the filipino american community- new roles and challenges

7/29/2019 The Filipino American Community- New Roles and Challenges

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Q1: How does the report of Foreign Affairs fare with the two articles from Timberman (NewDirections & PhilAm Community)? Please provide specific points from the two articles andestablish connections of the same.

Q2: Provide and discuss a major challenge (only one) that confronts Philippine Foreign Relations

today. Elaborate on the reasons why it is insurmountable to begin with. Suggestrecommendations on how to arrest the difficulty and confront the challenges it poses to pave theway that foreign relations ought to thread.

The Philippines: New Directions in Domestic Policy and Foreign Relations

David G. Timberman (ed.)

Asia Society

1998

The Filipino American Community: New Roles and Challenges

by Mona Lisa Yuchengco and Rene P. Ciria-Cruz

Introduction

Visiting Philippine government officials never fail to exhort the Filipino American community toplay an active role in shaping U.S.-Philippine relations. They appeal to the expatriates to act as acollective lobby for Philippine economic and political interests, often citing Israel's vibrantcommunity of support in the United States as a model. The officials are not mistaken in detectingconsiderable potential in the nearly two-million-strong Filipino community, the Philippines'largest expatriate group. Filipino Americans, on the whole, are economically stable andbecoming more active in the political and civic affairs of their adopted country.

However, expectations of an immediate political boon to the Philippines must be tempered by anobjective appraisal of the challenges to overcome for the community to attain the politicalcapability to influence U.S. public policy. Perhaps the visible protests and sustained lobbyingfrom the 1970s to the mid-1980s by the U.S.-based opposition to Ferdinand Marcos have given

rise to much optimism. However, that burst of political activity was a unique phenomenon thatcan only be used to illustrate the potential.

The U.S.-based opposition movement, after all, was directly initiated by highly motivated exileddissidents representing the entire breadth of the ideological spectrum. Moreover, Marcos'sauthoritarian rule created an unprecedented division in the community as well as a general air of controversy that quickly evaporated on his demise. Without such a singular polarizing factor,

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Filipino Americans have naturally gravitated back to quotidian concerns and are generallyimpervious to appeals to greater political activity.

"Factionalism," "regionalism," and "lack of collective spirit" are attitudinal and behavioralfactors often cited as hindrances to the community's political progress. While these usual

suspects do play a negative role in the community's internal dynamics, the uniqueness, if not theimpact, of some of them (like "regionalism") is actually overblown. Stressing their significancehas as much weight as discovering the obvious. There are far more powerful objective factorsthat act as restraints to fuller participation in civil society. Ultimately, the emergence of undeniable Filipino American political clout rests on the maturation of the community's sense of entitlement and self-organization, in a process of overcoming cultural and social inhibitorsinherent in the immigrant experience.

Exclusion's Historical Impact: Protracted Assimilation

The great demand for workers by the Hawaii sugar industry and large-scale food-crop producers

on the mainland created the first wave of Filipino immigration, which meant thousands of able-bodied Filipino men (most of whom were bachelors) came to the United States starting in 1906.A 1930 California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) study counted 31,092 Filipinosadmitted to the state alone between 1920 and 1929. There were nearly 50,000 Filipino workersaccording to the 1940 Census.

The Filipinos, however, were brought here for their labor and were not allowed to integrate intothe economic, social, and political fabric. Like the U.S. bracero programs, or overseas contractemployment in the Middle East, assimilation was not part of the contract. Filipinos could notbring wives, marry into other races, own property, or vote--they were not allowed to becomeAmericans.

Official and popular racism prevented the mass of itinerant bachelor farm workers from startingfamilies and producing new generations of U.S.-born Filipinos. According to the 1930 CaliforniaDIR study, the ratio of unmarried Filipino males to females was 23 to 1; there were only 217females, of whom only 93 were married, among 31,092 Filipinos in 1929. The virtual absence of families precluded the establishment of deeply rooted and enduring communities whoseeconomic, political, and cultural power could grow over time.

