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| The current Filipino Students in Brisbane, with the Brisbane Student Ambassador Xavier Villagonzalo (7th from left). Image source: http://www.facebook.com/FilipinoStudentsInBrisbane |
By Mario Gatbonton
Re-published from 'The Centennial Celebration of the Philippine Independence Barrio Fiesta 1998 Souvenir Program', Filipino Community Coordinating Council of Queensland, Inc.
The earliest record of Filipino residents in Australia is 40 in 1971 Census. The 1901 Census recorded 820 Filipinos, mostly male, and mostly in Queensland and Western Australia. The so-called "Manila men" were employed in the shipping and pearl diving industry which were exempt from the government's "indentured inflexible labour".
In Queensland, the Filipino pearl divers were in Thursday Island. A curious thing is, except for a few, their family names were all Spanish, meaning they were mostly of Spanish blood. The Conanans of Hamilton, Brisbane are, today the only known descendants of this generation in Queensland. They claim to being fourth-generation Australian-born Filipinos.
Oral tradition in the Conanan family, has it that their great-grand-father had come to Thursday Island with a band of Filipino mestizos (Spanish-Filipino half-breed) to escape Martial Law during violent upheavals that swept the Philippines in the second half of the 19th century, culminating in the great revolution of 1896, which toppled the Spanish regime.
The establishment of the White Australia Policy in 1901 had the effect of cutting down the number of Filipinos in Australia to 141 by 1947.
During the war in 1942, a hospital ship of the USAFFE brought in to a US army hospital in Melbourne, a shipload of casualties in the Bataan battle, among them Filipino soldiers. A number of these Filipinos intermarried with Australian ladies and had children. After the war when they rejoined their espouses in Melbourne, they were told to leave because, "they had no right to stay in Australia". The resolution failed, but it reflected the anger of the Filipinos. In Melbourne, people signed a petition to Calwell to accept Gamboa. It took another year of diplomatic talks before Gamboa was allowed entry in 1953. Melbourne accorded him what amounted to a celebrity welcome.
From 1955 to 1966, Filipino students were admitted to study under the Colombo Plan. Some of those whose particular expertise were needed in Australia, were later accepted as residents. Also admitted were highly qualified and wealthy Filipinos of European blood.
In 1964 to 1966, Australia failed to get migrants from its traditional sources of UK and Europe, it then turned elsewhere. Immigration was relaxed. People with qualifications or with relatives here were allowed to stay.
In 1966, another celebrated Filipino case hit the headlines. Aurelio Locsin, and Arts/Commerce graduate with some business experience was denied entry. The Philippine government presented a resolution to the UN Human Rights Commission, condemning racial discrimination "in all its form whatever it exists", and urging the UN to take effective measures to eliminate racial discrimination. Australia became a signatory.
In 1970, the young Senator Benigno Aquino visited Australia and highlighted the liberalisation of immigration policy of 1966. Whether as a result of this visit or not, Filipino applications for entry to Australia jumped from a total 10 in 1969 to 600 a week in 1970. That year 380 Filipinos were admitted. They were highly qualified professionals, among them, accountants, engineers, doctors, teachers and nurses.
It was the nurses, however, that greatly increased the Filipino population in Australia at this stage. They filled out a great demand at the time in Australian hospitals. Although they were all nursing graduates in the Philippines, they started as nurses aides and took the three years nursing course in Australia. When the Whitlam Government dismantled the White Australia Policy in 1973, many of them opted for permanent residency.
Marcos imposed Martial Law in 1972, and to boost the Philippine's critical economy, he created the Ministry of Tourism and virtually legalised prostitution by recognising it as a profession under the Labor Code section 679. The Tourism industry also promoted the Philippines as the cheapest spot the world for a good time. Whereas, in the times past, prostitution was confined to the areas near the American bases, it now exploded openly and proliferated in tourist belts in Manila and other cities. Tourism became the number 5 dollar earner for the Marcos regime.
