IMMIGRATION

IMMIGRATION

Through the 2018 Filipino Policy Symposium, participants developed a California state-wide policy platform focused on eight major areas: Gender Justice, Housing, Health, Community Development and Small Businesses, Immigration, Workers Rights, Human Rights and Criminal Justice, and Education. This platform shares the lived realities experienced by the California Filipino population and their proposed policy recommendations. The 2019 Filipino Policy Platform can be utilized by policy makers, community based organizations, and the larger public as an educational resource to develop policies and further engagement with the Filipino community.

2018

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.

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English

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The United States is home to largest number of Filipinos abroad, with estimates of 1.9 million to 3.2 million Filipinos living in the country (Migration Policy Institute 2016, Commission of Filipinos Overseas 2015). Beginning with the transfer of the Philippines from Spanish to US colonization in the early 1900s, the mass influx of Filipino migration to the United States started with Filipinos becoming cheap migrant labor for US agriculture, canneries, and plantations. Throughout the 1900s and 2000s, there have been increased waves of migration of not only low wage workers, but also professionals, veterans, and petitioned families post-1965 immigration laws. Currently, Filipinos continue to migrate with many as low-wage workers for US industries with undocumented and temporary visa statuses. According to the Department of Homeland Security, there is an estimated 310,000 undocumented Filipinos in the US. Major trends impacting Filipino immigrants include tago ng tago, the cultural stigma of being undocumented; the rise of Filipinas being forced to migrate from Philippines; deportation and detention; and labor trafficking. BCFS recommends the following: Education around immigration policies, workers rights, and migrant rights from community-based organizations, and from the Philippine and United States government. Development of Rapid Response Networks and other community networks for protection from detention and deportations. Legislation to hold recruitment agencies and predatory loan companies accountable for debt bondage and labor trafficking; increased oversight from the Philippine and US government on labor recruitment processes; and funding for overseas protection and services for Filipino migrant workers. Legislation to defund the Department of Homeland Security and the US Immigration Customs and Enforcement, and transfer funds to social policies such as education and health care. Increased funding for dignified employment and infrastructure in the Philippines to curb forced migration and bolster community-led development in the country.