Filipinos In America Are Not Filipinos

In his often cited essay, “The Formation of In-Groups,” Gordon Allport offers his theory on how the groups with which one identifies directly influence the development of one’s individual identity. An “in-group” is a group where members share common traits such as societal status, religion, values or sexual orientation. All the members are alike in some way and that similarity unites them as a group. Allport suggests that one belongs to many in-groups throughout his or her lifetime. Individuals are born into some in-groups, such as one’s family, race or socio-economic level; this Allport terms as an “ascribed status”. People also obtain “achieved status” in a group such as one’s circle

Change in American government was imperative in expanding the nation. It is ludicrous to believe that as other nations were growing, America would just sit back and watch. Governmental involvement made "the Philippines ours forever" (Document 1). The United States' plan was to take the Philippines, educate, uplift, and civilize them (Document 2). Such a "noble deed" seemed to benefit both the filipinos and americans. During this time, as mentioned in document eight, "we had duties to others and duties to ourselves". Government's changing role made these relationships available to the

When the Philippines became a territory of the U.S. after the Spanish-American War, Philippine could freely enter the country. Recruited by the thousands as cheap labor to work the Hawaiian sugar plantation and “the fisheries of the Northwest and Alaska” (Takai, 314). They quickly began to migrate to the U.S mainland. They were agricultural workers and domestic service workers, which is what the economy needed at that time. In contrast, in class, we learned that the first Chinese immigration to North America began with the California Gold Rush and the first railroad project. Following the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Japanese immigrants were increasingly as their success in the farming industry. Therefore, they way they came to America makes Filipino quite distinct from the Chinese and

However, it was not until the Gold Rush of 1848 that a mass number of Philippine sailors and laborers arrived in California participating in the agriculture industry and whaling ship expeditions to Alaska. The possession of their native land on December 10, 1898, further encouraged Filipino immigration, since they became U.S. nationals. Those with American passports could travel from the U.S. and back until the Tydings-McDuffle Act in 1934. Under this act, the United States only accepted fifty Filipino immigrants to enter the U.S. each year. Hence, this act and the Great Depression decreased Filipino immigration. The Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association was an exception, however, in order for Filipinos to fill in the sugar industry’s labor shortages. Thus, many Filipinos continued to enter the United States via Hawaii.

The Filipino people had helped the US fight the Spanish-American War in hope to gain independence in return. However, instead of gaining independence the Philippines was annexed to the United States on December 10, 1898. When the Filipino’s had found they were going to be ruled over once again they were very unhappy, after all they had helped the US. When Aguinaldo had found out that the Philippines were going to be controlled by the US, he had declared war on the United States.

In fact, American troops were so worried about unintentionally sparing their foes that as they advanced through a location, they would use the Scorched Earth Tactic which involved burning everything that could be useful to the enemy to ensure that the other side would be unable to survive without those materials. With America controlling their country, the Filipinos became known as Filipino Nationals who had certain rights that American citizens had in America. Although the American government did build more advanced hospitals, and better schools and roads for the Philippines, American businesses heavily infiltrated the economy and left many Filipinos jobless. Having to survive with a ruined economy and lack of freedom from foreign powers were some of the factors that pushed the Filipinos to come to America. Since they were Filipino Nationals, they were able to travel to and from America

colonial period began and immigration to the States was pushed in many different aspects of everyday Filipino culture. Another reason for leaving the Philippines was due to the economic problems many had in the Philippines. America was advertised as the “Land of Paradise” on posters all throughout the Philippines, and many labor recruiters assured natives that money could be made quickly in the states.

For example, a female individual who believes in feminism will most likely identify higher with a group of feminists than a group of females that are ant-feminist. This strength in social identification leads to in-group favouritism whereby members see the members of their group in a positive manner and see members of other groups in a negative or denigrative manner (Swann Jr et al., 2009). Through the process of depersonalisation. self-categorisation and group membership, an individual develops a social identity that serves as a social cognitive schema for behaviours that are related to the group (Korte, 2007; Swann Jr et al., 2009).

The U.S. colonized the Philippines between 1900 and 1934. This had a significant impact on the mass immigration of the Filipinos. The Filipino immigrants were then made U.S. nationals and granted the opportunity of settling in the U.S. and protected by its law and constitution. The increase in demand for labor in California farmlands and Hawaiian plantation led to a surge of Filipino immigrants seeking these jobs (Abraham 14). They mostly came from the provinces of Cebu and Ilocos. The demand for labor in these farms was attributed to the exit of the Japanese work force from the plantations. The immigrants from Philippines mostly comprised of a subgroup known as Sakadas, who entered Hawaii as U.S. nationals. However, they did not enjoy

(Zaide 303-304) This started the wave of Filipinos wanting to migrate to the states is search of unlimited opportunities.

The reception of the Asian-American community by the U.S. media during the Great Depression was very negative. Often the U.S. media unfortunately places the blame for a catastrophic event or misfortune on a minority group; Asian-Americans like other minority groups were targeted by foul-play. Rather than unite all minority groups with the majority (Non-Hispanic Whites), the U.S. media used the minorities as a doormat. This was evident when, as previously mentioned, the U.S. media portrayed the Asian-Americans, specifically the Filipino-American community, as economic competitors rather than cooperators, and enemies’ to the United States’ cause. What did this result in? It resulted in Filipino-Americans being physically attacked and mentally

In 1889 America colonize the Philippines because of imperialism. After the colonization of the Philippines the Filipinos could come and work in the United States because they had passports that allowed them. The Filipinos then work in agriculture, fishery and service industry, however when they are in the mainland and technically they were not aliens because the Philippines is U.S. territory, the Filipinos weren’t exempted to racism. In the 1930 signs that says “Positively no Filipinos allowed” can be seen in stores. In the United States. The signs show an example of how Filipinos were racially discriminated against. Filipinos were racially discriminated against because they’re not white and pro-imperialist animators created cartoons that depict Filipinos and created stereotypes against them. These stereotypes were created and shown to the people to justify the means of the United States in colonizing other countries. The two main Filipino stereotypes are they are uneducated and uncivilized.

Who are you? Who am I? These are questions that we all ponder at some point or another in our lives. As human beings we are seemingly inundated with the desire to classify and categorise. We are constantly defining and analysing the differences that we observe in the world, it seems only natural that we would apply this method of classification to our position within our society. More specifically, we want to understand our social identities and this can be achieved by acknowledging which groups we identify most with.

Under the new regime agriculture developed rapidly, commerce and trade soared to unprecedented levels, transportation and communication were modernized, banking and currency improved, the manufacturing industries were transformed. As compared with the Spanish era, economic progress of the Philippines during the American era forged ahead with great strides. (291)

The Spanish colonization in the Philippines lead to us to make some questions in our mind on how does the Filipino survived? Even though they