Migrating to the U.S.

The history of Filipino farm workers is part of a larger story of immigrant labor, which began earlier with Chinese, Japanese, Punjabi Indian, and Mexican immigrants. These early immigrants fulfilled a need for labor—and a need to keep labor cheap—but after their arrival, they suffered discrimination, even violence, from those who wanted to keep them out. After the U.S. defeated Spain in the Spanish-American war in 1898 and took control of the Philippines, a small number of Filipino students, or pensionados, came to the U.S. But it wasn’t until the 1920s that Filipinos began arriving in large numbers. Their labor was suddenly in demand when the 1924 National Origins Act restricted other immigrant groups. During the 1920s and 1930s about 100,000 Filipinos—mostly young, single men—arrived. Though they had U.S. passports, Filipinos did not have citizenship rights and therefore could neither vote nor buy property. As a color-visible minority, Filipinos faced prejudice and discrimination.

• • A 1925 U.S. 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.

  • In the 1930s, Filipinos were often barred from swimming pools, movies, tennis courts, restaurants and barbershops.

  • Also in the 1930s, anti-miscegenation laws forbade Filipinos to marry whites until the California Supreme Court case Perez v. Sharp in 1948.

For a timeline of events regarding Filipino Migration to the United States and the regulations that were inflicted as a result, be sure to check out the Timeline.

Independence in the Philippines, a double-edged sword!

In 1934, the Tydings-McDuffie Act granted independence to the Philippines and limited the number of Filipino immigrants to 50 per year. The act was supported both by those who opposed the U.S. presence in the Philippines and by those who accused Filipino immigrants of contributing to rising unemployment during the Great Depression. Many newspapers and political organizations added to anti-Filipino sentiment by characterizing them as a social and public health threat. It wasn’t until Filipinos fought alongside other Americans in WWII that anti-Filipino sentiment softened, the cap on Filipino immigration was lifted, and Filipinos were finally able to become U.S. citizens.

Section Contents

Migrating Home

    Treaty of Paris of 1898

    White Man's Burden

        Philippine American War

        American Imperialism

    Filipino Migration

    Timeline

For further reading:

• • McWilliams, Carey. “Chapter VII: Our Oriental Agriculture.” Factories in the Fields: The Story of Migratory Farm Labor in California. Boston: Little, Brown, & CO., 1939. pp. 103-133.

  • Takaki, Ronald. “Dollar a Day, Dime a Dance: The Forgotten Filipinos.” Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. New York: Penguin Books, 1989. pp. 315-354.

  • Ngai, Mae M. “From colonial subject to undesirable alien: Filipino migration, exclusion, and repatriation, 1920-1940." Re/collecting early Asian America: Essays in cultural history. Lee, Lim, and Matsukawa, eds. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2002.