The Philippines as a Pacific Nation: A Brief History of Interaction between Filipinos and Pacific Islanders

Abstract

ABSTRACT Filipinos are the second largest Asian migrant group in the contemporary Pacific behind Indians and ahead of Chinese. While Filipinos are prominent in local histories of Guam and Hawai‘i, where their populations are concentrated, little is written or known about their presence elsewhere. Pacific connections are similarly neglected by Filipino scholars. This may largely be due to the unobtrusive nature of most Filipino integration into Pacific Island communities. Nor were Filipino Austronesians as isolated from their Micronesian neighbours as is commonly assumed. During the Spanish era, Filipinos travelled all over the Pacific as ships’ crew, pearl divers and Catholic missionaries. The United States’ takeover of the Spanish Pacific in the 1890s ushered in a century of American domination and provided employment and migration opportunities for Filipino workers across the American Pacific. Today Filipino professionals are increasingly common in nations of the Western Pacific and this trend seems set to continue.