The Philippines and the making of a refugee policy in the context of the Cold War (1948-1986)

Its acceptance of refugees can be traced back to the American colonial period. It also considered providing permanent settlement for Jewish refugees prior to gaining its independence from the United States.

However, its first international humanitarian engagement as a new republic was the case of the White Russians who fled Maoist China in the late 1940s. Following this, in the late 1970s, it accepted a larger population of refugees from Indochina who also fled due to communist threat. This thesis explores the evolution of Philippine approaches towards refugees, examining this within the context of the Cold War.