[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 104 (Wednesday, July 27, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1629-E1630]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF A RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING THE CENTENNIAL OF SUSTAINED 
         IMMIGRATION FROM THE PHILIPPINES TO THE UNITED STATES

                                 ______
                                 

                              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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