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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Filipino Immigrant Oral History Project
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies
Description
An account of the resource
<strong><br />Note: Collection upload in process</strong>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Shawn Lupo
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
"Jane"
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound.
[Session 1, June 2, 2019]<br />[Being Audio File]<br />SHAWN: It is June 2nd, 2019, 7:08pm, I shall be doing an interview with a Filipino immigrant,<br />this immigrant did not want her real name to be used in the interview , so throughout the<br />interview I shall be referring to her a Jane. So hello Jane , and thank you for giving me your time<br />today.<br />JANE: Hello and go ahead with your questions<br />SHAWN: Okay, so to start off where and when were you born?<br />JANE: I was born July 7th, 1968, in Dingras, Illocos Norte, Philippines<br />SHAWN: Where were your parents born?<br />JANE: It is the same thing, Dingras, Illocos Norte, Philippines<br />SHAWN: Oh okay, so it looks like your family is generations into that city, how many<br />generations is your family in that city?<br />JANE: We have three generations.<br />SHAWN: Oh okay, what did your parents do in terms of work?<br />JANE: My father is a businessman and my mother is a housewife<br />SHAWN: So for your father’s business is it like a family business or was just working under<br />someone?<br />4<br />JANE: It’s a family business<br />SHAWN: Oh okay, what did your grandparents do?<br />JANE: My grandfather on the mother's side is in military and my grandmother is a farmer and a<br />housewife and my grandmother on the father’s side is a businessman, the same thing with my<br />grandmother<br />SHAWN: On your grandfather that was in the military was the military in the family?<br />JANE: Yes<br />SHAWN: And on the business side, for your grandparents that were in the business is that also in<br />the family?<br />JANE: Yes<br />SHAWN: Okay, and so growing up how many siblings did you have? And like was your family<br />big?<br />JANE: No, we have a small family, and I have two siblings<br />SHAWN: Two siblings, okay, did you or did any of your family members move to American<br />before you?<br />JANE: No, it’s just by myself<br />SHAWN: Just by yourself, okay, what was your academic experience in the Philippines?<br />JANE: When I was in college I was a library assistant, and after college I served as an assistant<br />at Allied Bank<br />SHAWN: What did you major in at college?<br />JANE: Business and Management, Business Management, bachelor of science in business<br />management<br />5<br />SHAWN: Okay, so do you have any professional experience working in that field?<br />JANE: Yes I do<br />SHAWN: Okay so, what made you devide to move out of the Philippines?<br />JANE: Coming here to the US, its financial staiblity and a better life<br />SHAWN: What made you think that you would have better finacial stability in the US?<br />JANE: First of all is they said that there’s more job here compared to the Philippines and the pay<br />rate is better than the Philippines<br />SHAWN: And who did you hear this from?<br />JANE: A lot of people, a lot of Filipinos coming here and I heard it from them.<br />SHAWN: Okay, so when did you finally move to the US?<br />JANE: That was 1996<br />SHAWN: 1996, was there any huge struggles you had in moving to the US?<br />JANE: Yes, because it is hard to get a visa and when I came here again I had to find a job, thats<br />the struggle I do, and then competing with Americans is not that easy to find a job<br />SHAWN: When you first moved to the US how were your English skills?<br />Jane: So-so<br />SHAWN: So-so, did you move anywhere before you came to the US?<br />JANE: Yes, I work in Taiwan and Hong Kong, Indonesia, and China<br />SHAWN: Was this apart of the export economy of the Philippines? Where they send out many<br />workers to different countries, was it apart of that?<br />JANE: No<br />SHAWN: This was on your own accord?<br />6<br />JANE: This one I applied in the Philippines, its an import-export business from a US company,<br />they hired me after graduation, like 6 months before my graduation they hired me, and they send<br />me to every countries, like every like Hong Kong 6 months, I go to Taiwan, 6 months,<br />something like that. It’s like quality control.<br />SHAWN: Okay so with your thoughts that you had about America before you immigrated did<br />they change after you came to America? Before you came to America you believed there was<br />more financial stability, do you agree with that now that you arrived here?<br />JANE:Not exactly<br />SHAWN: Why?