The social potential stifled by exclusion could be gauged by the dramatic impact of a policychange that created a small second wave of immigration at the conclusion of World War II.Some 4,000 of the younger second-wave immigrants were allowed access to U.S. citizenshipafter serving in the military during the war (under the Immigration Act of July 2, 1946). Most of these veterans brought back war brides from the Philippines. The face of the Filipino minorityquickly changed, with stable, family-based communities--bolstered by a U.S.-born-baby boom--sprouting up all over the West Coast. After years of exclusion, Filipinos Americanized with avengeance. This was, however, a limited window of opportunity. Immigration restrictions wouldnot be relaxed again until 1965.



In 1965, U.S. immigration laws were relaxed to encourage the entry of professionals and skilledworkers, and an unending chain of family reunifications commenced. Largely as a result of thisthird wave of Filipino immigration, the Filipino American population has grown rapidly over thelast thirty years and today totals 1.7 to 2.2 million people. The largest concentrations of Filipinosare in California, Hawaii, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Washington, Virginia, Texas, Florida,

and Maryland. The Census Bureau expects Filipino Americans to spill over the two-million mark by the year 2000 and to be over four million by 2030.

Of the 1.4 million Filipinos officially counted by the 1990 U.S. Census, 71 percent arePhilippine-born immigrants who came after the easing of restrictions in the 1960s. Thus, despitea presence in the United States dating back to the second decade of this century and the existenceof at least three generations, the Filipino American population is still primarily an immigrantcommunity--and a fairly young one at that.

The demands of assimilation are the Filipino Americans' biggest challenges. With the arrival of more than 40,000 new immigrants each year, the community's immigrant character is constantly

reinforced and reproduced, with much help from jet travel and telecommunications. Therelatively young roots of the predominantly immigrant community hint at a very particular socialdynamic that encourages political detachment. A protracted period of national ambivalenceinhibits immigrants from comfortably laying claim to their adopted country. This inhibition isreinforced by the depoliticizing pull of the day-to-day demands of establishing a new life in adifferent social and cultural environment.

In addition, the largely Eurocentric mainstream culture's resistance to ethnic diversity throws upbarriers to smoother assimilation. Racism, which tends to deflate the linguistic and cultural"advantages" the nonwhite Filipinos derive from their American colonial legacy, also frustratesthe "complete" or unconditional assimilation of U.S.-born, second-generation Filipino

Americans. It is a frustration generally not shared by U.S.-born descendants of Caucasianimmigrants.

Had the first wave of immigrants been given full rights to assimilate, the political profile of theFilipino community would look quite different today. Several generations of U.S.-born Filipinos,extensive economic assets, and an accumulation of political experience would have provided amore developed and entrenched foundation, or staging point, for the succeeding third wave of immigration. Filipino American political presence today would perhaps be broadly comparableto that of the Mexican American community. Instead, the third wave came on a small communitywith foundling institutions and an aging sector of first-wave pioneers.

The chronological length of a community's presence, therefore, is a deceiving indicator of political growth when applied to Filipino Americans. The consequences of the previous officialpolicy of exclusion have negated the potential advantages of a community that has been in thiscountry for a relatively long period of time. Filipino Americans' tendency to blame theircommunity for "achieving so little for so long" should be taken with a dose of skepticism,because effectively the community is only three decades old.

Building Community Pride and Unity



There are no antidotes to the negative political effects of a protracted process of assimilation,only strategies to mitigate them. Strengthening ethnic pride is one of these strategies.

Filipino immigrants generally bring with them a low "national self-esteem"--lingering colonialmentality, self-blame, submissiveness, and passivity--shaped by centuries of colonization and the

Philippines' bruising struggle with underdevelopment. It was not so long ago that a "Philippines-U.S. statehood movement" drew a lot of supporters and generated much publicity. In addition, asurvey of Filipino children conducted several years ago by Ma. Luisa Doronila, of the Universityof the Philippines, revealed that the majority preferred to be "reborn" as Americans.

At the same time, Filipinos in the United States are hungry for recognition as Filipinos, amanifestation of collective frustration over the community's relative invisibility in themainstream. To illustrate, a study conducted by California State University, Hayward found thata majority of Filipinos surveyed admitted they "favor(ed) companies/brands which have showninterest in and appreciation for the Filipino consumer." The second and third highest percentagesindicated they were more likely to buy products or services that advertised in Filipino media. 1

It is important, therefore, that community advocates maximize opportunities and means to buildpride in Filipino culture and heritage. Criticisms of poorly organized community eventsnotwithstanding, events like Philippine Independence Day fiestas, award ceremonies forachievers and role models, and so forth, if done well, are effective in raising collective self-esteem. There are favorable trends that can boost such initiatives. Philippine-born immigrantstend to nurse a growing appreciation for "things Filipino"--a function of nostalgia, homesickness,or middle age--and are extremely receptive to cultural information they once took for granted.U.S.-born Filipinos inevitably respond to the racial dynamics in American society by searchingfor their "roots" or ethnic identity. This social reflex is encouraged today by a growing demandfor the celebration of cultural diversity.

