Global governance and the migration and development nexus are among the latest buzzwords in academia and policy discourses alike. The 2nd Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), held in October 2008 in Manila, provided an ample litmus test for these concepts. In a way, the GFMD a new, non-binding forum which was deliberately established outside the realm of the UN is testimony itself to the hitherto failed attempts at establishing a global governance of migration. Still, it provides a perspective, albeit a vague one, for a possible way out of the gridlock between the sending and receiving states of migrants. Civil society organizations (CSOs), on the other hand, have succeeded in using and significantly expanding the political space provided by the GFMD for advocacy, networking and various forms of protest. Even though Manila became the site of an impressive display of the organizational power and global scope of migrant CSOs for almost two weeks, the severe divisions in the migrant movement became apparent as well: the cleavages run between those actors employing an inside-outside strategy towards GFMD and those positioning themselves as outsiders by choice in total opposition to the process. Thus, Philippine domestic politics and cleavages were intertwined with the global issues of migration and development.