'Illegal and Void': the Effects of State and Federal Legislation on Filipino Migrants in the American Empire

Abstract

The colonial relationship between the United States and the Philippines helped periodize Filipino migration to America in the first half of the 20th century, drastically in the 1920s and 1930s. Young Filipino men moved from the American-governed islands to other American territories and throughout the West Coast. Filipinos moved consistently for work. The constant seasonal travel, state and federal legislation, and projected characteristics on the young men increased Filipinos inability to settle, enacted barriers against marriage, and halted Filipinos ability to reach adulthood. Laws surrounded by exclusionary attitudes, including the Cable Act, California Civil Code Sections 60 and 69, the Filipino Repatriation, and others, acted as violence against Filipinos because of the life-altering restrictions. Filipinos who entered the United States before 1934, experienced colonial and community surveillance. Filipinos continually opposed the sanctioned regulations through traveling to a different state for marriage and refusing a free return to the Philippines, asserting their right to be in America.