Filipino Americans constitute the second-largest group of Americans of Asian descent; almost 60,000 Filipinos enter the US every year. Filipino immigration to the US prior to the annexation of the Philippines to the US in 1898 was negligible. By 1910, Filipinos could travel freely to the US, which started a slow trend that continued after Philippine independence in 1934 (when immigrants reached 100,000). Most immigrants were male farm workers. Military collaboration also facilitated naturalization and acceptance during and after the Second World War.

The 1965 Immigration Act, coupled with neocolonial economic difficulties in the Philippines, increased the number of Filipino Americans from 200,000 in 1965 to over 1,400,000 by 1990. Women now predominate among the immigrants, some to join their husbands, but most because there are now more employment opportunities for women than men, especially as nurses. The largest Filipino American communities are found in California (52 percent) and Hawai’i (12 percent), but they have also spread out to the Midwest and the East Coast. Most reside in metropolitan areas, including, for example, Manila Town in Los Angeles, CA and middle-class enclaves like Daly City near San Francisco, CA.

Filipinos, despite their long presence in the US have a muted media exposure in comparison with other Asian groups. By contrast, the US has become a central locus of Filipino life and identity in the works of Filipino novelists such as N.V.M. Gonzalez and Jessica Hagedorn.