Filipinos in Hawaii facts for kids

People of Filipino descent are a big and growing part of Hawaii's population. In 2000, they were the third largest ethnic group. By 2010, they became the second largest group in Hawaii, after White people.

Filipino History in Hawaii

Filipino immigrants arriving in Hawaii around 1906.

Scientists believe the Philippine Islands might have been a home or a stop for ancient people called the Lapita culture. These people spoke Austronesian languages and were ancestors of the Polynesians. This idea comes from DNA findings that link Polynesian chickens to the Philippines thousands of years ago.

During the time when Spain ruled the Philippines, it was part of a larger Spanish territory called New Spain. It's possible that people from the Philippines visited the Hawaiian Islands while traveling to or from Mexico on large ships called Manila galleons. However, there are no official records of this.

Early Filipino Settlers (1800s)

A few Filipinos, known as "Manila men," came to the Kingdom of Hawaii in the 1800s. They often worked as cooks or musicians in the Royal Hawaiian Band. During this time, there wasn't a planned movement of many Filipinos to Hawaii.

Who Were the Manila Men?

The Manila Men were some of the first Filipinos to work overseas. They were also the first Filipinos known to have come to North America.

Filipino Workers Come to Hawaii (Early to Mid 1900s)

A big movement of Filipino workers, called “Sakadas,” began in 1906 and lasted until 1946. “Sakadas” means “Filipino migrant workers.” About 125,000 Filipinos were recruited from the Ilocos and Visayas regions of the Philippines to work in Hawaii.

At first, the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association (HSPA) brought Filipino men to Hawaii to work in sugarcane fields. Later, Sakadas also worked in pineapple fields. Filipinos were brought in to replace Japanese workers who were striking for better pay and working conditions. The plantation owners kept different ethnic groups separate. This was to prevent Filipinos from joining the strikes.

Recruiters preferred Filipino workers who had less education and experience in farming. They thought these workers would be easier to manage. Sakadas usually signed three-year contracts. Many planned to earn money and then return home to buy land. This was common until the 1940s. Their contracts included travel to Hawaii and back to the Philippines. By the 1940s, working in Hawaii was seen as a chance for "glorya" (glory), so more Filipinos wanted to stay.

Workers lived in plantation barracks and paid rent. They worked long 10-hour days, six days a week, and were paid 90 cents a day. They earned the lowest wages compared to other groups on the plantations. Most Sakadas were single men. However, over time, some sent for relatives or brought their families.

The last group of Sakadas in 1946 was special. This group, called the Sakada ‘46, included more women, children, and relatives of earlier workers. Some of them also had an American education and were professionals.

Filipino-American World War II veterans at a memorial ceremony in 2009.

Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association (HSPA)

The HSPA recruited many Filipino farm workers to Hawaii starting in 1906. Albert F. Judd, an HSPA recruiter, aimed to bring 300 Filipinos to work in Hawaii. These workers went to the Olaa Plantation on the Big Island. The sugar industry was growing fast. Hawaii and the Philippines, both newly connected to the United States, helped support this industry.

By the 1920s, about 7,600 Filipinos arrived in Hawaii each year. Most Filipinos saw themselves as temporary residents until around the 1940s. The HSPA liked Filipino workers because they were known to be hard-working. They were also paid the lowest wages of all the ethnic groups on the plantations.

Challenges Faced by Filipino Workers

From 1906 to the 1940s, many Filipino workers, the Sakadas, moved to Hawaii for better job chances. As more Sakadas arrived, they started to feel like a group, seeing themselves as Filipino-Americans. However, other groups sometimes treated them unfairly and used stereotypes against them. This meant that how Filipino-Americans were seen was often shaped by others, and these ideas became common in Hawai’i society.

Most Filipino workers were men. When they arrived, negative stereotypes appeared. For example, some people unfairly described Filipino men as being very emotional or prone to violence. A book published in 1926, Temperament and Race, compared traits in different races, including Filipinos. This study seemed to make Filipino men workers in Hawai’i look bad.

Because of these stereotypes, Filipino men were more often charged with minor crimes and even murder. They were also the group most likely to receive the death penalty in Hawaii during the first half of the 1900s. Newspapers like the Honolulu Daily (Honolulu Star-Bulletin) and radio stations would often focus on Filipinos as the main people causing violence. They would highlight their convictions on front pages, making Filipinos seem worse.

Historically, Filipinos during the Plantation era were often seen as a lower-status minority group. This made it very hard for Filipino-Americans to fight against the stereotypes that started in the early 1900s. Sadly, some of these misunderstandings still exist today.

Filipinos and Hawaii's Working Class

Some Native Hawaiians worked alongside Filipinos on the sugar plantations. The sugar industry was the main way for working-class people in Hawaii to earn money, so there was a high demand for these jobs. American sugar plantation owners found it hard to get Native Hawaiians to work for them, so they relied a lot on bringing in workers from other countries.

After 1965: New Beginnings

The United States Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 made it easier for Filipinos to bring their families to Hawaii. This led to more Filipinos, especially women, moving to the state. This increase in new arrivals caused some challenges. In the 1970s, Filipinos sometimes felt discriminated against. Also, Filipino students in schools tended to do less well than average during that decade. The exact reasons for this are not fully known, but discrimination might have played a part. In 1970, only about 34.4% of the 93,915 Filipinos in Hawaii had finished high school.

Former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos spent his last years in Hawaii. He had been a dictator in the Philippines for 21 years. He was removed from power in 1986 by the People Power Revolution. When he left the Philippines for Hawaii, he brought a huge amount of wealth with him. This included many crates of cash, valuable jewelry, precious gems, watches, pearls, a solid gold statue covered in diamonds, gold, and Philippine pesos. He also had bank slips for millions of dollars in banks around the world. He had gained all this wealth during his time as a dictator.

While in Hawaii, he and his family lived a very luxurious life. They stayed in an expensive house, shopped, and ate in fancy places. His wife, Imelda, hosted many costly parties. Meanwhile, Filipinos back in the Philippines suffered from the huge debt the Marcos family had caused. Experts believe this debt might not be fully paid off until 2025, many years after the Marcos family lost power.

Filipinos Become a Major Group

The 2010 census showed that Filipinos became Hawaii’s second largest racial group, passing the Japanese population. The total number of Filipinos was 342,095. Of these, 197,497 were full Filipinos. The total number of Japanese was 312,292, with 185,502 being full Japanese. Surveys by the American Community Survey showed that Filipinos became a larger group than Japanese between 2007 and 2008.