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12.4.23 – Defining Philippine American Transnationalism
In March 2023, we partnered with the George Washington University to conduct a national survey on “Philippine American Policy Perspectives”.
We conducted this survey to better understand the factors that influence our community’s beliefs and opinions around topics such as identity, education, immigration policy, civil rights, social welfare, family dynamics, conventional beliefs, and cultural traditions. As Filipinx/a/o Americans living in the diaspora, we all have a connection to both our identity here and to our home country, the Philippines. This phenomenon is called “transnationalism”, and the degree to which we connect with our identity and the Philippines influences our perspective on both domestic and foreign issues, here in America and also in the Philippines.
In this educational series, we will reveal the research findings from our over 100+ survey responses!
In our study, we found that Philippine Americans’ transnationalism influences their political attitudes as alignment to American identity, nationalism, and culture which also influences their views toward Philippine politics.
Philippine American transnationalism suggests that American democratic values and state-building strongly shaped Philippine socio-cultural values to where American values became Philippine values. Philippine people who lived in America who are more aligned with their Philippine identity tend to be more conservative while those who are more aligned with their Filipinx/a/o American (FilAm) identity tend to be more liberal.
In the figures below, we can see our participants’ responses on how identity and cultural proximity has impacted their political attitudes.
Do you agree? How has your exposure to American and/or Philippine culture influenced your political identity?
Interested in reading the whole paper?
