Reply #27: California sees a lot of population "churn" among Filipinos [View All]

[Xithras]

Maybe it's more common on the left coast (because we're closer), but there's nothing bigoted about that posters statement that many don't stay here. There is a substantial population churn among California Filipino's as they come here, make money, and return to their homeland. Filipinos are a favorite in the health care field because many of them are natively English/Spanish/Tagalog trilingual (Spanish has made a bit of a comeback in the Philippines over the last couple decades), which means they can communicate effectively with both English and Spanish speaking populations. Because they can act as both translators and nurses, they make reasonably good money. Even when working in comparatively poor rural areas in California, they take home far more money than they would have made in the Philippines.

Perhaps you didn't know this, but "exporting nurses" is big business in the Philippines. Filipina nurses are trained on the islands, and are then sent to Japan (the most common destination), the United States, and across southeast Asia and the middle east. I recently read that about 90% of nurses in Dubai hospitals are Filipina. They have no intention of immigrating, and join these careers with the promise of going overseas to work for a "few years" and returning home "rich". Sadly, most are forced to work far longer than they anticipated, few return home rich, and many end up in countries where they are abused and have few legal rights.

The posters statement was essentially correct. Many of the Filipina nurses in California hospitals have no intention of becoming Americans, and are only here to work for a few years.