Despite the recent developments in the United States, Filipinos in
the UAE still have their eyes trained on the “Land of Milk and Honey” to
reunite with their loved ones and live the American dream.
Most Filipinos in the UAE have their plans set on getting to the United
States, which they take as a must-see, bucket list destination where they could
one day be with their loved ones, a straw poll done by The Filipino Times
revealed.
Filipinos applying for US visas from the UAE stand a better chance of having
their application considered compared to having it filed in Manila, officials said.
This, for a range of reasons including financial background and security.
Also, it is common knowledge that Filipinos pool their money together so that a
fellow could meet the bank statement requirements of the US Embassy.
“In a way, it’s like using the UAE as a springboard to the US or Canada,” a
Philippine government official said on condition of anonymity.
Fourth
The US, the poll showed, ranks fourth in the list of top five countries that
Filipinos would like to see in their lifetime, the first being Italy followed by
Japan and France in that order. Australia ranked fifth.
The random survey, done across UAE, also showed that 85 percent of the 200
respondents want to visit the US. This however dropped by 20 percent
following Trump’s January 27 executive order (EO) barring entry to people
from seven countries.
All 200 respondents have close relatives or friends in the US, with a quarter of
them saying they have a relative or a friend staying there undocumented.
Almost half or 45 percent said they are nervous because their loved ones might
be affected by Trump’s tough immigration policies.
There has also been a minimal damp on the appetite to migrate to the US, the
poll showed, as a quarter of the respondents said they have plans to move to the
US but had to reconsider following Trump’s EO.
The EO has been locked in a legal tussle between the administration and the
judiciary.
The numbers
Data culled from various official sources showed that there are 3.5 million
Filipinos in the US, a third of all Filipinos living abroad. Of this number, some
310,000 are undocumented, according to the Philippine Department of Foreign
Affairs (DFA).
The number of Filipinos across the US is the same as the population of Puerto
Rico, a U.S. territory, which stood at 3.54 million in 2014, according to the
World Bank’s United States Census Bureau.
The number is also 37.8 percent of the UAE’s population last year which was
9.26 million.
The US is the Philippines’ top remitting country at Ph463.2 billion ($9.31
billion) in 2015, according to the Central Bank of the Philippines.
Largest
Filipino immigrants constitute one of the largest foreign-born groups
in the United States. Since 1990, the Philippines has been consistently
among the top five countries of origin, and was the fourth largest in
2013, accounting for 4.5 percent of the 41.3 million total immigrant
population in the United States, according to a report by the
Washington D.C.-based think tank, Migration Policy Institute (MPI).
The report, authored by Keith McNamara and Jeanne Batalova, stated
that three major waves characterize the history of Filipino
immigration to the United States.
First was right after the U.S. annexation of the Philippines in 1899,
where the United States government started bringing in selected
Filipinos to study at U.S. colleges and universities.
The second began in the aftermath of World War II where more than
100 Filipinos arrived annually outside the quota, primarily as “war
brides” to U.S. servicemen and as recruits into the U.S. armed forces,
particularly the U.S. Navy, the MPI report stated.
In addition, an increasing number of Filipinos arrived in the United
States to train as nurses and other health-care workers. While the
postwar period saw a modest influx of Filipinos, particularly higher-
educated professionals, their numbers grew considerably in the third
major wave of immigration after 1965, following enactment of the
Immigration and Nationality Act.
While the number of Filipino immigrants has risen alongside other
Asian groups since 1965, their unique historical experience as former
nationals, close historic ties to the U.S. military, and prevalence in
health-care professions sets Filipino immigrants apart from the other
top five immigrant groups –Mexicans, Indians, Chinese,
and Vietnamese.
