Research Essay Abstract

The artifacts included in this archive consist of two photographs of my grandmother (aka lola) taken during two different homecoming trips to the Philippines. To contextualize my grandma’s experience as a first-generation Filipino American, an interview conducted with my grandmother on her U.S. immigration experience during the 1970s is also included. Within my family’s Asian American history my grandma and grandpa carry great significance as the family members who first made the decision to move the family from the Philippines to the United States in 1972. Accordingly, the artifacts and the interview conducted for this project illuminate the story surrounding my grandma’s Filipino American immigration experience. The interview conducted with my grandma reveals the immigration dynamics (e.g. social interactions, dependence on family) that have shaped her experience as an immigrant to the U.S. Similarly, the two photographs of my grandma from two of her homecoming trips demonstrate the ongoing importance that Filipino cultural ties and kinships have had to her identity as a Filipino American.

As is discussed in the essay for this archive, my research findings for this project reveal that my grandparents’ immigration story is highly reflective of larger trends seen in the 1970s Filipino American immigrant community. Being immigrants that first came to the U.S. in 1972, my grandparents reflect a larger historical influx of Asians who were enabled to immigrate to the U.S. in large numbers under the Hart-Celler Act of 1965. Additionally, the resources that my grandparents relied upon early on as immigrants were similar to those that many other Filipino immigrants relied upon to get settled into American society. As was the case for many Asian American immigrants, ethnic communities played a special role in my grandparents’ settlement process as a means for them to maintain their homeland culture and create a niche for themselves in the U.S. Collectively, these three central themes of immigration legislation, adaptation resources, and the role of ethnic communities mark the three key factors that shaped my grandparents’ immigration experience and that played an analogous central role in the experience of the larger Filipino American community of the 1970s.

Given the high degree of similarity between my grandparents’ experience and the aforementioned trends seen in Filipino American immigration, I argue that my family’s immigration narrative, as illustrated by my artifact and interview, exemplifies the dynamics that governed the Filipino immigration experience during the 1970s. Regarding immigration legislation, my grandpa’s ability to immigrate to the U.S. as a medical professional alongside his family demonstrates how the Hart-Celler Act enabled a mass of Asian immigrants to enter the U.S. during the 1970s through a preferential system that was geared towards drawing foreign professionals to the U.S. and family reunification. Similarly, my grandparents’ reliance on relatives and other Filipinos in their early immigration years reveals that family and Filipino communities acted as two predominant resources that Filipino immigrants, and perhaps other Asian immigrants, relied upon to get settled in American society. Furthermore, my grandma’s ties to Philippine culture, shown in both her interview and the two artifact photographs, demonstrate a common tendency amongst Filipino immigrants to uphold their homeland culture and communal ties to other Filipinos when creating their own communal networks in an unfamiliar American society.

KEYWORDS:

Filipino Immigration; Immigration Dynamics; Filipino American