What can your contribute for the betterment of the society?

What can your contribute for the betterment of the society?

As students, we can contribute for the betterment of the society by serving in our country. As we are talking about Filipino Diaspora we have seen the importance of the filipino serving in their own country. So as the future leaders and serves of this country, we can truly contribute for its betterment by serving in our motherland.

Effect "Love in time of Migration" by: Randy David

Love in the Time of Migration 

By Randy David
Philippine Daily Inquirer

               

The article Love in the Time of Migration was based on a thesis entitled Lives on Hold: Sons of Migrant Parents by Sir Arnold P. Alamon. As stated in the article, typical Filipino parents are supposed to be supportive of one another in the performance of their culturally-prescribed roles as provider and home maker, respectively. To show their support in education, to provide to the needs of their children and to see their children grow and have their own family. But these traditional orders were strongly disturbed because of the realization of overseas work. The sons and daughters of the overseas workers tend to forget the feeling of being loved and cared physically by their own providers. Many ways were made just to bridge the distance. But at certain point it still lacked the spirit of family life. But there are also good effects of having overseas parents. In the study of Sir Alamon, his respondents all became college graduates and they believed that living on their own made them even stronger and motivated them to live their lives better.

            Who would probably have a greater loss, the parents or the children? Stated in the article, it would be however wrong that only the children have suffered. The parents would probably have twice the suffering and loss because it is a parents’ joy to see their own children grow into fine citizens in this society but they could not endure to this feeling because they are away from their children. In the stage of overseas working, love is showed through continuous stream of gift giving. It has been very easy to measure the economic benefits of overseas work. But I doubt if one can ever quantify what the Filipino family has given up in terms of love, or what it is doing to recover it.

Personal Experience

My Personal Experience

By. Rica Villareal

                I'm Rica Vilareal, im a 1st year college student studying at MSU Main taking up the course Mass Communication . My dad is an Overseas Filipino Worker at Saudi Arabia, he is working there as a Construction Worker, and my mom is just a plain housewife. We are residing at Butuan City, i have a younger sister her name is Mimi.              

            Since my dad is an OFW, we are only given limited time to bond together. When he comes home we really use the time to bond as a whole family. At times when he is away i tend to feel a bit of jealousy- seeing the children with there dad and mom together, and anger- thinking of why my dad should leave us and work abroad. But i know that he is doing it for us, for our future.  That's why i appreciate each day my dad is there sacrificing, the days that he is away from us.          

            That's why to all the children out there with there mom and dad by there side, they should spend it wisely because not everyone is given that chance. And to all the children out there with there parents are abroad like me,we should thank them for everything they have done for us.           

Diaspora as a Concept.

Diaspora: A Look Back on a Concept*

Lisa Anteby-Yemini et William Berthomière

There are some words that are used at loosing theirs meanings. Diaspora is one of these. Full or empty of meaning, we are speaking today of “Cultural Diasporas” (Cohen), of “Fear Diasporas” (Appaduraï), of “Virtual Diasporas,” etc. This introductive paper is an attempt to clarify the development of a concept since the beginning of its life inside the Social Sciences during the 70’s.

2The term diaspora finds its roots in the Greek language and is based on a translation of the Hebrew word, Galut. Based on speiro (to sow) and the preposition dia (over), in the Ancient Greece, the word referred to migration and colonisation. In Hebrew, “the term initially referred to the setting of colonies of Jews outside Palestine after the Babylonian exile and has assumed a more general connotation of people settled away from their ancestral homelands” (Shuval, 2003).

3In social sciences, the term diasporas is recent. Before the 80’s, there are only few quotations of this concept. It was due to the fact, as Judith Shuval (2002) underlined, that “before the 1960’s, immigrant groups were generally expected to shed their ethnic identity and assimilate to local norms. Groups that were thought unable to do this, weren’t admitted, eg. Chines to Canada, non-Whites to Australia”.

4During the 70’s, when assimilation theory and other theories based on the same meaning of integration models demonstrated their fallibility, the notion of diaspora occurred progressively to describe migrants groups: migrants maintaining their ethnic tradition, a strong feeling of collectiveness (Bruneau, 1995; Dorai et al., 1998; Shuval, 2003). So, it is only during the 80’s that the concept of diaspora has known a period of expansion. But, quickly, some authors as such Alain Medam (1993) or James Clifford (1994) expressed their disinterest in the concept because in more and more researches the concept was quoted just for to describe phenomena characterized only by the dispersion of a population originated from one nation-state in several “host countries.” And these authors called for more theorization.

5The key question for the Academics was to explore the notion of diaspora to find those specific elements that explained the need to refer to this notion rather than any other concepts of social sciences. To summarize this period, the question was: does there exist a “di[a]sposition,” such a specific spatial and social organisation that characterizes and differentiates the migrant groups, described under this denomination of diaspora, from the other social and spatial “disposition,” produced by the other migrants groups and studied before.

The Waves of Filipino Diaspora

Major waves of migration

• 1st wave- During the first wave from 1903 to the beginning of World War II, many young men emigrated to the U.S. to enrol in universities there.  Many of them returned.
•  2nd wave -The second wave occurred from 1907-1930's bringing plantation workers to Hawaii.  From 1920-1934 workers were also immigrating to the West Coast.
• 3rd wave - The third wave occurred after WWII. During the late 1940s and 50s.  This group included war brides and the "1946 boys."
• 4^th wave- The fourth and largest wave occurred after the 1965 Immigration Act was passed.

From which regions of the Philippines did they leave?

•  Luzon's northwestern Ilocano provinces supplied many of the laborers to the Hawaiian sugar plantations because of economic hardship and overpopulation in that area.

