The many faces and challenges of Filipinos in the diaspora
Filipino American History Month 2023
By Marivir Montebon
New York – The long colonial relationship of the Philippines with America explains why there is a continued migration of Filipinos to the US. From galleon trade to modern-day slavery, and well-respected top-notch nurses, doctors, teachers, workers, and entertainers in the past and present - this is the diversity of Filipinos in the diaspora.
Filipino immigration to America dates to as early as the 14th century. Today, Filipino population in the US stands at 4.4 million (2020 US Census, estimate), majority of whom are living in California, Hawaii, New York, and New Jersey.
The first recorded Filipino immigrants were sailors on the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade. These seafarers deserted the bitter life at sea and the abuses of their Spanish colonialists when they landed in Louisiana and California in 1565.
The many faces of Filipino immigrants in the US: nurses, teachers, farmworkers, galleon ship slaves, and young second- and third-generation Filipinos.
Known as Manila men and later as Filipino Cajuns, the seafarers first established their homes in the seashores of St. Malo in Louisiana. The Manila Village in Barataria Bay was the largest recorded settlement for Filipinos. They subsisted on fish, shellfish, and rice.
In 1793, Filipinos further moved towards Hawaii, Alaska, and the West Coast mainly working in the fishing and whaling industries of the US.
(Ethnogeriatrics. Stanford School of Medicine. Retrieved on February 3, 2020 from https://geriatrics.stanford.edu/ethnomed/filipino/fund/immigration-history.html)
The second major migrant wave to America was in 1899, after the Spanish-American war wherein the Philippines was sold by Spain to America for $25 million. America was in high need for labor in Hawaiian plantations and commercial farms in California, enticing many Filipinos (mostly from Ilocos and Cebu provinces) to come to the US to work as plantation workers (or sakadas).
Filipinos were preferred workers to Japanese farm workers, for instance, because they were willing to accept much lower wages. This attitude earned the ire of other farm laborers and isolated the Filipinos. Although they came in as American nationals, the Filipino sakadas were not given full rights as American citizens and were in fact, the first to be racially and culturally discriminated against (Cordova, Fred. 1983. Filipino: Forgotten Asian Americans. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt).
In the early 1900s, the US government created a scholarship program for a group of privileged young men to educate them on the US government system with the intention of making them government administrators back in the Philippines.
Called pensionados, some went back to the Philippines to become bureaucrats and politicians while the other pensionados chose to live in the US. From 1900-1934, massive migration of Filipinos to the US took place because of US colonialization of the Philippines. (Ethnogeriatrics. Stanford School of Medicine. Retrieved on February 3, 2020 from https://geriatrics.stanford.edu/ethnomed/filipino/fund/immigration-history.html).
For the period 1935-1965, more Filipino women and families migrated to the US. In 1940, over 98,000 Filipinos were documented to have lived in the US, mostly WW II veterans and their families, professionals, and students. After the Philippines gained independence on July 4, 1946, migrating to America was in vogue as it was regarded as the “golden land” for prosperity.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 liberalized the influx of immigrants to the US. Also known as the Hart-Celler Act, the law stipulated for the entry of Asians into the US, and they were allowed to apply for US citizenship.
Naturalized US citizens and Green Card holders could sponsor their family members to emigrate and join them in the US. This immigration policy has dramatically changed the demographics of American society.
By abolishing the earlier quota system based on national origin, immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia significantly populated the US, both skilled and semi-skilled. The elimination of the national quotas was in response to the ever-increasing high demand of the US for professionals, laborers, and farm workers to run its growing economy.
The civil rights movement also prompted these liberalized entries of non-white immigrants, precisely because it only allowed the entry of Northern European immigrants since 1921. Europe had its own growth requirements for their economy, thus outward migration became slow.
Meanwhile, the US - with its expanding economy - needed more labor force thus the entry of more immigrants from elsewhere. The Hart-Celler Act continues to characterize the US immigration policy today - composed of five family-based admission categories, ranked in preference on family relationships.
Majority of Filipinos who came to the US in 1965 were doctors, nurses, and medical technologists who founded families on American soil. The post 1960 US Census counted 105,000 Filipinos who were born in the Philippines and residing in the US. The Philippines was next to Japan in terms of immigrant population size in the early part of 1960s.
