The Influence Of Filipino Immigration To The United States

Philippines, a nation of over 7,000 islands, is a country that contains different cultures and influences. These influences originated from previous settlement of Spain and the United States. The Filipino immigration to the United States first started when the Philippines became a territory of the United States in 1898 as a result of the Spanish-American War. A large number of the immigrants arrived in Hawaii as laborers in agriculture and domestic services. Filipino Americans make up the nation’s second-largest Asian American group. “The Filipino immigrant community in the United States jumped from 105,000 in 1960 (1.1 percent of all immigrants) to 1,844,000 in 2013 (4.5 percent)” (Batalova & McNamara, 2015). Today, Filipino Americans are
dispersed throughout the nation, but are still heavily concentrated in California and Hawaii. The official languages in the Philippines are Tagalog and English, along with 8 major dialects and 176 local dialects. Food is a huge part of the culture, ranging from exotic fusions of Hispanic, Asian, and American culinary influences.