Ryan Cortez

AAS 360
Tues/Thurs (11-12:15)
04/12/17

Immigration: Filipino Americans

The United States is the worlds focal point for immigrant settlement.

Since 1985 2002, the number of Asian immigrants to America has

increased from 267,931 342,099. If we dig deeper into this data from 1985

2002, we can also see that family-based preferences decrease from 84,177

68,287 and employment-based Asian preferences increase from 48,059

107,063. Knowing this information, I dig deeper into the reasons behind

Filipino/a immigration. The major topics I will examine and try to understand

are their push/pull factors for coming to America, their journey in which that

led them here, and how they have assimilated/acculturated to the American

society. (Park, 2005)

The immigration of Filipino/as Americans can be divided into two main

waves. The 1st wave, which lasted from 1906 1924 and the 2nd wave which

is from 1945 present. The 1st wave of immigrant Filipinos/as mainly

consisted of farmers who worked on the Sugar Plantation in Hawaii. This was

the after math of the Spanish American War and Philippine American War,

which I will be getting into more depth about later. The 2nd wave of Filipino/as

immigrants will consist of any Filipinos/as who immigrated post World War II.

I will be analyzing how the two waves compare and contrast based on the

interviews that my partners and I have conducted over the past month.
 The 1st wave, as I mentioned, consisted mainly of immigrant farmers,

but before that could happen major push and pull factors were in effect. A

few major push factors for Filipinos/as immigrants were wars (such as the

Spanish American War and Philippine American War), poverty, and a weak

economy. The Pull Factor was mainly to be exposed for cheap labor.

(Castles, 2014)

The Spanish American War in 1898 was the first major event in history

that opened the doors of the Philippines to America. In an effort to free Cuba

from oppression of its Spanish colonizers, America captured the Philippines.

A few days before The Treaty of Paris in 1898 was signed, a war between the

Filipinos/as and Americans broke out, also known as The Philippine

American War. The Philippines wanted its independence back and did not

want to be colonized by another country. This war lasted until 1902 which

had over 300 thousand soldiers and civilians killed. The US made Philippines

a territory because they feared other powers like Japan or Germany would

overthrow them and pose a threat to the US once again. So, the US looked

after them because they felt they were incapable of self- government, which

was later known as the White Mans Burden. (U.S. Department of State)

Due to the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 (which banned Chinese

laborers from migrating to America) and the Gentlemans Agreement in 1908

(Japan agreed to stop emigration of Japanese residents to the US) the US no

longer had an abundant source of cheap labor. So, thats when they began

hiring and exposing Filipinos to come to Hawaii to work for cheap labor.
 In 1906, the Hawaii Sugar Planters Association (HSPA) began recruiting

workers from the Philippines, also known as the Sakadas. The Sakadas were

the Filipino workers who were first hired and contracted by the HSPA. At the

time Sugar in Hawaii was considered gold and the HSPA had already

exhausted their efforts to hire other outsources of cheap labor, starting with

the Chinese, Japanese, and then the Koreans. Due to limitations by

immigration legislations, their work force was cut short. So the Filipinos were

next in line to be exploited for cheap labor. (Filipino laborers arrive).

I was lucky enough to interview my best friends mom (Aunty Mary)

about her dad Melzer because he was a Sakada and worked for the HSPA in

1926. This is some of the information she gladly shared with me. Melzer was

a blue collar, hardworking young man, who worked in the fields as a farmer

in the Philippines. His family and living situation there was very poor, so in

search of a better life he found the HSPA and was hired and shipped out to

Hawaii in 1926, by boat. He was 18 years old at the time and was an ideal

candidate that the HSPA wanted to hire - hardworking, single, and young

men. Melzer had a hard time assimilating to the American culture because

he was so used to his own and was always surrounded by so many other

Filipinos who found it difficult assimilating themselves. They spoke and

understood very little English and never found a drive to learn the American

language. They were also not accustomed to American food because they

disliked the taste and were able to make traditional Filipino food in their

homes. Aunty Mary also expressed to me how hard Melzer and the other
farmers had to work on the Sugar Cane fields. They worked hours on end in