The Filipino American media can greatly assist in bolstering pride by highlighting importanthistorical events, projecting role models, and showcasing the best of Filipino culture andtraditions. Unlike many of the other Asian American communities, the generally English-proficient Filipino immigrants do not have to rely on community media to translate news andinformation from the mainstream. Imada Wong Communications Group's Asian PacificAmerican Media Guide, 1996 counted two Filipino American radio shows, five televisionprograms, four magazines, and twenty-three newspapers. Filipino American media mainly fillthe demand for community news and for homeland news and entertainment. As such, theyalready function as active connectors to the homeland, channels that Philippine institutions andinterests can use for access to the Filipino American community and market.

Mainstream American media and political circles use (though not frequently enough) FilipinoAmerican media as references and "sources." (Indeed, mainstream media that are serious aboutproviding comprehensive coverage would do well to consistently monitor the community'speriodicals and block-time television and radio shows.) In other words, Filipino American mediaindirectly project the collective profile to the mainstream. Shoddy publications and productions,however, undermine credibility and impart a distorted image of the community's tastes andvalues. It is important, therefore, for community media to help the cause of collective

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empowerment by upgrading their standards and improving their quality. Increasedprofessionalism is also the prerequisite for serving as effective interpreters of U.S. affairs forPhilippine interests. Similarly, professionalism will enable Filipino American media to act ascredible analysts of Philippine socioeconomic and political trends for American observers.

"Lack of unity" is often raised in criticism of the proliferation of sometimes competing andredundant community organizations. Indeed, there are legions of community, professional,business, and hometown organizations--Filipino American Political Association, NationalFilipino American Council, Filipino Civil Rights Advocates, Association of PhilippinePhysicians in America, Philippine Nurses Association, Philippine-American Chamber of Commerce, Inc., University of the Philippines Alumni Association in America, BicolandiaAssociation, and the Congress of Visayan Organizations, to name only some. It is better toaccept this proliferation as a natural state, rather than continually wish for a pie-in-the-sky singlefederation of Filipino associations. Regional associations, professional groups, religious circles,and so forth will always be around and should be expected to promote their own agendas.

What is more important is for organizations and leaders to develop the ability to band together incoalitions on important issues. The community's record in this regard cannot be dismissed. In thepast 30 years, single-issue campaigns and coalitions with limited lifetimes have emerged in manyparts of the country, dealing with a variety of issues, from local cases of police brutality to issuesthat drew national attention, for example, the Narciso/Perez case involving the wrongfulprosecution of two Filipino nurses for murder, the threat of deportation faced by Filipino nurseswho failed their licensure exams (both in the 1970s), and (more recently) the denial of benefitsfor Filipino World War II veterans. Repeated experiences in cooperative action are buildingblocks for political unity and maturity.

Economic Progress Through Immigration

Despite the political disadvantages of being a relatively young, largely immigrant community ina racially conscious society, Filipino Americans do not occupy the lowest rungs of the economicladder. Filipinos rank fourth in per capita income ($13,616 or 9 percent lower than white percapita income) among ten Asian groups. They have the second-highest median family income at$46,698 in the United States (the median family income for the United States is only $35,225).Filipinos have the highest rate of labor participation, at 75.4 percent, among all Asian groups. Asa result, the poverty level of Filipinos is the lowest in the nation at only 6.4 percent.

Because of Filipinos' relative proficiency in English and familiarity with American popularculture, even recent immigrants can integrate into the mainstream job market in a relatively shortperiod of time. Fifty years ago, half the total number of Filipinos in the labor force heldphysically strenuous jobs in agriculture, forestry, and the fishing industry. Today only 1.6percent of Filipinos in the labor force can be found in those sectors. Up to 64 percent of the751,000 Filipinos in the labor force hold white collar jobs: 27 percent are in the professions and37 percent are in technical, sales, or administrative support positions. Filipinos on the whole donot depend on independent entrepreneurship for livelihood. The median education level has alsorisen, from 9.7 years in 1960 to 13 years in 1990. Up to 39 percent of Filipinos over 25 havebachelor's degrees or higher.



