Filipino Immigration Thesis

Independent Study Diana Burdeos

Matr.No.: 5065561

Seminar: Asian America: History and Writings of Chinese and Japanese Americans by Prof'in. Dr.Susanne Opfermann

Filipino immigrants in America

The strong influx of Filipino immigrants during the early 1920s until today has made them the largest nationality migrating into the United States. In Roger Daniels "Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life" published in 1991 a historical overview and an analysis of the immigration process of Filipinos is presented.

Filipinos were considered as American nationals because of the US annexation of the Philippines in 1898, and were therefore not exposed to the complications other Asian ethnic groups had when trying to enter the United States. Daniel illustrates where most Filipinos migrated to and how their life in America developed.

The types of migrants are divided into three prominent groups: students, intellectuals and laborers. Beyond the three migration groups, nurses and navy recruits also contributed to the growing number of Filipino immigrants. While, nurses relatively easily received employment since they were willing to work under poor circumstances, Filipino navy recruits stayed in the US navy even after the independence of the Philippines in 1945. Nevertheless,

with the increasingly high percentage of Filipinos migrating to the US the anti- Filipino movement was triggered and the consequence were "the exclusion of the Filipino race" (Daniels 357) and similar to other immigrants of Asian ethnic descent; they were discriminated against and exposed to threats of violence.
Although, Filipino laborers seemed to only have been able to take on low-paid jobs, they were accused of being responsible for the high unemployment rate of "white boys" - the Americans - and apparently of receiving the attention of "white girls". (Daniels 358) The upward movement of the Filipino image was marked during World War II when they became loyal allies followed by a flow of non-immigrants who managed to find a way into becoming immigrants.
The author’s tone towards the Filipinos appears to be of a positive shade which is clearly evident throughout the chapter on Filipino immigration.

According to Daniels many hospitals have recruited nurses in the Philippines and “urban medical treatment facilities could not continue to operate if all foreign medical personnel were removed.”(359), and pointing out that the Filipino community have become an essential part of American hospitals. Leaning against Daniels portrayal of the number of trained nurses from the Philippines migrating to America, nursing studies are assumably even until today one of the most popular profession of Filipino

immigrants.
In Final, Americans seemed to have been grateful of the serving attitude Filipinos can be characterized with, but whenever outsiders imposed an apparent problem or threat to them – immigrants of any nationality turned into a nationality of enemies. As long as newcomers develop as beneficial to the American society, they are welcome to stay which apparently has evolved to be true for the Filipino people.