War Brides, "1946 Boys", and Military Recruits

The United States of America is known as the land of promise, which would explain the waves of immigration that they received from all countries. The Philippines had several waves that ended with several enacted laws by the United States government.

As defined by some scholars, there are four major waves of Filipino Migration. The first of these waves was during Spanish rule; some Filipinos wanted to get away from the Catholic rulers and found their way into a new country in North America, whether it was Mexico or the U.S. This ended with the uprising wars between the Spanish and Filipinos around 1906. The second wave was during the 1920s when the U.S. considered the Filipinos as U.S. Nationals and needed them for cheap labor. However due to violence and opposition towards these workers, the Tydings-McDuffie Act was passed in 1934 which reclassified Filipinos as aliens and maintained an immigration quota of 50 persons per year.

The third wave of immigration occurred in 1946 after WWII and during the granting of Philippines independence. The majority of these immigrants were war brides, the “1946 boys”, and military recruits who were now given the opportunity to become U.S. citizens. Contributing to this third wave of immigration were the War Brides Act of 1945, Luce-Celler Act of 1946, and the Military Base Agreement of 1947.

The War Brides Act of 1945 (amended by the Soldiers Brides Act of 1946 and 1947) stated that the ethnic spouses of American GIs, also known as war brides, and their children were allowed to enter the United States after World War II. This allowed Filipino wives and their children to come to the U.S. alongside their White American husbands and fathers. This act lifted the Immigration Act of 1924, which only allowed 2% of the number of immigrants already living the U.S. in 1890 to enter America that was made purposely to exclude Asian and Eastern European immigration. After the passage of the War Brides Act, it was estimated that 5,000 brides came into the U.S. not including their children. This is significant because it wasn’t until the 1967 when interracial marriages were nationally legalized and accepted.

On July 2, 1946, President Harry Truman signed the Luce-Celler Act of 1946 which opened immigration for Filipinos and Indians into America with the quota of 100 persons per year and granted them naturalization. This is double the immigration quota that the Tydings-McDuffie Act allowed before 1946. This gave more opportunities for labor of Filipinos in the U.S. Contracted workers called the “1946 boys” also contributed to this wave of immigration. There was said to about 7,000 of these boys who were part of the agricultural laborers that entered into the Hawaiian sugar plantations. These men were significant because they were brought into the sugar plantations by the owners in an attempt to end the interracial strike by the International Longshoremen and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU). This strike ended in victory for the workers and benefits for the Filipino workers.

Lastly, the Military Base Agreement of 1947 and the end of racial segregation in the military allowed for Filipino military recruits to enter the United States and work in the mess halls. This gave way for another 20,000 Filipinos that immigrated during the late 1940s and early 1950s.

The third wave of immigration is significant because it brought about many changes. Filipino women can enter the U.S. through their American husbands, Americans were seeing interracial couples, and Filipino men had jobs once again. This was a significant change from the previous Tydings-McDuffie Act and Immigration Act of 1924. To some historians, this wave of immigration ended in 1965; however, it didn’t end rather it expanded dramatically with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which contributes to the current immigration of Filipinos today which doesn’t have any quota.

-V Chavez