Before "growth of political muscle" can be deduced from this impressive shift in occupationalstatus and relatively high level of educational attainment, it must be underscored that these gainsdid not result from the accumulation of power by earlier immigrants. Much of the evidentprogress in the Filipino community has been brought about by the immigration of professionalsand skilled workers after 1965. Up to 85 percent of Filipinos who came between 1965 and 1977

were professionals, for example, part of what former Philippine foreign affairs secretary RaulManglapus sardonically described as "Philippine foreign aid to the United States."

Filipino Americans have not tended to congregate in self-- contained economic enclaves, likeChinatowns, which also serve as permanent cultural points of reference for the mainstreampublic. The enclave is a survival mechanism for many other Asian minorities which cannotintegrate easily into the mainstream labor force due to more formidable language or culturalbarriers. It is a social necessity that has become a political virtue as it underscores the numericalstrength of a community and the concentration of economic means--factors that countconsiderably in the political arena. Most Filipino concentrations are residential, based onaccessible real estate and rental prices in bedroom communities or neighborhoods. There has

been much talk in the community of replicating the enclave, but capital-intensive, artificial"Manilatown" projects are rare, and success is quite uncertain.

Filipino Americans' aggregate purchasing power has been estimated at $13 billion a year, 2 andremittances from the United States account for 70 percent of remittances to the Philippines.Filipinos in 1987 owned 40,412 enterprises with gross revenues of $1.9 billion, ranking fifth inbusiness holdings after the Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, and Indians. However, the Filipinocommunity does not project economic power and, as a result, tends not to be a magnet forpoliticians.

Filipino Americans' economic power will probably remain understated owing to their high level

of integration into the workforce as wage earners or skilled professionals. But there is a case tobe made for strengthening the independent entrepreneurial sectors. There is spontaneous reliancein the community on Filipino-oriented services or products. Filipino chambers of commerce andsimilar groups can conduct standing "buy Filipino" campaigns to firm up this market and bolsterinternal support even for Filipino enterprises (car dealerships, real estate firms, and so forth) thatcater to the mainstream market. Experience in actively supporting community-based enterprises,combined with the previously cited preference for "companies/brands which have shown interestin and appreciation for the Filipino consumer," should eventually provide the basis for future actsof negative consumership, e.g., boycotts of companies or brands that commit acts that arediscriminatory or damaging to Filipino American interests.

The Visibility Problem

The concentration of occupational skills, educational achievement, a relatively comfortableeconomic status, and a historical presence in the United States only highlight the empowermentpuzzle: Why are Filipino Americans, the second-largest Asian minority, still an invisiblecommunity?








A rupture in historical continuity between the first pioneering wave of immigrants and thepresent, largely third-wave community provides part of the answer. Official U.S. exclusionarypolicies earlier in the century stunted the all-sided development of the first-wave community.The lack of a substantial foundation has undermined the advantages that should have come withthe combination of a long-standing Filipino presence in the United States and the community's

rapid numerical growth today.

Another drawback that contributes to the Filipino minority's "invisibility" is the fact that thePhilippines is dwarfed by more ancient Asian cultures. The Philippines is a very young nation,originally a collection of archipelagic settlements administratively consolidated by Spanishcolonialism. The republic that emerged in the revolution against Spain will be only a hundredyears old in 1998, and the dominant mestizo culture shaped by "400 years in the convent" waseasily diluted by "50 years in Hollywood" under American colonization.

The more "exotic" and ancient cultures of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam have tended to bemore intriguing to American public taste. For example, a cursory inspection of index information

will reveal that coverage of Japan by both the San Francisco Chronicle and the Examiner from1919 to 1934 greatly exceeded coverage of Philippine affairs--at a time when the Philippines wasa direct colony of the United States and the San Francisco Bay Area had a growing settlement of Filipino immigrant farm workers. A 1990 study (by researcher Augusto Espiritu) of Filipinosource materials at the University of California in Los Angeles found that only an average 2.7works a year were published on Filipino Americans between 1920 and 1990. Whether by designor plain neglect, the academy, media, and popular entertainment have served the Americanpublic very few enduring memories of historical ties with the Philippines. For a country thatserved as the United States' first experiment in imperialism--at the cost of some 4,000 Americanand several hundred thousand Filipino lives during the American conquest and subjugation of thePhilippines between 1898 and 1906--the Philippines hardly figures in the American imagination.