By 1975, there was also the mushrooming of travel agencies and introduction services in Manila. Australian underworld characters moved in to the Manila prostitution racket, setting up night clubs, Aussie bars and introduction agencies. Since 1980, some 60,000 Australian tourists have visited the Philippines annually, 40,000 of them were males.
The mail order bride phenomenon started as a spin-off of the tourist promotion trade in the mid 70s. It significantly increased the Philippine migration into Australia since 1975 at an average of 18% annually. Between 1959 to 1971, Filipinos' arrivals to Australia totalled 1,254.
Ten years later, the 1981 Census recorded 15,400 Filipinos, and five years later in 1986, this number had doubled to 30,000, making the Philippines the fourth largest single source of immigrants, trailing behind the UK, New Zealand and Vietnam. The Philippine community now constitutes 0.2% of the total Australian population.
The Census figures reveal a few things. First, Filipino migration is mainly via migration-by-marriage scheme. In both 1981 and 1986 figures, the number of females is roughly 75% with an average 227:100 female to male ration. Second, regarding geographical pattern, Filipinos in 1981 were largely confined to Sydney and the mining and pastoral towns with more males than female population, eg Northern Territory, North Queensland and North Western Australia. In 1986, the new distribution followed the pattern of the Australian population, which means married to Filipino women now is nationwide, cutting across all social levels. Also, unlike other migrants, the Filipinos have no ghetto communities.
Family groups in the Philippines are, in the main, adjusting well. Most Filipinos have some English and many have qualifications which enable them to find work even in the tight unemployment situation. The 1981 Census showed that 52% of Philippine-born people in Australia have academic and technical qualifications (compared with the 24.2% of the total Australian populations and that 25% of those employed work in the manufacturing industries).
___________
Editor's note: Since this article was written, various Census dates had been conducted in Australia. Please check the website of the Department of Immigration for more current details. The article above is republished to provide earlier accounts and pictures of the Philippine-Australian migration trends.
About the author: Mario T. Gatbonton hailed from the Pampanga Province in the Philippines. He emigrated with his family to Brisbane in March 1977 to escape the Martial regime of the Marcos government. He was educated in the Philippines, attaining the Queensland equivalent of a B.A. degree with a major in Philosophy and honours in Theology. He undertook studies in Australian Literature through the University of Queensland.
Mario has spent 35 years in journalism in Manila, Bangkok, USA, Taipei and Seoul. In Brisbane, he worked as a sub-editor for the Catholic Leader Newspaper and as a corresponded for the N.C. News Source, Washington D.C. and the Singaporean Business Traveller Magazine. He had edited an anthology on Asian and Pacific Short Stories, Rutland Tuttle and Co, and for the Asian Pacific Cultural and Social Centre among others.
The establishment of the White Australia Policy in 1901 had the effect of cutting down the number of Filipinos in Australia to 141 by 1947.
During the war in 1942, a hospital ship of the USAFFE brought in to a US army hospital in Melbourne, a shipload of casualties in the Bataan battle, among them Filipino soldiers. A number of these Filipinos intermarried with Australian ladies and had children. After the war when they rejoined their espouses in Melbourne, they were told to leave because, "they had no right to stay in Australia". The resolution failed, but it reflected the anger of the Filipinos. In Melbourne, people signed a petition to Calwell to accept Gamboa. It took another year of diplomatic talks before Gamboa was allowed entry in 1953. Melbourne accorded him what amounted to a celebrity welcome.
From 1955 to 1966, Filipino students were admitted to study under the Colombo Plan. Some of those whose particular expertise were needed in Australia, were later accepted as residents. Also admitted were highly qualified and wealthy Filipinos of European blood.
In 1964 to 1966, Australia failed to get migrants from its traditional sources of UK and Europe, it then turned elsewhere. Immigration was relaxed. People with qualifications or with relatives here were allowed to stay.
In 1966, another celebrated Filipino case hit the headlines. Aurelio Locsin, and Arts/Commerce graduate with some business experience was denied entry. The Philippine government presented a resolution to the UN Human Rights Commission, condemning racial discrimination "in all its form whatever it exists", and urging the UN to take effective measures to eliminate racial discrimination. Australia became a signatory.
