Introduction of a Resolution Recognizing the Centennial of Sustained Immigration from the Philippines to the United States

INTRODUCTION OF A RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING THE CENTENNIAL OF SUSTAINED IMMIGRATION FROM THE PHILIPPINES TO THE UNITED STATES -- (Extensions of Remarks - July 27, 2005)

SPEECH OF
HON. ED CASE
OF HAWAII
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2005

Mr. CASE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce, together with 29 of my colleagues, a concurrent resolution to formally recognize the 2006 centennial of sustained Filipino immigration to the United States, acknowledge the many achievements of our Filipino-American community, and reflect on the productive and enduring relationship between the United States and the Philippines over the past century.

The Filipino-American experience and the evolving yet always close relationship between the Philippines and the United States began in earnest in 1906, when fifteen Filipino contract laborers arrived in the then-Territory of Hawaii to work on the islands' sugar plantations. This marked the start of an emigration from the Philippines to the United States which, during the subsequent century, has numbered upwards of 60,000 a year, making Filipinos our second-largest immigrant group from the Asia-Pacific region.

The year 1906 was also when the first class of two hundred ``pensionados'' arrived from the Philippines to obtain a United States education with the intent of returning to the Philippines. Many, however, stayed to become American citizens, forming, with the ``sakadas'' who emigrated to my Hawaii, the foundation of today's Filipino-American community.

The story of America's Filipino-American community is little known and rarely told. Yet it is the quintessential immigrant story of early struggle, pain, sacrifice, and broken dreams, leading eventually to success in overcoming ethnic, social, economic, political, and legal barriers to win a well-deserved place in American society.

Today, 2.4 million Americans of Filipino ancestry live throughout our Nation, including the two top states: California, where 1.1 million reside, and Hawaii, my home state, where some 275,000 live (140,000 in my Second Congressional District alone, making it home to the largest number of Filipino Americans of any congressional district).

Members of this community have made great contributions to America, and have achieved success and distinction in, among other things, labor, business, politics, media and the arts, medicine, and the armed forces. Filipino Americans have also served with distinction in the armed forces of the United States throughout the long U.S.-Philippines relationship, from World Wars I and II through the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and today in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.

Many Filipino Americans retained their mother country's proud cultural traditions, which continue to enrich the diverse tapestry of today's American experience. Many have also maintained close ties to family and friends in the Philippines, and therefore played an indispensable role in maintaining the strength and vitality of the U.S.-Philippines relationship.

That relationship has evolved over the past century from the 1898-1946 period of U.S. governance, during which the then-Commonwealth of the Philippines was represented in the U.S. Congress by thirteen resident commissioners, to the post-independence period beginning in 1946, when the Philippines took its place among the community of nations and became one of this country's most reliable allies in the international arena.

In 2006, our Filipino-American community will join all Americans in pausing to recognize a century of achievement in the United States through a series of nationwide celebrations and memorials marking the centennial of sustained immigration from the Philippines. This centennial will provide every American of whatever ethnic heritage an opportunity to not only celebrate a century of Filipino immigration to the United States, but to celebrate, appreciate, and honor the struggles and triumphs common to the immigrant experience, which, of course, is also the American experience.

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