<br />JANE: Because if you don't have a good job money is not good , yes, and if you don't have an<br />education job is not good either, so it’s not a paradise<br />SHAWN: Okay so, what was different about living in America compared to the Philippines?<br />JANE: Living in America is easy if you have a good job, living in the Philippines is not that easy<br />because there's no job in the Philippines, there is a job again they’re hard to find , you have to<br />have a connection to get a job in the Philippines. Down here it is fair, you apply, you have the<br />skills they hire you, so that’s the difference in it<br />[4:57]<br />SHAWN: With your belief that with skills you can get hired in America, do you think as an<br />immigrant your discriminated against a lot more than Americans? In the American job market<br />JANE: Yes-yes , and no. Yes if it depends on the company and no because some companies<br />don’t discriminate. But on my experience they do discriminate, the first time I worked, but the<br />second time I worked for a company, no.<br />7<br />SHAWN: And so with your English abilities being so-so, do you think it gave you an advantage<br />or disadvantage compared to other immigrants from other countries?<br />JANE: Disadvantage<br />SHAWN: Why do you believe that?<br />JANE: Because sometimes they don’t understand you, the way you speak in English is different,<br />they can hardly understand you sometimes with the Americans. But with the migrants just like<br />us, they do understand, so that’s the disadvantage of it<br />SHAWN: Okay and so when you came to the US where do you live?<br />JANE: I live in San Diego<br />SHAWN: Did you stay with family or were you alone by yourself?<br />JANE: Alone by myself<br />SHAWN: How did you provide for yourself<br />JANE: I had to work<br />SHAWN: So what was your first job when you came here?<br />JANE: When I first came here, my visa was just a tourist visa, so I did so-so job, like a<br />housekeeper, babysitting, something like that. And then when I get my card, or greencard<br />something like that, I get married, so I helped my husband, my ex-husband by the way, to run his<br />business, and then after that when we get divorced i find my own job by myself, which is in the<br />hotel being a manager.<br />SHAWN: Did your professional and academic experiences help you get this job as a manager?<br />JANE: Yes<br />SHAWN: Was the job related to what you did in the Philippines in terms of profession wise?<br />8<br />JANE: Yes, because its management<br />SHAWN: Was managing in America very different from managing in the Philippines?<br />JANE: Of course<br />SHAWN: What were the biggest differences?<br />JANE: Here, it just not only management, in the Philippines if they say you're manager, you're<br />manager. Down here being a manager you need to do everything, like if you're short of staff you<br />need to step in and do their job, in the Philippines you don’t do that, you have to find somewhere<br />else to do the job, not you doing it, here you are forced to do it<br />SHAWN: When you came to America did you continue your education in America? Did you go<br />back to college?<br />JANE: Yes<br />SHAWN: What college did you go to?<br />JANE: Ashford University, online college<br />SHAWN: What did you do?<br />JANE: I did my master roll<br />SHAWN: In what?<br />JANE: Business management<br />SHAWN: Business management, and so has that helped you with your career in America?<br />JANE: Yes<br />SHAWN: Is it significant or just a little?<br />JANE: Significant<br />SHAWN: Like how?<br />9<br />JANE: Right now I’m dealing with a lot of doctors, okay, and also in hospitals it helps me do all<br />the job im not supposed to be doing it, meaning to say it advances, because they see that with<br />master roll they respect you more, and they give you more opportunity to go up<br />SHAWN: So when you came to America have you noticed anything different between first<br />generation immigrants like yourself and the Filipino-American community?<br />JANE: Yes, I do, the first generation, more family orientated, more respectful to their eldery<br />family, listens more, advices and education are the priority, while the second generation is<br />ego-lucky, doesn’t know struggles, disconnection from Filipino culture, and traditional culture<br />clash with western culture, and largely unfamiliar with their home country<br />SHAWN: What do you think causes these differences?<br />JANE: Well which one? Are you talking about the first generation or the second generation?<br />SHAWN: What do you think caused the difference between first generation immigrants and the<br />Filipino-American community, do you think it's more so how the Filipino-Americans were raised<br />or do you think it's more so just being in America?