Jack Eaton
December 22, 2014
I
chose to interview Al due to his dedication to his job. I knew he came to America for his family, but
I was curious as to what it was that made him leave his family. In the Philippines, your parents provide for
you and your family until you are able to do so yourself. In Al’s case, he was able to provide for his
family. If he wasn’t able to, his
parents would have been obligated to support Al and his family. Parents provide everything in the Philippines
if they must. Multiple generations live
together under one roof. Filipinos
highly value the presence of their families more than anything. Regardless of the liberal influence they have
gotten from the rest, the family remains the basic unit of their society. This trait clearly shows among Filipinos
abroad who suffer homesickness and tough work just to support their families
back home in the Philippines (Philippinecountry.com). Filipinos account for the second largest
Asian group in the United States. Some
come for jobs; others come for liberty (Smith, 2011). Al has been on his own in
America for over a year and a half, and he has adapted well to American culture.
The
first thing Al and I discussed was his childhood and upbringing. As previously mentioned, he grew up in the
Province of Pampanga in a mostly rural environment. He is the youngest of nine children with
seven sisters and one brother. His
earliest memories involved playing outside and enjoying the outdoors with
siblings and friends who lived nearby.
Al’s parents are farmers and fruit dealers. They grow rice, watermelon, and cantaloupe and
sell to the local markets. With 2,181
square kilometers of mostly rich farm land, the province of Pampanga has always
been a net exporter of food products like rice, sugar, vegetables and fruits as
well as poultry, livestock and inland fish products. It is also blessed with highly skilled and
highly educated workers, with a population (1995) of 1,500,000 who have a
tradition of industrial pursuit especially in the fields of woodcraft, food
processing, ceramics, metalworking and decorative crafts
(islandaccomadations.com).
When
Al was born, the Philippines was not the democracy it is today. In fact, the Philippines was under martial
law. In the mid-1980s, there was an
uprising and a revolution in the Philippines due to mass corruption. In 1986 their corrupt leader, Ferdinand Marcos
was force to flee the country. In 1987,
a new constitution was formed and put into law.
This constitution was based on the same principles and beliefs that our
“founding fathers” used to form the United States of America’s constitution
over 200 years earlier. According to Al,
the transition of government has led to better lives for the citizens of the
Philippines. The corruption is still a
problem. Corruption is a huge obstacle
in the Philippines’ pursuit of developing their nation. Corruption seriously hinders policy implementation
because scarce resources are wasted on bribes and not on the prescribed
activities, and delays are quite common and do not contribute to the swift
implementation of public policies. The
Department of Education is among the most corrupt in the Philippines (Reyes,
Jr., 2007).
Another problem,
according to Al, is that the freedom that the Filipino people now have has led
to a major lack of discipline from them.
He said people don’t care about one another as they should. When I heard this, I began to feel as though
Al’s transition to America may have not been as difficult as I imagined. It seems like the Philippines share a lot of
the same issues as we do in the United States.
There are some other serious disadvantages in the Philippines compared
to the United States. According to
Alampay and Jocson, 23% of the Filipino population lives below the national
poverty line, compared to just 16% in the United States. The mortality rate for someone under the age
of 5 is 3.3% in the Philippines, compared to just .7% in the United
States. The adult literacy rate in the
United States is 99% compared to just 94% in the Philippines (Alampay/Jocson,
2011). These are all examples of why it
is better to live, work, and raise a family in the United States than it is in
the Philippines.
The
constitution is not the only thing in the Philippines that resembles the United
States version. The education system in
the Philippines is very similar to education system of the United States. Al went through pre-school, seven years of
elementary school, and four years of high school. When he completed that, he attended four
years of college in Manila where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Business. The most surprising thing I learned from Al
was that English is his first language.
All of his years of schooling were taught to him in English. In fact, everything in the Philippines is in English. According to Al, the native languages are
really only learned and spoken for traditional purposes. After college, he got married, had two sons,
and worked for several years in Manila.
The city life in Manila was a little different than that of his
childhood. Other than buses and other
forms of mass transportation, there wasn’t much in the way of people having
their own cars. Motorcycles with
sidecars are also very popular. For the
Philippines, tourism, agriculture, and manufacturing provide huge boosts to the
economy.
For Al personally,
his office job in Manila was not providing enough for him and his family. There is a lack of high paying jobs in the
Philippines, even for someone with a business degree. Al made the decision to come to the United
States last year. He knew it was the
best way to provide for his family. The
United States provided him with the best of opportunities to accomplish his
goals. Al and his cousin came over
together. They had completed courses in
the Philippines that trained and qualified them to become caregivers to the
elderly. They first came to California
to seek employment. That was short-lived,
however. Al had relatives in Chicago
that had a connection to an agency that contracted caregivers. It was Al’s plan to come to Illinois all
along. When my family began its search
for a caregiver for my grandfather last year, Al was the only person we
interviewed. We could tell immediately
that Al was the type of person that would really care for and give the proper
amount of attention to my grandfather.
He has been a Godsend ever since.
Other than his
training in the Philippines to become a caregiver, Al had no experience in the
field prior to coming to the United States.
He was a little nervous about this when he first came over. Other than that, there were no real
adjustments that Al had to make. There
was no culture shock. Everyone in the
Philippines loves America. They have a
democracy, and everything is in English.
