American settlement in the Philippines

American settlement in the Philippines began during the Spanish period, when Americans came to the islands primarily to conduct business. They owned many businesses in trade and in the sugar industry. Although not harassed by Spanish laws, the American inflow to the Philippines was minimal until the Philippine-American War.

In 2007, the U.S. State Department estimated that there were over 250,000 U.S. citizens living in the Philippines.Citation
url=http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2794.htm
title= Background Note: Philippines
month=October
year=2007
publisher=U.S. Department of State: Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs
accessdate=2007-01-27]

Commencement of major American immigration to the Philippines

American colonial rule in the Philippines has seen major immigrations to the Philippines. Retiring soldiers and other military-men were among of the first Americans to become long-term Philippine residents and settlers. The Education Act of 1901 authorized the colonial government to recruit American teachers to help establish the new educational system, and 80 former soldiers became teachers. They were soon joined by 48 teachers recruited in America who arrived in June 1901 on the ship Sheridan, and by 523 others who arrived on August 1, 1901 on the Thomas. Collectively, these teachers became known as the Thomasites. [cite web |url=http://pinoykasi.homestead.com/files/2001articles/08032001_Thomasite.htm |title=The Thomasite experiment |accessdate=2006-10-10 |accessmonthday= |accessyear= |author= |last=Tan |first=Michael L. |authorlink= |coauthors= |date=2001-09-03 |year= |month= |format= |work= |publisher=Pinoy Casi (columns published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer) |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote=] Besides English, the Thomasites taught agriculture, reading, grammar, geography, mathematics, general courses, trade courses, housekeeping and household arts (sewing, crocheting and cooking), manual trading, mechanical drawing, freehand drawing and athletics (baseball, track and field, tennis, indoor baseball and basketball). Many of these people settled in the Philippines and had Philippine spouses. By 1930, there were already thriving American and American mestizo communities.Fact|date=February 2007

1940 to date

The 1940s was a period of large scale influx of American immigration to the Philippines. However, this was cut abruptly by the World War II. Many Americans as well as American mestizos in the Philippines were interred and killed by the Japanese. After the Philippines gained independence from the United States in 1946, many Americans chose to permanently settle in the Philippines. The Americans until the mid-1990s had a heavy presence in the cities of Angeles and Olongapo, northeast of Manila, due to the presence of large US military bases there. During the American colonial period (1898-1946), a recorded number of more than 800,000 Americans were born in the Philippines. Large concentrations of Filipinos with American ancestry aside from Metro Manila are located in the areas of the former US Army bases such as the Subic Bay area in Zambales and Clark Field in Angeles.

The Philippine Children's Fund of America, based in Angeles City, was created by the US and Philippine governments in 1991 to assist impoverished Filipino children of American ancestry, also known as Amerasians, by providing educational scholarships, employment and working visas to the United States. Around 56,000 children under the age of 16 benefit from the fund today. The Amerasian Foundation and Amerasian Family Finder networks with volunteers in the US and the Philippines to help Amerasians and their fathers reunite.

Amerasians can be found in the upper class, but also amongst the middle and lower classes as a result of the abandonment of their American fathers upon completion of military service and subsequent withdrawal of US forces. Their physiognomy and facial features are somewhat similar to Spanish mestizos, with more Nordic features. Many Amerasians who have Spanish surnames and born to white American mothers or out of wedlock to white American fathers may be mistaken or called as Spanish Filipino mestizos. There are also many American mestizos who are actually of mixed white American and Spanish mestizo descent, and a small fraction of them does have blue or gray eyes and blonde pigmentation, and can pass as unmixed Caucasians. American mestizos of Caucasian race with brown complexion may be called by Filipinos as native-blooded Filipinos regardless of their Caucasian appearance.

Aside from Spanish and Mexican Filipino mestizos who are direct descendants of Spanish settlers (from Spain and Mexicans, some of them with Native American blood) in the Philippines from Spanish political period, there are also many Spanish and Mexican Filipino mestizos who are descendants of Hispanic American settlers from Spanish American and Mexican American origins. There may even Spanish mestizos who have Spanish blood from Puerto Rican, Cuban American, and other Hispanic parentages.

The majority of Black people in the Philippines who are sometimes classified as African-Filipinos or Afro-Filipino as an umbrella term are of part-African American descent, mostly descending from United States army servicemen. (It should be noted that, unlike in the United States, there are no official race classifications in the Philippines.) Chinese and other East Asian Filipino mestizos can be of part-Asian American blood. The number of American mestizos is thought to be between 20,000 and 30,000. Most speak Filipino and English. The majority are to be found in Angeles City, which has the largest proportion of Amerasians in the Philippines.cite web
url = http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,106430,00.html
title = The Forgotten Angels
accessdate = 2007-06-20
last = Beech
first = Hannah
date= 2001-04-16
work = Time magazine
publisher= Time Inc.
archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20070123175954/http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,106430,00.html
archivedate = 2007-12-31
quote = ]

Today, the Philippines has a large population of Americans and people with American roots, as well as a burgeoning Amerasian population. The overwhelming majority of unmixed Americans and American-Filipinos in the Philippines are what would be classified in the United States by the US Census Bureau and the EEOC as “White”, and most are male.Fact|date=March 2008

The total number of US citizens living in the Philippines is more than 250,000. Only about 22,000, however, are permanent settlers.Fact|date=February 2007 About 81,000 are non-citizen residents, among such are businessmen, missionaries, and educators.Fact|date=February 2007 These estimates may actually be lower than in reality.Fact|date=March 2008

Prominent descendants of American settlers

For a list of prominent or noteworthy descendants of American settlers, see .

ee also

*Philippine nationality law
*Filipino mestizos, Filipinos of part-Austronesian ancestry
*Amerasians
*Eurasians
*Afro-Asian

References