMPSEA 2023 survey on behalf of the research team, Dr. Geoffrey Ducanes, Dr. Melissa Garabiles and Mr. Bernard Garcia. During the exchange, the participants identified some action points based on the findings. One is a program to support carers of children, especially carers other than parents, such as grandparents, older children and other family members. Another action point is closer coordination between the OFW Family Circle and the city’s Migration Desk and other offices.

We thank Ms. Jinky Del Rosario of the City of Malolos Social Welfare and Development Office for her generous assistance in making this forum happen.

12/03/2026

On March 4-6, the Scalabrini Migration welcomed and hosted the 15-person team led by SOSU (Social, Health and Child Care College) Østjylland, Denmark for their study visit in the Philippines. The team comprised members from SOSU Ostjylland ; Aalborg University, Denmark; Aarhus Kommune, Denmark; FEG, Romania; Taitotalo and Finvibes Consulting Company, Finland; and Trovo vgs, Norway.

Part of the activities included a forum, Elderly Care in the Nordic Countries, in the afternoon of March 4. The forum was attended by participants from the National Commission of Senior Citizens, Department of Migrant Workers, GRACES-Department of Social Welfare and Development, Center for Migrant Advocacy, the private sector—Staffhouse International Resources, SL Search Corporation and the Philippine Association of Service Exporters, Inc., and interested individuals.

The forum introduced the Filipino participants to elderly care in the context of the welfare system in the Nordic countries, key themes in elderly research, and highlights from the ongoing Cultural Synergy project. As presented by Kian Hald Jensen and Sandra Inigo Buhl, the Cultural Synergy project is not focused on the recruitment of caregivers. Rather, it aims to understand the cultural context of Southeast Asian students (including Filipinos) in their caregiving training and transition to workplaces dedicated to elderly care in the Nordic countries. This project is timely in light of the recent agreement between the Philippines and Denmark for the hiring of caregivers which is set to begin in 2027.

SMC and SOSU Østjylland thank the following institutions for welcoming the team—the Center for Career Development, St. Paul University Quezon City; Milagros Elderly Home Care; and Golden Reception Action Center for the Elderly and Other Special Cases (GRACES). The exchange and dialogue promoted mutual learning in the approaches to the care of the elderly.

12/03/2026

The Scalabrini Migration Center and the Public Employment Service Office (PESO) of the Province of Laguna co-organized a forum to share the findings of the Child Health and Migrant Parents in Southeast Asia (CHAMPSEA) research project. The forum was held at the LGU Café, San Pablo City Mega Capitol Complex last February 24, 2026.

Child Health and Migrant Parents in Southeast Asia Champsea III is a longitudinal study that has been conducted in two major source provinces of overseas Filipino workers-- Laguna and Malolos – in three waves: the baseline study in 2008, a follow-up in 2016, and a second follow-up in 2023.

SMC is grateful to the local governments of San Pablo City and the Municipality of Bay, the officials and community supporters of the sampled barangays, and the families and households for their generosity and trust which made the study possible. SMC cooperated with the San Pablo Colleges in 2008 and 2016 and with University of the Philippines Los Baños in 2023. Sharing the findings of the study with the communities where the research was done is an important part of SMC’s research practice.

The SMC team—Dr. Marla Asis, Dr. Geoffrey Ducanes and Ms. Eunice Tejada—presented highlights from the four policy briefs based on the 2023 survey. The panel of reactors comprised colleagues from CSOs (Center for Migrant Advocacy, Amare Missio MIgranti, and Atikha), the Department of Migrant Workers Region 4A and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Region 4A. The reactors appreciated the research-based knowledge produced by CHAMPSEA. Those providing direct services to migrants and their families shared that they tend to encounter problematic situations while CHAMPSEA findings tend to show similar or better outcomes for OFW families compared to non-migrant families.

SMC thanks PESO-Laguna for the fruitful collaboration.

23/02/2026

After a three-year journey, the transnational research project, AspirE Project (Asian prospects in migrating to and within the EU), officially ended with a conference in Brussels last December 2025. In the Philippines, the Scalabrini Migration Center concluded the project with a forum, “The European Turn: A New Chapter in Global Migration from the Philippines,” held at Astoria Plaza, Ortigas Center last February 18.

The forum was a platform to share and discuss the study’s key findings with migration-related stakeholders and to examine their implications for Philippines-EU relations, particularly on migration, research, policymaking and advocacy. A panel discussion further enriched the forum after Dr. Marla's presentation.

The participants included those who had been part of AspirE as partners who helped SMC in the recruitment of research participants, as key informants, and/or as participants in consultations and an earlier conference. (See photo captions for further details of the event.)

A brief about the key findings of AspirE-Philippines can be found here: https://linktr.ee/smcaspire.