Where did Filipino Immigrants Settle?

• By 1930 there were 63,052 Filipinos in Hawaii, 30,470 in California, 3,480 in Washington and 1,982 in New York.
• Recent immigratns moved to major cities of the United States where there were better employment opportunities.  There are large concentrations of Filipinos in Queens and Westchester County in New York and Jersey City, Riverdale and Bergen County in New Jersey.

Causes of Filipino Diaspora.

These are the causes of Filipino Diaspora.

Push Factors

• From 1909-1935 poverty in the Ilocano provinces pushed many men to migrate
• In 1972 Ferdinand Marcos became the dictator of the Philippines.  Many of his political opponents fled the country.

 Pull Factors

• During the Spanish-American War, the United States took control of the Philippines.  On Sept 1, 1900 the U.S. entered into a 47 year relationship with the islands.  Those connections prepared the way for immigration.
• The United States established primary and secondary schools as well as teacher colleges, vocational colleges and the University of Manila in 1908.  The United States established the Pensionado Act in 1903 to send Filippino students to U.S. colleges and universities.  Other students sought similar opportunities even without enrolling in the Pensionado Program.  Between 1910 and 1938 nearly 14,000 Filipinos had enrolled in colleges in the U.S.  Due to language and other difficulties, not all were successful, and many became unskilled laborers.
• After a ban on immigrants from China, Japan and Korea in 1909, the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association recruited Filipino workers to work on sugar plantations.  They were guaranteed passage to Hawaii and free subsistence and clothing.
• The War Brides Act of 1946 led to the immigration of 5,000 Filipina brides.
• Hawaiian sugar plantation owners brought 7,000 Sakadas or "1946 boys" to break up a strike by the International Longshoremen and Warehousemen’s Union.
• In 1947 the US-RP Military Bases Agreement allowed the Navy to recruit Filipino men to work in the mess halls.  By the 1970's more than 20,000 Filipinos had entered the U.S. through the U.S. Navy.

Housing

• Filipinos faced discrimination in housing.  Therefore "Little Manilas," or congested ghettos, popped up in cities like L.A., San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, New York and D.C.

Employment

• The pre-war immigrants were unskilled laborers in West Coast and Hawaiian agriculture or in Alaska's salmon factories.  Their plan was to get rich quick and return home.  Often they became trapped in these jobs due to the higher cost of living of the U.S.
• California's agriculture relied on migratory field workers.  Filippinos harvested specialty crops like asparagus, cantaloupes, citrus fruits and strawberries.  Up until the 1950's more Filipinos worked as migrant agricultural workers in the west than any other group.
• In urban areas, Filipinos worked in service jobs as busboys, hotel attendants, houseboys, elevator operators and dishwahers.
• Many Filipinos worked in the mess halls in U.S. Navy Bases
• The fourth wave of immigrants were well educated, spoke English well and entered a wide range of professions: bankers, doctors, nurses, insurance salesmen, lawyers, secretaries and travel agents.
• The Philippines is a leading foreign provider of engineers, nurses, doctorsm teachers and technical workers.  By 1980 it passed all European countries in providing high skilled labor to the U.S.

Assimilation

• Discrimination and the inability to acquire citizenship slowed the pace of integration for Filipino immigrants.
• Single men without relatives would band together to form a surrogate family called a kumpang.  This way they continued to cook their tratitional food and celebrate customs from the Philippines.

Stereotypes, Discrimination, and Other Struggles

• As a color-visible minority, Filipinos faced prejudice and discrimination.
• A 1925 Supreme Court decision, Toyota v. United States, declared that only whites or people of African descent were entitled to citizenship.  Thus unless they had served in the U.S. military, Filipinos were denied citizenship until 1946.  Inability to acquire citizenship limited access to many professions and no political representation.  Additionally during the Depression Years, they could not qualify for federal relief since they were not citizens.
• In the 1930's on the West Coast, Filipinos were often barred from swimming pools, movies, tennis courts, restaurants and barbershops.
• The first waves of Filipinos were primarily young, single uneducated men.  Casinos, dance halls and prostitution flourished and these young men got the reputation for being immoral and lawless.  
• In the 1930's there were 14 Filipino man for every Filipina women.  It is no wonder that the men paid attention to white American women, which angered many in American society.  In some states, miscegenation laws forbade Filipinos to marry whites until the Supreme Court case Perez v. Sharp in 1948.

Contributions to the United States

• Filipinos were instrumental in the labor union movement both in Hawaii and California.
• Filipinos served in the U.S. military in significant numbers beginning in World War I. 

Interesting Facts about Filipino Immigration

• Since 1970 only Mexican immigrants outnumber Filipino immigrants.
• When Marcos was in power, the government of the Philippines offered inexpensive airfare to entice U.S. immigrants to return to the Phillippines to visit and invest in land and education for their relatives still there.
• The Philippines have a higher number of univeristy graduates per capita than any other country and have increasingly been a source for high-skilled workers recruited to the United States.

Comparisons to Today's Immigration Debate

•  In 1930 a biased study, Facts about Filipino Immigration into California, claimed that Filipino immigrants were a social and economic threat.  In December of 2005 Minnesota Governor commissioned a report titled The Impact of Illegal Immigration in Minnesota that only accounted for the cost, not the benefits of undocumented immigrants to the state.
• Filipinos were welcomed as cheap labor by farmers and other businesses.  Meanwhile discrimination kept them in low-paying jobs and inferiour conditions.
• Filipino immigrants sent money home to the Philippines to educate relatives, buy land, pay taxes and fulfill other obligations.