the blazing hot sun and would get easily dehydrated from the humidity in

Hawaii; all at the cost of a very low wage and at 60 years old Melzer started

having very bad back and hip problems. He could never fully understand or

speak the English language so she (Aunty Mary) would have to become the

language broker for him as she grew up, which she proudly did for him. She

shared how much he loved having his whole family in Hawaii and being able

to give them the opportunity to succeed in this country. Lastly, I asked her

what she thought Melzer would consider himself and she said with a big

smile, Filipino, because thats where he was born and raised and I feel like

he never let go of his Filipino heritage and culture.

In analyzing my interview with Aunty Mary, although such a small

sample of interviewees from the 1st wave, Id have to conclude that Filipino/a

immigrants in the 1st wave defiantly had a harder time assimilating and

acculturating to American society because of how new the experience was.

They had no expectations and standards that they could follow that others

have set for them. The 1st wave of Filipino/a immigrants also came from

generally poorer parts of the Philippines, such as the southern islands, and

worked as farmers so they were blue collar and had very little education. So

this made it easier for the HSPA to take advantage of them for cheap labor.

Family reunification was also a big effect in the 1st wave of Filipino/a

immigrants as well. Being able to sponsor their family members into to the

country was really important. Lastly, I believe, from my interview with Aunty
Mary, that Filipino/a immigrants from the 1st wave dont regret coming to

America because of the opportunity to chase the American dream, to live in

such a strong economy, and most importantly to give their family the

opportunity to thrive as well.

The 2nd wave of Filipino/a immigrants that I will examine and try to

understand are all the Filipino/a immigrant post World War II. Push/pull

factors for this 2nd wave consist of family reunification, brain drain, chasing

the American Dream, education, military dictatorship, drug wars, poverty,

and migrant workers. My group members and I have interviewed 14 other

Filipino/a families that have immigrated to America during this 2nd wave and

with this information I will analyze and gather more details as to their

reasons to immigrating to America. (Castles, 2014)

Push/Pull Factors

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Interviewees-Post World War II
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The graph above shows all the major push/pull factors that were

mentioned in our interviews from interviewees that fell under our 2nd post
World War II wave. As you can see 7 interviewees were effected by family

reunification, 7 were effected through education and all 14 interviewees

mentioned chasing the American Dream. I will go into further depth about

each major push/pull factor that was mentioned and will provide some

quotes I found relevant to each factor as well.

The first major push/pull factor found through our interviews was

family reunification. During this time family reunification with the naturalized

sponsor already living in the United States was/is one of the limited

immigration categories that was accepted. (Park, 2005) In analyzing our

interviews we can see that half of our interviewees were affected by this and

all seven of them were grateful toward their specific sponsors. One of our

interviewees stated,

We are all so grateful for grandma Nita (sponsorer), because she has

sacrificed a lot for us. Without her we would not be here today.

Interviewee #2

Its clear that family reunification is one the biggest reasons for immigration

and from my understanding familys wish they could sponsor their entire

extended family from the Philippines to America as well.

The second major push/pull factor found through our interviews was

education. Education is an important factor that lures many immigrants to

the United States. With higher education you can correlate that to receiving

higher income and the US provided the most opportunity for that to occur. In
our interviews we found that seven interviewees chose to better their

education after moving to America. One of my interviewees stated,

Ever since elementary my parents encouraged me to do well in school. I

had envisioned myself becoming a doctor in America because they told me

that is where I can make the most money. Imy

This information is a good indicator of the knowledge that Filipino immigrants

have on how important education is in order to be successful in America.

