Date of Award
4-22-2011
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Honors Thesis
Department
History
Abstract
This research looks to understand the disparity between Filipinos and their Asian American counterparts in cultural presence within the United States, especially given the Filipinos large numbers as immigrants to the United States. According to the 2000 United States Census, there were a little over 10 million who self identify solely as Asians. Of these 10 million, about 1,850,000 were Filipinos. This is the second largest Asian immigrant group. Their numbers are only exceeded by the Chinese. Filipinos themselves exceed other Asian groups such as Japanese, Koreans and Asian Indians.3 Historically, while the large majority of Filipinos immigrants settled in Hawaii, sizable groups of Filipino immigrants have confined themselves to the West Coast. California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska have all seen large numbers of Filipinos. During the height of their immigration to the United States in the 1920s and 1930s there were approximately 45,000 Filipinos residing on the mainland, with over 63,000 Filipinos in Hawaii.4 This research focuses on the collective experience of Filipino laborers in Seattle between 1920 and 1940. I argue that Filipino immigrants and Filipino culture is not visible to white America because the second wave of Filipino labor immigrants was unable to plant more than shallow roots in American society. What roots the Filipinos did plant were more Americanized than ethnically Filipino limiting their cultural presence in the United States today.
Recommended Citation
Baylon Sorenson, Krista, "Shallow Roots: An Analysis of Filipino Immigrant Labor in Seattle from 1920-1940" (2011). Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection. 98.
https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/ugtheses/98