Filipino American writers, scholars, artists, journalists, and performers will be crucial incorrecting cultural marginalization by projecting the Filipino image and experience. SuccessfulFilipino American writers, artists, and entertainers will serve as highly visible representativesand, for the general public, as "cultural reference points." In this light, Philippine and FilipinoAmerican studies programs, community theater groups, writers workshops, and so forth deservecollective support.

The Philippines itself will play a major role in ending Filipino American invisibility. The UnitedStates is living proof that what a young nation lacks in cultural stature can be more thancompensated for by economic power. What further deflates the Philippines' internationalstanding is its economic underdevelopment. Filipino Americans have a real stake in thePhilippines' ambition to be a newly industrialized country, besides seeing the cycle of povertyend in their homeland. As long as the U.S. media project mainly images of poverty andbackwardness in the Philippines, the collective prestige of Filipino Americans will beundermined. Filipino Americans, therefore, must include on their agenda programs to assistPhilippine economic development, by way of direct investments, technical and educationalassistance, and ultimately, lobbying the appropriate U.S. institutions.



Issues Facing Filipino Americans

The more assimilated sectors must take the lead in confronting political issues that affect thecommunity. The backlash against immigrants that has developed in the U.S. in recent years hurtsFilipino Americans in a number of concrete ways. In addition to the expected rise in local

instances of hate crimes and workplace "English-only" language discrimination, new federal andstate policies will have a negative impact on Filipinos across the country. While it is not yet clearhow many will be directly affected by the new welfare reform law's exclusion of legalimmigrants from public assistance such as Aid for Families with Dependent Children, Medicaid,and food stamps, federal statistics show that exclusion from Supplemental Security Income willhit 26,485 aged or disabled legal Filipino immigrants in California alone.

Filipinos must wrestle with more restrictions in the new Illegal Immigration Reform andImmigrant Responsibility Act. The reforms give immigration authorities greater, more arbitrarypowers to exclude even legal immigrants from entering the United States. Up to 500,000Filipinos are waiting to rejoin their families here, but the new act, along with provisions in the

new welfare law, weakens the ability of immigrants and U.S. citizens to petition for familymembers. For Filipino Americans with limited incomes, particularly recently naturalized elderlyveterans of World War II, petitioning and sponsoring family members is virtually impossible.The veterans themselves are also still campaigning to get the full benefits given to all formermembers of the U.S. military, which is another issue confronting the community in a politicalclimate heavy with the rhetoric of budget downsizing. California's anti – affirmative action moodis expected to spread to other states and spawn Proposition 209 clones. The blow againstminorities in education, hiring, and government contracts will be felt by Filipinos too.

Community leaders and advocates must be alert to issues that will affect the future of the U.S.-born, such as affirmative action, education issues, youth violence, drug abuse, and so forth.

Community advocates must also grasp the significance not only of a generation gap, but also of acultural divide between immigrants and the American-born. Many immigrants tend to resent theAmericanization of U.S.-born Filipinos, their apparent lack of concern for the homeland, theirseeming disrespect for elders and traditional Filipino values, and their businesslike, if not brash,attitude toward community concerns. U.S.-born Filipinos, on the other hand, tend to bedisdainful of the immigrants' rowdy political culture, their attachment to homeland affairs (evenits popular culture), their apparent lack of American savvy, and even their thickly accentedEnglish. U.S.-born Filipinos tend to be alienated from initiatives dominated by immigrants.

