chelor’s degree or higher. 41.6% of females have a bachelor’s degree of higher.
66% of Filipino Americans speak their own language at home. 35.6% do not speak English “very well”. 13% are linguistically isolated.
Filipino Americans have 75.4% labor participation rate, the highest among all Asian Americans.
29.6% of Filipino Americans have families with three or more workers in the work force, the highest among all Asian Americans.
Filipino Americans have a per capita income of $13,616.
The role of the child in the Filipino American family is threefold. First, the child is taught to honor his or her cultural heritage and to appreciate the sacrifices of his or her ancestors as the bridge by which they are able to achieve a higher level of opportunity and success. Second, the child is seen as the future of the Filipino American race, and, as such success is taught as being achievable through hard work, sacrifice and education. Third, the Filipino American family sacrifices for the success of its children, well aware of the obstacles of racism, assimilation and dualistic cultural identity. All of these scenarios are ones the Filipino American family and child deal with, and, from recent statistics acquired during the 1990 Census it appears as if they deal with them quite well, “Filipinos, according to the 1990 Census, are highly educated. 85% of Filipinos, age 25 and over, were high school graduates compared with 77% for all Americans. Over 39% of Filipinos age 25 and over were college graduates compared to 20% for all Americans” (The Filipino, 1998: 1).
Demographers expect Filipino Americans to become the biggest group of Asian Americans within the next three decades. Yet, size is not what is impressive about the Filipino American immigrants. What is even more remarkable is that of all new immigrants, Filipino Americans have been achieving academic success at a much faster rate and to a much higher...