<br />JANE: Definitely the way Filipinos raise, like when the children are born here they are raised<br />like Americans, whereas the Filipinos born in the Philippines come here they raise us like a<br />Filipino, meaning to say that the respect is there, the more--go ahead<br />[10:08]<br />SHAWN: So you believe the first generation immigrants raise their second differently than they<br />would in the Philippines?<br />JANE: Yes, definitely<br />SHAWN: Why do you think that happens?<br />10<br />JANE: Maybe because parents down here don't have much time with their kids, while in the<br />Philippines we got a lot of time to mold our children. Here parents they tend to work more hours<br />and they tend to forget their kids, they need to mold them the way their supposed to be, but<br />because of their work hours or work load they don't have that time, that’s the reason why,<br />because the way you do it, you have to spend more time with the kids or the children while<br />they’re growing up, so that that’s the big impact of raising a kids, so comparing to the<br />Philippines y’know people down there you have your own family, you have your relatives that<br />they look after, so the kids saw it. Down here in America you have your family and your<br />relatives, it's still again the time is not there for them together or something like that. Plus you<br />know there a lot of people here already like a lot of, what do you call it, countries coming in here<br />so those things they learn things from those in the school, where in the Philippines there’s only<br />one country that you're dealing with, so we are just like one company or something like that, that<br />you don't have any kind of people there like Americans or Chinese in the school that they learn<br />bad things or good things from them, it's only Filipinos, down here [California] its Filipinos,<br />Mexicans, White, or something like that, so those are the different one, those one different<br />cultures. So with this one they learn things from them, that’s what I think, I might be wrong<br />though.<br />SHAWN: So I know you’re pressed for time so I guess I’ll just ask you one more thing. So do<br />you have any advice for any Filipinos in the Philippines that want to come to the US?<br />JANE: For them it’s not bad to dream to come here, but you need to think first, because down<br />here if you come here without education it’s useless, okay, with education on it it's easy, better<br />life, because if you don’t have an education , you can have like housekeeper making $9 an hour,<br />11<br />$9 an hour not gonna put food on the table, not enough. So with education your making more<br />than that , so better before you come here to get an education first , and then when they come<br />here they can study more, that's all I can tell<br />SHAWN: Jane, thank you so much for your time<br />JANE: You’re welcome<br />SHAWN: So it is June 2nd, 2019, 7:22PM, and I shall be ending this interview<br />[End Audio File]
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FwkWqmTn9ScMrTcwbhiWS43KFpKh21Tw/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FwkWqmTn9ScMrTcwbhiWS43KFpKh21Tw/view?usp=sharing</a>, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jdcFuQ1a8RYHDMSK0ESALl2mCSEUwDii/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jdcFuQ1a8RYHDMSK0ESALl2mCSEUwDii/view?usp=sharing</a>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Oral History Interview with "Jane"
Subject
The topic of the resource
Dingras, Ilocos Norte; San Diego, California; Filipino Americans -- Social conditions, Criticism of American Dream, Filipino Americans -- Employment, Discrimination in employment -- United States, Ashford University (online college), Business Management, First Generation Immigrant Families, Second Generation Immigrant Families, Filipino Americans -- Family relationships, Filipino Americans -- Cultural assimilation, Generational differences
Description
An account of the resource
Oral history interview with "Jane" [pseudonym], interviewed by Shawn Lupo
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
6/2/2019
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies and the UC Davis Asian American Studies department holds intellectual control of these recordings. Usage is restricted for educational, non-commercial purposes only. For other uses, please contact archivist Jason Sarmiento at ajsarmiento@ucdavis.edu
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Audio Recording and Transcript
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ucdw_wa014_s001_0026
Ashford University (online college)
Business Management
California; Filipino Americans -- Social conditions
Criticism of American Dream
Dingras
Discrimination in employment -- United States
Filipino Americans -- Cultural assimilation
Filipino Americans -- Employment
Filipino Americans -- Family relationships
First Generation Immigrant Families
Generational differences
Ilocos Norte; San Diego
Second Generation Immigrant Families