Life in Philippines and in the United States

Life in Philippines and in the United States

Review of Literature

Social Aspects

Even prior to the U.S. annexation of the Philippines, there was already a Filipino community in Louisiana. However, it was the American colonization of the Philippines which paved the way for an exodus of Filipinos to the United States. There were two types of Filipinos who went to the United States. One type was comprised of the educated and, initially, middle class Filipinos who came as pensionados, or government scholars, for the purpose of furthering their education and training in the U.S. The second type was poor Filipinos who came as a cheap migrating labor supply for Hawaii plantations, California farms, and the Alaska fishing industry. While most of the pensionados went home after several years of schooling, most of the Filipino migrant workers eventually made the U.S. their new homeland. The collective experiences of the pensionados and migrant workers constitute the early history of the Filipino Americans, and they occupy a significant niche in the history of Filipino diaspora (Tiongson et.al 2004).

In the Philippines, the formulation of government policy occurs within the legislative and executive branches of government. On the legislative front, Congress, through legislative action, enacts the laws and the appropriate department within the executive branch of government formulates the necessary implementing rules and regulations governing the laws. Policies emanating from the executive branch may come in the form of department orders or memorandum circulars. Public policy making at the legislative level is often a long and tedious process that is influenced by an interplay of multiple factors from the personal to the social and the political. The passage of a bill into law is affected by the strength of public clamour; the endorsement of the President of the Philippines; the legislative priorities of the chairman of the committee in the House of Representatives or the Senate to which the bill has been submitted; and the interpersonal relations between the legislator sponsoring the bill and the chairman of the committee at the House of Representatives or the Senate to which the bill has been submitted and/or the legislators' technical staff and secretary and technical staff of the said committee (Isaac 2006).

Generally, the initiative for the bills that are filed and sponsored by the senators and congressman, including migration-related bills, comes from the legislator, an NGO or other interest groups. The technical staff of the legislator may assist in drafting the bill or the legislator may approach the relevant government agency to request technical support in formulating the bill. On the other hand, the initiative for filing a bill may come from an NGO or an interest group that submits a draft of a bill to the legislator whose sponsorship it is seeking.



Political Aspects

Political tutelage was one of the goals set forth by the U.S. when it acquired the Philippines. One reason for training Filipinos in lessons of self-rule was to create a pool of qualified, highly educated civil ...