A ‘European Turn’? Foreign policy pivoting and bilateral labor migration agreements in the Philippines-Europe nursing migration corridor

How and why do sending states in the Global South protect their skilled migrants despite their conventional status as ‘rule-takers’ in the interstate bargaining process? International relations (IR) and migration scholarship have framed sending states as ‘powerless’, lacking structural agency in interstate bargaining vis-à-vis strong host states. Yet, cross-regional research on sending states’ foreign policy logic and how they secure leverage to protect skilled migrants, particularly nurses remains scarce. Using a single case study of the Philippine state—one of the world’s largest contemporary exporters of nurses—we argue that, despite weak structural positioning, sending states increasingly deploy foreign policy pivoting as a cooperative migration diplomacy strategy. They do so by cross-regionally exploiting the sectoral migration interdependence vulnerabilities of Global North host states (i.e., labor shortages, ageing populations, post-COVID health system stress) and by instrumentalizing bilateral labor migration agreements (BLMAs) to redirect nursing migration from precarious Global South host destinations—particularly the Gulf—toward European host states with stronger codified labor and mobility rights. We develop our argument through three post-2020 cases: the Philippine-United Kingdom MOU (2021), the Philippine-Finland Joint Declaration of Intent (2025), and the Philippine- (Vienna) Austria MOU (2023). Methodologically, we combine semi-structured interviews with nurses, process tracing, two decades of field research observations, and secondary analysis of government publications, policy documents, and newspapers to show how the Philippine state instrumentalized the COVID-19 critical juncture to renegotiate the language of ethical recruitment, mutual skills recognition, and family integration in its BLMA architecture. Rather than viewing sending states as weak foreign policy actors, we show how they leverage their globally recognized nursing skills and protect migrant nurses from precarious Global South conditions (i.e., restricted citizenship access, limited rights to organize, weak social protections). Ultimately, the study advances debates on sending state agencies, cooperative migration diplomacy, and migration interdependence by showing how BLMAs operate as foreign policy signaling instruments through which Global South sending states pursue—though do not necessarily realize—rights-based protections for skilled migrants.