Filipino-Americans in the Pacific Northwest

• Filipino and U.S. ties began in 1898 when Spain left the Philippines and the United States took over.

• The first official immigration of Filipinos to the U.S. was between 1906 to 1934 when Filipinos were recruited to work in California, Hawaii and Washington as agricultural workers.

• By the 1920's, Filipinos, largely Alaska salmon cannery and Washington lumber and farm workers, became a major segment of the Pacific Northwest’s Asian Pacific American (APA) population.

• The 1965 Immigration Act drew many Filipino professionals and non-technical workers to the U.S.

• In 1939, the Washington State Supreme Court declared the State’s Anti-Alien Law of 1937 unconstitutional. Henceforth, Filipino-Americans could own and lease land.

• Approximately 1,000 Filipinos enter the US each year through the Port of Seattle. Most stay in Washington State and are mostly found in the King, Pierce, Thurston Counties, in Bremerton and in Yakima Valley. 

• Filipino-Americans make up the largest ethnicity within the Northwest APA community and in Washington state, number in 66,000. In the entire U.S., there are about 1.5 million Filipino-Americans.