Abstract
This article examines the role of the “racial state” in delimiting the socio-economic mobility of Filipino immigrants in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. I illustrate how racial statecraft was deployed to restrict the access of Filipino immigrants to citizenship, family formation and land ownership through exclusionary racial criteria. I argue that the state instituted ascribed racial categories as the principal means of differentiating the civic status and social resources available to racialized collectivities. Filipino immigrants in the United States offer an interesting case study because of their status as colonial subjects of the United States. The precarious political and racial status of Filipinos made the enforcement of racial boundaries a complex issue that was contested by both whites and Filipinos and eventually led to a prohibition on Filipino immigration to the United States in the 1930s.
Repository Citation
Baldoz, Richard. 2004. "Valorizing Racial Boundaries: Hegemony and Conflict in the Racialization of Filipino Migrant Labour in the United States." Ethnic and Racial Studies 27(6): 969-986.
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Publication Date
11-1-2004
Publication Title
Ethnic and Racial Studies
Department
French and Italian
Document Type
Article
DOI
https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0141987042000268558
Document Version
post-print
Language
English
Format
text