So there were no communication barriers to overcome. He did mention that the United States is a
lot more organized than the Philippines, and everything seems to usually be in
the right place. One thing that
surprised him when he came here was the compassion he received from
Americans. He was worried about the
negative stereotypes of Asians in America, and he thought that he was going to
be treated poorly. It surprised me to
hear him say this, because I believe, in general, that the average American
needs to exercise a little more compassion.
If Al thinks the American people are compassionate, I cannot imagine
what it must have been like living in the Philippines.
After we discussed
the above information, I asked Al to just compare a few things from the
Philippines to them in America. Like
America, the Philippines benefits from freedom of religion, and Catholicism is
the dominant religion. According to Al,
over 80% of the Filipino people are Catholic including him. Al commented to me that it was strange to
learn of my personal living situation. I
live on my own and support myself while going to school. This is very uncommon and highly irregular
for an unmarried man in the Philippines.
If I was raised and lived in the Philippines, I would be living with my
parents until I had my own family and was able to provide for them fully. Al said that the Philippines and America are
similar in their recreational sources.
Al frequently went to parks, malls, house parties, and karaoke
bars. You can do all of this in the
United States.
In 1980, Dutch
researcher Geert Hofstede published the results of his study where he identified
the four value dimensions across which cultures vary (Jandt, 2013). The first dimension is individualism versus
collectivism which refers how people define themselves and their relationships
with others. The United States ranks 1st
in the world as an individualistic culture, compared to 31st for the
Philippines. This means the interests of
the individual prevails over the interests of the group in the United
States. The second dimension is
masculinity versus femininity. Hofstede
labeled as masculine cultures those that strive for maximal distinction between
what men and women are expected to do. The
United States (15th) and the Philippines (11th) rank
closely in this dimension so adjustments haven’t been difficult for Al. The United States (43rd) and the
Philippines (44th) have nearly identical rankings in the dimension
of uncertainty avoidance. This refers to
the extent to which people in a culture feel threatened by uncertain or unknown
situations. This is probably why Al was
nervous and thought that he was going to be treated poorly when he first
arrived in America. Hofstede defines the
dimension of power distance as “the extent to which less powerful members of
institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is
distributed unequally” (Jandt, 2013).
The Philippines (4th) has a much higher power distance
ranking than the United States (38th). Cultures with high power distance have power
and influence concentrated in the hands of a few rather than distributed throughout
the population. These countries, like
the Philippines, tend to be more authoritarian and may communicate in a way to
limit interaction and reinforce the differences between people (Jandt, 2013).
Last winter in
Illinois, there was an extreme amount of snowfall. I did not know it at the time but this was
Al’s first time experiencing snow. The
Philippines is very hot year round. One
thing that Al really misses about the Philippines, other than his family, is
something he referred to as the “Feasts of Saints.” It’s a series of traditional religious
celebrations held during December that accompany Christmas. Al has noticed that the holiday celebrations
in the Philippines are bigger and more extravagant than in America. For example, no one is indoors at midnight on
New Year’s Eve. Everyone is outside
celebrating, feasting, and/or partying.
Fireworks are everywhere on New Year’s Eve, and you can see them from
anywhere if you’re outside.
Al misses his
family a great deal, but for now, he is satisfied earning more money to work in
America and to send it home to his family.
In the future, Al will have decisions to make. He is not sure if he’ll return to be with his
family in the Philippines, or if he will try bring his family over to America. If he can earn enough money in America, he
can return to the Philippines, start his own business, buy a house, and provide
a better life and education for his children.
There is a small chance that his family could join him in America. It is very expensive to do so. Al may even decide to apply for
citizenship. It may make the process
easier. He does have time to decide. His first decision about his future will come
in 2017. That is when his work contract
in America will expire.
I started this
interview process with the goal of trying to figure out what would drive a
good, family oriented man to leave his family.
According to Al, America is too great to pass up the opportunity. It’s hard to be so far away from his family,
but it’s his family he is doing it for.
If his sacrifices can provide a better life for them, it will all have
been worth it. Since coming here, Al has
discovered that American citizens are more compassionate the Filipino people. A lot of people think the American government
is corrupt, and that may be true.
However, Al never mentioned this.
He did talk extensively about the corrupt government of the
Philippines. So, Al believes that
America is less corrupt and more compassionate that the country he was born,
raised, educated in, and lived in for over thirty years. I believe this to be true for most
countries. This is why I believe the
United States of America is still the ultimate destination and the “land of
opportunity” for any immigrants searching for a better life for their families.
References
Smith, N. (2011, May). From Asia to America.
Scholastic News, 79, 14-14,16,T2. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/865047108?accountid=32521
About Pampanga
Province. Retrieved at http://www.islandsaccommodations.com/places/pampanga.htm
Reyes Jr., Vicente Chua (2007) Corruption and Policy Implementation in the Philippines: A Comparative Analysis of the Teacher
Training and Textbook Delivery Programs.
Asian Journal of Political
Science. Jun2007, Vol. 15 Issue 1,
p97-125. 29p.
Alampay, Liane Pena & Jocson, Maria Rosanne
(2011) Attributions and Attitudes of Mothers and Fathers in the
Philippines. Parenting: Science and Practice.
Jandt, Fred.E. (2013). An Introduction to
Intercultural Communication: Identities in a Global Community (7th
ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
No comments:
Post a Comment