Two culturally divided camps can emerge within an older ethnic minority, where the schismbetween immigrants and American-born painfully reveals itself in conflicting positions on issuesfacing the community. (For example, Mexican immigrants' active participation in theirhomeland's election campaigns has been bitterly criticized by some American-born leaders asdisempowering because it purportedly reinforces the "foreign" image of the Mexican Americancommunity.) For now, immigrants and U.S.-born alike still respond to "Filipino identity" andtake pride in the achievements of all Filipinos. This communitarian spirit, however, will bechallenged, if not undermined, by the community's continuing numerical growth, socialstratification and generational differentiation. A conscious effort to build internal coalitions



between immigrants and U.S.-born Filipinos around political issues and civic needs couldprevent or offset the negative impact of a spontaneous cultural schism.

To ease the pressures of assimilation, more stable and active immigrants must orient many of their activities toward assisting recent arrivals. Advocacy for publicly or privately funded

programs that facilitate adjustment, acculturation, job searches, and so forth, is a practical meansof pursuing this goal. Filipinos for Affirmative Action in Oakland, California and Search toInvolve Filipino Americans in Los Angeles are just two of the community groups committed tosuch programs.

The aforementioned issues, while worrisome, provide opportunities for involving the communityin collective political action. They are openings for building coalitions among communitygroups, between the assimilated and the new arrivals, and between the foreign-born and the U.S.-born Filipinos. The issues also provide the basis for coalescing with other negatively affectedethnic minorities and sectors. Broader contacts and experiences with other communities and withmainstream institutions will help break isolation and minimize parochialism in the Filipino

community. Filipino American activists have inevitably sought greater strength by interactingwith the broader "Asian American community." (Although the "Asian American community" isnot a culturally homogeneous entity, it does stand for a community of interests on the basis of which Americans of various Asian origins can initiate joint, mainly political, action.) It is apositive impulse that contributes to the overall political maturation of Filipinos.

Bolstering the Community's Political Presence

It takes a while for first-generation immigrants to unconditionally embrace the United States astheir country. It takes a longer stay to significantly erode the immigrant syndrome typified byguest mentality and compliant behavior. For example, when young activists in the 1970s began

launching nationwide campaigns against the discrimination of foreign medical graduates andnurses, they had to overcome the usual recent-immigrant admonition, "Don't bite the hand thatfeeds you," in reference to U.S. authorities. With assimilation comes the erosion of debilitatingimmigrant syndromes among the foreign-born and a greater understanding that claiming one'splace, self-organization, and advocating for group interests are as American as apple pie. It is anunderstanding that comes more naturally to the U.S.-born as they grow inside a veritablehothouse of ethnic survivalism.

According to the Census Information Center, there are 491,646 Filipinos who are naturalizedU.S. citizens. When this figure is added to the 505,988 U.S.-born Filipino Americans, it meansthat as much as 60 percent of the community are citizens, many of whom can already vote. (TheImmigration and Naturalization Service acknowledges that Filipinos are ahead of other ethnicgroups in naturalization.) However, there are no reliable studies on Filipino voter registration andturnout. There is a going assumption that most Filipinos are registered Democrats, but this isusually countered by arguments that Filipinos are conservatives at heart, that immigrantaspirations tend to buy into the values of dominant establishment groups, and therefore Filipinoscould easily be attracted to the Republican Party.



More Filipino Americans are seeking appointments to political office or participating in localelections. These are both valuable sources of experience, support networks, alliances, andaccumulated political savvy. Politically active Filipinos must devote time and effort to studyingthe trends in the community's political behavior in order to take appropriate measures forinfluencing it. Any serious political empowerment agenda must include definitive studies of

Filipino American electoral behavior. Indeed strategizing for empowerment must be based onobjective studies of the community's history, present realities, and prospects. This underscoresthe importance of developing academic research, Filipino studies courses, and Filipino scholarsas an indispensable sector of the Filipino American intelligentsia.

Still, the availability of expendable funds earmarked for lobbying or political contributions willremain limited, and very few Filipino Americans, for example, will be able to afford theprohibitive costs of high-powered fund-raising dinners. Filipino Americans, therefore, must findways to compensate for modest political kitties. Although the decisive role money plays in U.S.politics will remain unchanged, marginalization resulting from lack of it can be alleviated by theactive, high-profile presence of Filipino American experts and organizers in political and social

advocacies, the media, trade unions, and political parties and their campaigns.