The post-1965 Filipino immigrants were most highly skilled professionals, particularly in the field of medicine (doctors, nurses, and medical technicians). (Zong, Jie and Batalova, Jeanne. (2018, March 14). “Filipino Immigrants in the United States.” chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.immigrationresearch.org/system/files/Filipino_Immigrants_in_the_United_States_2018.pdf
The Pew Research Center noted that in 1965, there were 9.6 million foreign-born population in the US, and this reached a record high of 45 million in 2015. The immigrant population, estimated to be about 11.6 million in 2015, is mainly from Mexico. This is followed by India, Philippines, China, Vietnam, El Salvador, Cuba, South Korea, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala. (Lopez, Mark Hugo, et al. 2015, Sept. 28. “Modern Immigration Wave Brings 59M to US, Driving Population Growth and Change through 2065.”)
The increase of non-white immigrant population was the direct effect of the 1965 Hart-Celler Immigration Act which liberalized the entry of nationals from Latin America, South Europe, and Africa, and Asia, the Pew Research Study said.
An amendment to the Immigration and Naturalization Act in 1990 further allowed the entry of highly skilled and educated immigrants. It also gave US citizenship to nationals of allied countries in WWII. Filipino WWII veteran immigrants were mostly settled in California and in the West Coast. Although they were allowed to immigrate, these veterans were not given service-related benefits.
There is ongoing advocacy for their welfare in the community. In January 2017 however, President Trump had issued a stoppage of the members of Filipino WWII veterans from coming to the US. (Aleaziz, Hamed. (2019, Aug. 2).
“The Trump Administration is Ending an Immigration Benefit for Filipino Veterans and Haitians.” Retrieved on February 4, 2020 from The Trump Administration Is Ending An Immigration Benefit For Filipino Veterans And Haitians (buzzfeednews.com)
Between 1980 and 2006, the number of Filipino immigrants tripled in the US. As of the 2017 Census, there were about 4 million Filipino immigrants, making America the largest home country of Filipinos outside the Philippines. (Baron, Patricia. (2018)Retrieved on February 6, 2020 from http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~baron22p/classweb/briefhistory.html)
Modern day immigration has the face of a woman. A research study by the Philippine government shows that in 2011, Filipino women immigrants comprise 60% of the total number of immigrants while Filipino men were at 40 percent.
The jobs which Filipino immigrant women take are in the health service industry, predominantly as nurses, caregivers, and doctors.
Filipino men, on the other hand, are mostly with the service and personal care industry, followed by manufacturing.
An important characteristic of Filipino immigration to the US is the fact that marriage immigration is prevalent among Filipino women. More Filipino women come to the US as brides than as professional or non-skilled workers through what was called Mail-order bride and internet dating.
A study by the Center for Immigration Policy in 1997 noted that 70% of the 1400 immigrant women to the US are Filipino brides. This is followed by Indonesian brides at 17%, Thai 8%, Japanese and Malaysian 2%, and Korean and Chinese at 1%. A subsequent risk of marriage immigration is the propensity and vulnerability for domestic (spousal) abuse.
Human trafficking in the US is another dominant character of the Filipino diaspora. However, this has an invisible face. Fact is, even those who have been lured into jobs and promise of good life in the US, do not know that they have already been trafficked into labor or sex slavery. (Pineda. 2019)
In 2014, the Polaris Project identified the top five victim nationalities reporting to the NHTRC and Befree textline as Mexico, Jamaica, Philippines, South Africa, and Peru. Male victims constitute 73.15% and female at 26%.
Trafficked persons are identified in the top 10 industries in agriculture, landscaping services, hospitality, restaurant and food service, domestic work, recreational facility, construction, traveling carnivals, and transportation.
Washington DC-based immigration consultant Susan Pineda said that the US is “a spawning ground for labor and sex trafficking with its temporary guest worker visa program. It allows at least 100,000 H-1 and H-2B and J-1 visas each year to feed the labor needs of restaurants, hotels, and entertainment industries that makes labor cheap and disposable and an all-year round business opportunity for recruiters.”
Immigrant communities in the US have long pushed from reforms on the temporary guest worker program to curb the invisible crime on human and labor trafficking. #
(This is an excerpt of the author’s 2020 Religious Studies Masteral Thesis on Women’s Immigration & Communications Café at the HJ International Graduate School for Peace & Public Leadership in New York City. Copyright pending. All rights reserved to the author.)