In 1970, the young Senator Benigno Aquino visited Australia and highlighted the liberalisation of immigration policy of 1966. Whether as a result of this visit or not, Filipino applications for entry to Australia jumped from a total 10 in 1969 to 600 a week in 1970. That year 380 Filipinos were admitted. They were highly qualified professionals, among them, accountants, engineers, doctors, teachers and nurses.
It was the nurses, however, that greatly increased the Filipino population in Australia at this stage. They filled out a great demand at the time in Australian hospitals. Although they were all nursing graduates in the Philippines, they started as nurses aides and took the three years nursing course in Australia. When the Whitlam Government dismantled the White Australia Policy in 1973, many of them opted for permanent residency.
Marcos imposed Martial Law in 1972, and to boost the Philippine's critical economy, he created the Ministry of Tourism and virtually legalised prostitution by recognising it as a profession under the Labor Code section 679. The Tourism industry also promoted the Philippines as the cheapest spot the world for a good time. Whereas, in the times past, prostitution was confined to the areas near the American bases, it now exploded openly and proliferated in tourist belts in Manila and other cities. Tourism became the number 5 dollar earner for the Marcos regime.
By 1975, there was also the mushrooming of travel agencies and introduction services in Manila. Australian underworld characters moved in to the Manila prostitution racket, setting up night clubs, Aussie bars and introduction agencies. Since 1980, some 60,000 Australian tourists have visited the Philippines annually, 40,000 of them were males.
The mail order bride phenomenon started as a spin-off of the tourist promotion trade in the mid 70s. It significantly increased the Philippine migration into Australia since 1975 at an average of 18% annually. Between 1959 to 1971, Filipinos' arrivals to Australia totalled 1,254.
Ten years later, the 1981 Census recorded 15,400 Filipinos, and five years later in 1986, this number had doubled to 30,000, making the Philippines the fourth largest single source of immigrants, trailing behind the UK, New Zealand and Vietnam. The Philippine community now constitutes 0.2% of the total Australian population.
The Census figures reveal a few things. First, Filipino migration is mainly via migration-by-marriage scheme. In both 1981 and 1986 figures, the number of females is roughly 75% with an average 227:100 female to male ration. Second, regarding geographical pattern, Filipinos in 1981 were largely confined to Sydney and the mining and pastoral towns with more males than female population, eg Northern Territory, North Queensland and North Western Australia. In 1986, the new distribution followed the pattern of the Australian population, which means married to Filipino women now is nationwide, cutting across all social levels. Also, unlike other migrants, the Filipinos have no ghetto communities.
Family groups in the Philippines are, in the main, adjusting well. Most Filipinos have some English and many have qualifications which enable them to find work even in the tight unemployment situation. The 1981 Census showed that 52% of Philippine-born people in Australia have academic and technical qualifications (compared with the 24.2% of the total Australian populations and that 25% of those employed work in the manufacturing industries).
___________
Editor's note: Since this article was written, various Census dates had been conducted in Australia. Please check the website of the Department of Immigration for more current details. The article above is republished to provide earlier accounts and pictures of the Philippine-Australian migration trends.
About the author: Mario T. Gatbonton hailed from the Pampanga Province in the Philippines. He emigrated with his family to Brisbane in March 1977 to escape the Martial regime of the Marcos government. He was educated in the Philippines, attaining the Queensland equivalent of a B.A. degree with a major in Philosophy and honours in Theology. He undertook studies in Australian Literature through the University of Queensland.
Mario has spent 35 years in journalism in Manila, Bangkok, USA, Taipei and Seoul. In Brisbane, he worked as a sub-editor for the Catholic Leader Newspaper and as a corresponded for the N.C. News Source, Washington D.C. and the Singaporean Business Traveller Magazine. He had edited an anthology on Asian and Pacific Short Stories, Rutland Tuttle and Co, and for the Asian Pacific Cultural and Social Centre among others.
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