Since "politics is addition," building coalitions with other minorities and bridges to mainstreaminstitutions is crucial in offsetting the community's modest size and financial means and lack of political experience. In fact, successful politicians like Governor Benjamin Cayetano of Hawaii,Councilor Mike Guingona of Daly City, California, Mayors Henry Manayan and Pete Fajardo of Milpitas and Carson City, California, respectively, won their offices by not relying solely on theFilipino American electorate.

The current climate is quite favorable for coalitions that are not purely based on electoralcampaigns but can eventually be translated into electoral capital. Among the lessons that many

Chinese American leaders are learning from the campaign-donations scandal is how vulnerabletheir community is to stigmatization despite--or because of--their ability to raise substantialamounts of campaign funds. Many Asian political advocates are warning their communities notto rely solely on huge campaign donations to gain political access and presence, and to begininvesting more energy in grassroots efforts to change policies and legislation.

The Filipino American Community and the Philippines

If Filipino American's ability to advocate on behalf of Philippine national interests is intimatelybound up with their collective political maturation, the Philippine government must provideconcrete means of placing those interests on the community's agenda. Rhetorical appeals topatriotism will not suffice.

Political advocacy on behalf of the Philippines by Filipino Americans is best guaranteed by theestablishment of real economic stakes in the homeland. Development plans must include theutilization of the Filipino American community as a strategic reserve, not just as an immediatesource of tourism, dollar remittances, and trade revenues. Philippine authorities must alsoreinforce their appeals to Filipino American investments with attractive incentives andstreamlined visa, permit, and licensing processes.



Concrete programs with long-range orientations must be put in place. For example, the current"Lakbay-Aral" summer exchange/tour program for U.S.-born, second-generation FilipinoAmerican youth has excellent potential for developing deep and lasting ties with futurecommunity leaders. Filipino-community-based "trade missions" must be encouraged anddesigned not just for immediate economic results, but also for immediate and long-range impact

on the local, state, and national levels of U.S. political leadership. In the same spirit, mobilizingactive Filipino American involvement in initiating and sustaining official sister-citiesrelationships must be given high priority.

The expected granting of voting rights to Filipino citizens overseas should increase theparticipation and stakes in Philippine political affairs of Filipino nationals residing in the UnitedStates. Ultimately, however, the readiness of Filipino Americans to advocate for the nationalinterests of the Philippines will increase in proportion to the eradication of official corruption,entrenched bureaucratic inefficiency, and gaping social divisions in their homeland. Pride in theseriousness, unassailability, and effectiveness of their homeland's political leadership is one of the best antidotes to skepticism and apathy. The all-too-brief moment of elation after the 1986

"people power" revolution provided a glimpse into the greater potential of the Filipino Americancivic spirit, when "helping the homeland" went hand-in-hand with agitation for "politicalempowerment" in the United States.

Conclusion: Looking to the Future

Whether the entry of new Filipino immigrants continues at its current high rate, or, as predicted,the restriction of immigration as a whole becomes inevitable, the emergence of greater FilipinoAmerican political power ultimately depends on the growth of the assimilated sector of the

community and on the coming of age of the U.S.-born. First-generation foreign-born immigrantsare an aging sector, their median age being 38.7 years. In contrast to this, 35 percent of thecommunity is made up of U.S.-born Filipino Americans with a median age of 14.1 years. Withthe United States as their principal reference point, U.S.-born Filipinos tend to more naturallyidentify with this country's political affairs. They have a natural sense of entitlement and do nothave the same ambivalence about their claim on the United States that tends to politically inhibitrecent immigrants.

Community advocates--and those who wish to guarantee a place for Philippine national interestson the Filipino American agenda--must pay careful attention to the strengthening of FilipinoAmerican identity, the development of communitarian spirit, and the accumulation of political

experiences among the American-born. Ultimately, the U.S.-born Filipino Americans will bearthe primary responsibility for attaining greater political power and boosting the community'svisibility and cultural impact on American society. The Filipino American community's politicalpresence will become more pronounced when this generation of U.S.-born Filipinos comes intoits own to add complexity and firmer moorings to the relatively young community.



Endnotes

Note 1: A Study of Filipino American Consumer Behavior: Media Habits, Ownership and

Consumption Patterns, Values, Attitudes and Lifestyles, researched by Christina MarieMacabenta (Hayward, Calif.: California State University, 1995), p. 117. Back.

Note 2: A Study of Filipino American Consumer Behavior , p. 21. Back.

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