The last major Push/Pull factor that was mentioned in all fourteen

interviews was the opportunity to obtain the American Dream. I believe this

was mentioned in all interviews because it really is a true goal that many

underprivileged families wish they had. Their search for social security,

higher income, better employment and the opportunity for social mobility

(Castles, 2014) are all pull factors that are part of the American Dream that

Filipino immigrants strive for. One of our interviewees stated,

The thing that really pushed me the most was my son and the future I

wanted to give him. At the time coming to the United States was a dream

every Filipino had. It was a time that coming here to the United States

means that you would be doing great things and making the life you have

even better than it was. Interviewee #1

This is a great example of how the American Dream was not only to better

themselves as individuals, but also to better the future of their entire family

as well.

Looking back at all the interviews of interviewees that fell in the 2nd

post-World War II wave I can conclude that all their assimilation and

acculturation process transitioned well. Some reasoning behind this

information is the fact that majority of them all immigrated to the United

States with some/a lot of knowledge in the English language and culture.

This ultimately helped their assimilation and acculturation process because

they were able to communicate with everyone else in America after

immigrating. A lot of interviewees, with the knowledge, expanded their social

life with different cultures and experiences in a variety of ways. One being

the different ethnicity of friends they chose to hang around with, being

exposed to the diversity all around.

 Social Classes

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Number of Interviewees

Class Type

The next analysis in my research paper on Filipino immigrants, based

on the interviews my partners and I had done, I wanted to take a look at the

social classes the interviewees have gone through after the immigration to

America. The graph above shows the class type each interviewee has been

in before moving to America and the class type they currently are in now.

The graph shows that one interviewee went from being in poverty in America

to joining the working class in America. Seven interviewees were considered

lower class in the Philippines and now middle class in America. Six

interviewees said they were middle class in the Philippines and now middle

class in America. Lastly, one interviewee said that they were upper class in

the Philippines and now middle class in America. With this information we

can conclude that all of our interviewees, besides one, have either increased

their class level or remained the same. This shows how they have taken
advantage of the opportunity they had in immigrating to America and was

able to find work to generate an income to sustain a reasonable living. The

one outlier which started from being upper class in the Philippines to middle

class in America occurred because his education that he gained in the

Philippines did not translate to education in America.

In conclusion to my research paper, I had one last aspect of the

interviews that I wanted to analyze. We questioned our interviewees whether

they considered themselves Filipino, American or Filipino American. One

interviewee said Filipino (regarding her dad) and she explains it in saying,

I would consider him Filipino because thats where he was born and
raised and he never let go of his Filipino heritage. Aunty Mary on Melzer

This is understandable because Melzer was from the 1st wave of Filipino

Immigrants and his assimilation process was much harder. He was

uneducated and could not communicate/interact with the, newly

experienced, American society. The fourteen other interviewees considered

themselves as Filipino Americans. Some reasoning behind that answer is

because they were more educated and had more knowledge of America

before immigrating. This helped their assimilation and acculturation process

because they were able to socialize with other ethnicities and were able to

expand their experiences. It also helped that there were many other Filipino

immigrants to do it before them as well, which paved the way for them and

encouraged them to try new things.

 Bibliography

Castles, Stephen, and Mark J. Miller. The Age of Migration: International

Population Movements in the Modern World. 5th ed. New York: The

Guilford Press, 2013.

"Filipino Americans." Countries and Their Cultures. Web. 03 Mar. 2017.

<http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Du-Ha/Filipino-Americans.html>.

"Filipino laborers arrive - Hawaii History - Short Stories." Filipino

laborers arrive - Hawaii History - Short Stories. Web. 02 Mar. 2017.

John S.W. Park and Edward J.W. Park. Probationary Americans:

Contemporary Immigration Policies and the Shaping of Asian American

Communities. Routledge, NY, 2005.

U.S. Department of State. U.S. Department of State, n.d. Web. 13 Apr.

2017. <https://history.state.gov/milestones/1899-1913/war>.