The event also displayed sample panels of the comic book that will be released in the coming months. Based on data gathered by the research teams, comic book artist and sociolinguist Jimmeh Aitch wove an illustrated storyline highlighting findings from the eleven countries.

Dr. Marla Asis, Eunice Tejada and Bernard Allan Garcia comprised the research team of AspirE-Philippines. For more information about AspirE and to access the various resources produced by the project as well as forthcoming knowledge products, please see aspire.ulb.be

23/01/2026

The final policy brief of CHAMPSEA Philippines is now available online.

Visit smc.org.ph/index.php/publications/ or linktr.ee/CHAMPSEA3PH to get your digital copy of the policy briefs.

22/01/2026

Asian and Pacific Migration Journal Volume 34, Number 4, 2025 is now available. Please visit https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/AMJ/current

Articles

Seeking greener pastures: Conceptualizing rahar and badhyata in Nepali culture of migration
Saroj Koirala

Intersectional disadvantages? Labor market integration of skilled Pakistani migrant women in Australia
Faiza Yasmeen, Alan Petersen and Helen Forbes-Mewett

Navigating relationship-building among young North Korean defectors in South Korea: From structural isolation to strategic connections
Myung-Ah Son

“I don’t really feel a big difference between an international and the locals”: Exploring educational migrants’ experience of New Zealand as a study and migration destination
Valentine Ibeka

Investment across borders: How diaspora firms weigh financial returns and emotional-social drivers
Seungbin Park and Kim-Lee Tuxhorn

Understanding employment incorporation from the perspective of Asian immigrants in Sweden
Sayaka Osanami Torngren and Pieter Bevelander ¨

Household registration, employment status and health: Their impact on the employment quality of elderly migrant workers in China
Zhihua Tang, Guohua Zeng and Wenwen Wu

Research note

At home, everywhere and nowhere: Privilege, mobility and the digital nomad paradox in Southeast Asia
Mariana Deganis Silva Gola and Cheng Xu

Book reviews

Filipino American Sporting Cultures: The Racial Politics of Play by Constancio R. Arnaldo, Jr.
Dennis V. Blanco

Tienshi Lara Chen Stateless: Translated by Louis Carlet, National University of Singapore Press (2023)
Kazue Takamura

Annual Index

Subject Index

Table of contents for Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 34, 4

19/01/2026

Dr. Kyung Min Bae, Director of the UP Korea Research Center (UP KRC), shared a copy of One Hundred Years of Korean History in the Philippines, to Dr. Marla Asis, who received it on behalf of the Scalabrini Migration Center. Launched in December 2025, the book is an account of the history of the Korea-Philippines relations in the last one hundred years, which highlights how Koreans first came to the Philippines in the 1920s. The book was spearheaded by the United Korean Community Association in the Philippines. The UP KRC also gifted SMC with a copy of Philippines-Korea Ties: Ambassador’s Diary, authored by Ambassador Sang-Hwa Lee, published in 2025 by the UP KRC. Thank you, UP KRC!

19/01/2026

The UP Korea Research Center, the Scalabrini Migration Center and the UP Population Institute co-organized a special forum on Korean-Filipino families and children in the Philippines held in SMC on January 16, 2026. The forum is part of the activities of the ongoing research mapping Korean Filipino families and children residing in the Philippines. The research in the Philippines is led by Dr. Kyung Min Bae (UP Korea Research Center).

Thank you to the participants from the Council for the Welfare of Children, Commission on Filipinos Overseas, Department of Migrant Workers, Department of Economy, Planning and Development and Planning, Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 86, University of the Philippines (Korea Research Center, Political Science and Population Institute), International Organization for Migration, Kopino Children’s Association, Inc., Center for Migrants Advocacy, Manila New Light Church and Scalabrini Theological House of Studies.

19/01/2026

in partnership with the Scalabrini Migration Center (SMC) and UP Population Institute (UPPI) organised a Special Forum on Korean-Filipino Families and Children in the Philippines.

The event was joined by presenters: Dr. Dongyeob Kim (Busan University of Foreign Studies), Dr. Dohye Kim (Duksung Women's University), Dr. Maria Midea Kabamalan (UPPI), and Dr. Marla Asis (SMC). Dr. Jean Encinas-Franco (UP Department of Political Science) and Dr. Elma Laguna (UPPI) also joined as a facilitator and commentator.

Today's forum is part of the ongoing research on mapping out Korean-Filipino families and children resigning in the Philippines to find out their current status and roles of both governments in supporting stakeholders in the future. The research is conducted by the principal investigators formed under the Korean Association of Southeast Asian Studies (KASEAS) and funded by the Overseas Koreans Agency.

23/12/2025

As we celebrate this season of joy and gratitude, the Scalabrini Migration Center wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!