Filipino Immigrants in US

This week, my curiosity was aroused when my next door neighbor ( white Anglo-Saxon ancestry) asked me, how many Filipino-Americans are now residing in US. I was not able to answer him, so I told him I do some google search on it. I ask him why he ask the question. He replied, that last month he was in Daly City, CA at the mall. He observed that about 90% of the shoppers were Filipino-looking. That day, he also was invited by his Filipino-American friend to their house in Hercules, CA. About 75%of the residents in Hercules are Filipino-American according to his friend.

The following article "Filipino Immigrants in the United States" is by Aaron Terrazas and Jeanne Batalova of the Migration Policy Institute dated April, 2010

The United States is home to about 1.7 million Filipino immigrants, making them the second-largest immigrant group in the United States after Mexican immigrants.

The Filipino immigrant population grew rapidly during the 1970s and 1980s and has continued to grow (although at a slightly slower pace) since then. In addition, the United States is home to about 1.4 million native-born US citizens who claim Filipino ancestry.

Heavily concentrated in the western United States, the Filipino born account for almost half of all immigrants in Hawaii (for more information on immigrants by state, please see the ACS/Census Data tool on the MPI Data Hub). Compared to other immigrant groups, Filipinos are better educated than the immigrant population overall, and Filipino immigrant women are more likely than other immigrant women to participate in the civilian labor force.

This spotlight focuses on Filipino immigrants residing in the United States, examining the population's size, geographic distribution, and socioeconomic characteristics using data from the US Census Bureau's 2008 American Community Survey (ACS) and 2000 Decennial Census, and the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS) for 2008.

Size and Distribution

•There were about 1.7 million foreign born from the Philippines residing in the United States in 2008.
•Nearly half of the Filipino born resided in California.
•The Filipino born accounted for a large share of all immigrants in Western states.
•Between 2000 and 2008, three states saw the size of their Filipino immigrant population grow by 25,000 people or more.
•More than one-third of Filipino immigrants resided in three metropolitan areas.
•Filipinos were two of every five immigrants in Honolulu.
•There were 2.9 million members of the Filipino diaspora residing in the United States in 2008, including 1.4 million native-born US citizens of Filipino ancestry.
Demographic and Socioeconomic Overview
•Over one-quarter of all Filipino foreign born in the United States arrived in 2000 or later.
•Almost two-thirds of Filipino immigrants in 2008 were adults of working age.
•Filipino immigrant women outnumbered men in 2008.
•Filipino immigrants were much more likely than other immigrant groups to be naturalized US citizens.
•Less than one-third of Filipino immigrants in 2008 were limited English proficient.
•A minority of limited English proficient Filipinos did not speak Tagalog, one of the national languages of the Philippines.
•Over three-quarters of Filipino foreign-born adults had some college education or higher. •Filipino immigrant women were more likely to participate in the civilian labor force than foreign-born women overall.
•Almost one-third of employed Filipino-born men worked in health-care support or in construction, extraction, and transportation.
•Nearly one of every four employed Filipino-born women worked as a registered nurse.
•Filipino immigrants were far less likely to live in poverty than other immigrant groups.
•Filipino immigrants were more likely than other immigrants to own their own home, but they were also more likely to have a mortgage.
•One in 10 Filipino immigrants did not have health insurance.
•About 87,000 Filipino immigrants have served in the US Armed Forces.
Legal and Unauthorized Filipino Immigrant Population
•The Filipino foreign born accounted for about 4.5 percent of all lawful permanent residents living in the United States in 2008.
•More than half a million Filipinos gained lawful permanent residence in the United States between 1999 and 2008.
•Over half of Filipino-born lawful permanent residents in 2008 were admitted as the immediate relatives of US citizens.
•Filipino-born lawful permanent residents made up 3.7 percent of all those eligible to naturalize as of 2008.
•In 2009, 2 percent of all unauthorized immigrants in the United States were from the Philippines.
•The number of unauthorized immigrants from the Philippines increased by one-third between 2000 and 2009.

Definitions
The US Census Bureau defines the foreign born as individuals who had no US citizenship at birth. The foreign-born population includes naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, refugees and asylees, legal nonimmigrants (including those on student, work, or certain other temporary visas), and persons residing in the country without authorization.

The terms foreign born and immigrant are used interchangeably. Here's an interesting video about Filipino-Americans.