Filipino Americans In America Essay Example for Free

Filipino Americans In America Essay Filipino Americans have retained their racial and cultural pride and outlook even as they are fast becoming assimilated and adopting American values and cultural norms in the United States as an adopted country. This is a preliminary paper which featured six respondents to a fundamentally open ended but structured questionnaire, intending to elicit their inner sentiments on their nationality as immigrants to the United States. Qualifying criteria: Filipino ancestry, and residency in in the United States for the last 5- 15 years. Must have spent at least 10 to 15 years in the Philippines prior to immigration to the United States. Structure of Questionnaire: This is a fundamentally controlled emic questionnaire, initially, intended to have open-ended response that will give the inner sentiments of the respondents. Six respondents were given a free-wheeling right to answer the following questions (1) how they feel being Filipino Americans (2) the comfort level they have in being called Filipino Americans (3) their attitude to the previous citizenship (4) their general feeling about being Filipino or simply, Americans. (5) the values that differentiate them as a group (6) the beliefs that are common among them (7) their loyalty to their mother country (8) their religious faith/s (9) their attitude towards the US elections and the candidates (10) their celebrations and joys (11) The problems they perceive about their home country (12) The problems they meet in the United States. Emic-Etic Research 3 Interview results: 1. Four of six said they were proud Filipinos â€Å" just living or working in America. † Two said they are Filipino Americans, but that the United States is their country. 2. Four of six said they are not comfortable being referred to as Americans. Two were comfortable, but explain that they have Filipino roots. 3. All six said they were proud of their racial roots. Four of six said they identified with the United States as a friendly second country. 4. All said they would have preferred to stay in the Philippines because of the character of the people there (friendly and hospitable, and â€Å"wonderful†) but they would like to look for higher paying jobs in the US . 5. Five of six said their Catholic religion bind them together, four said they are proud of the heroes of their race, all five of six said they are proud of the racial industriousness and resourcefulness of their fellow Filipinos, and that their friendly nature distinguish them as a group. 6. All six said belief in God is a national faith. Among the values that they share as a group are: being good to foreigners, kindness to neighbors, cleanliness in their bodies, living harmoniously with neighbors. Some of the vices of their race include: gambling, gossip, and crabbing or stealing dreams. 8. Four of the six said they are non-practicing Catholics One was Protestant. One did not answer. 9. Three would vote for Obama , one for McCain. Two are not inclined to join the electoral discussions as irrelevant to them. Four said a McCain victory would be bad for Emic-Etic Research 4 Filipino immigrants. The same number said Obama would be good to immigrants. (Two answered twice) 10. All six said they enjoy Christmas as the most awaited holiday of the year. They enjoy singing publicly or in groups. They also all eagerly await the religious month of the Lenten season. They also enjoy family reunions, attending funeral wakes, group drinking, and teasing beautiful women, passing hours for their siesta, engaging in small talk, talking about their politicians, listening to movie gossip, either Filipino local or Hollywood. 11. The following came out as their negative list of events and/or descriptions in their country of origin: low value of the peso (5 of interviewees ) , high unemployment (4 of respondents) , air and water pollution ( 3 of respondents ) , and corruption in government (2 of 6 respondents). . 12. All six said they have experienced and can easily discern racial bigotry and discrimination in America. ANALYSIS The results of the tally suggest a pattern of national consciousness, an awareness of nationhood and national pride. The limited number of respondents at = six (6) is without any other controlling variables like total population and distribution profile and therefore cannot be a basis for any claim of being representative of the population of Filipino US immigrants. Emic-Etic Research 5 The present practical inquiry however can serve as a basis for future etic questionnaire that will define the answers to the above from a truly representative sampling, and allow an etic database that will provide objective percentages to the initial summary of findings above. As important as what the respondents above are saying are those that they have left unsaid. For example in Item 2, four of six respondents were unwilling to be called Filipino Americans –a fact that clearly displayed national loyalty and preference for their citizenship branding as Filipinos. The two who acknowledged their American citizenship were nevertheless fully cognizant and proud of their Filipino roots. In item 12, the stark figure of all six respondents saying they have experienced and could discern racial bigotry and discrimination in the United States speaks volumes about the social environment they operate, and describes their inner sensitivity to indications of racial discrimination. This is wide field of further inquiry that can further establish objective etic ( or objective, verifiable) information of concrete cases of discrimination that respondents have experienced in the United States.