Filipino Immigrants 19th Century

The Great Migration

The early 19th century was an era of emigration to the United States as every nation had its people coming to the United States. Whether it was from an economic, religious or even education standpoint, thousands of immigrants came to the United States. However, not every immigrant was treated the same. There was a constant struggle for independence and less opposition. Even the U.S. legal system was used against them to discriminate against the immigrants. However, such experiences still did not stop the overflow of immigration to the United States. The Chinese, the Japanese, and the Filipino who were the first immigrants to the United States experienced such adversities.

After the Civil War, many Chinese immigrants arrived in the United States. Few of the major pull

An array of people came during the Filipino immigration such as Negritos, who mainly lived in the archipelago and the Malays who were mainly from Indonesia. The Filipinos had almost the same pull factors as the Japanese—education. Most Filipinos sought a better, a more Western education system to help serve their country better. The Pensionado Act of 1903 allowed Filipino students to study aboard in the U.S., which contributed to the influx of immigrants that came. However, as with the Japanese, these “Pensionados” were soon outnumbered by the labor immigrants. These labors first went to Hawaii and then the main U.S. continent. However, these labor immigrants did not face the same arduous restriction the Japanese labor immigrants felt. As the Filipino labor immigrants were sponsored by the HSPA, they travelled with U.S. passports and were exempt from the harsh immigration laws. Similar to the Chinese and the Japanese, only a few Filipino women came to the United States. However, the main reason Filipino women came was to avoid arranged marriage. But, this was super