Euro Pinoys Part 2

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmN6tq5j4Siscjq54EJDkXwd1HyeIS565Uc5DVUeOda6rS6rOWtQyFHyPbDM9vB0siNTkwJHcHsJnwMqdZoPOgq0-t_gFz2PCsENcjQ0hPOO0_ZNGA62Fu7JnR6NxddRlZ1DGYruuCzkEp/s1600/EU-Scholarship.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmN6tq5j4Siscjq54EJDkXwd1HyeIS565Uc5DVUeOda6rS6rOWtQyFHyPbDM9vB0siNTkwJHcHsJnwMqdZoPOgq0-t_gFz2PCsENcjQ0hPOO0_ZNGA62Fu7JnR6NxddRlZ1DGYruuCzkEp/s400/EU-Scholarship.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Euro Pinoys Part 2</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">By: Dr. Michael Tan</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">When one of my graduate students (now a colleague in the faculty) had to attend a conference in Tarragona, Spain, two years ago, she found herself in a bind: Her relatives, who were living in Madrid and Barcelona in Spain and in Rome, Italy, all insisted that she visit them.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">In last Wednesday’s column I cited statistics from the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) reporting that there were some 866,000 Filipinos living in Europe, half of them permanently.  Spain ranks only fifth in the number of Filipino residents, surpassed by Italy, the United Kingdom, Greece, France and Germany.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Some of these Filipinos have lived in Europe for many years, with children and even grandchildren and, as my opening report shows, often involve entire clans, if not barangays, who follow the footsteps of an initial pioneer.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">The migrants are in various professions, sometimes marked by changing demand across time. The fairly large population in Germany goes back to the 1970s when Filipino nurses were in great demand, with another ongoing exodus of nurses and midwives to the United Kingdom.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">I’ve wondered about our Euro Pinoys leaving an imprint in their host countries. Has the Filipino sweet tooth convinced some Europeans to go for sweet wines or sweet spaghetti sauce, for example?  If we hear occasionally of Filipino-Americans doing well in competitions like “American Idol,” I’ve also heard of Euro Pinoys making it into similar European competitions.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">‘Balik Euro Pinoys’</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">In recent years we’ve been seeing a growing number of “balik Euro Pinoys,” mostly older ones who have come home to retire, living comfortably off their pensions, which are relatively high because of Europe’s social welfare systems.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Perhaps on a smaller scale, we’re also seeing younger Euro Pinoys coming home, usually children of intermarriages who cash in on their Eurasian features to model, or enter the movies. Then there are the Azkals, the football team, the members of which are the result of growing up in countries that appreciate football (soccer) more than the Americans.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">I wonder what they bring home in terms of expectations shaped from their life in Europe. Do they imbibe the liberal social attitudes of western Europe toward sex and sexuality, for example? Do they get exasperated, having benefited from the generous national health services of Europe, in contrast to our own which is left pretty much to free market forces—that is, pay out of your own pocket?</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">I wonder, too, if the Euro Pinoys are watching how Europe is dealing with tribalism and regionalism.  When European friends, usually academics, cite our regional loyalties—national elections are still marked by the “Ilokano vote,” “Bisaya vote,” or “Bikol vote,” for example—as a cause of underdevelopment, I remind them that Europeans have been even more “tribal” than we are: nations emerging within nations, rising, sometimes expanding aggressively and through warfare, only to disintegrate.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">It’s not just in Eastern Europe that it’s sometimes hard to keep track of countries; it also happens in Western Europe, where there are threats of secession—the Scots in the United Kingdom, or the Catalonians and the Basques in Spain.  The Italians, although on the surface united with one language, are still marked by a strong regionalism that goes back to the Middle Ages when Italy did not exist and instead there were city-states, maritime republics and papal states.  It was not until the 19th century that one Italian nation-state emerged.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Not surprisingly, ultranationalist ideologies have taken off from the tribalism, and thrived. These ideologies have led to so many conflicts, including the two world wars. The European Union was in fact a response to these ideologies, an attempt to bring the “tribes” together, finding common cause in that vague concept called democracy.  I often hear political scientists saying that Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) will have difficulty surviving because its members are so different from one another. But the European Union brings together even more diverse cultures.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Insularity</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">The United Kingdom’s decision to exit the European Union should not be surprising either. While it was able to bring together England, Scotland, Wales and part of Ireland, its unity has been tense, Scotland being the most restless in recent years.  Look at the map and you will see how geography may have shaped its national mindset. Great Britain is one huge island about double the size of Luzon, and the entire United Kingdom looks so isolated from continental Europe. Geography does contribute to insularity.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">And insularity includes a fear of outsiders.  Brexit (Britain Exit) was a reaction to the European Union’s policies on the free movement of Europeans, with UK citizens convinced that they were being too generous with other Europeans—for example, Polish workers.  There’s irony here because it has been relatively easy to become a UK citizen (or subject, given it is still a monarchy), so the faces of the British aren’t quite white anymore.  Who would have thought, 50 years ago, that there would be a mayor of London described as coming from a “British Pakistani” family?  Might we see, in the not too distant future, references to “British Filipinos”? There are a growing number of Filipinos who carry UK passports, including some through same-sex civil unions and marriage.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">My point is that the political systems and governance of European countries, so different from our own copied from Mother America, just might capture the imagination of Euro Pinoys who, if they return to the Philippines, might want to introduce innovations based on European models, whether in more equitable healthcare coverage, or even more radical changes. Italy’s Parliament, for example, includes seats reserved for Italian citizens living overseas.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Those, of course, are macro changes. I think change is happening on the individual level: Euro Pinoys come home with new tastes in food and architecture (with real estate companies trying to cash in, offering subdivisions with an Italian touch). Some aspects of culture are more quick to pick up than others: I don’t know if Filipino-Italians have acquired a taste for classical music and opera, for example. (I was at an affair at UP Diliman last night showcasing our athletes and dance groups, and one presentation—ballet—drew audibly mixed reactions.)</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">I also wonder what happens to Filipinos who study in Europe for a few years and come home. Many are in government service, charting policies and implementing important projects. Does their stay in Europe give them new insights?  Or, even more radically, a different way of looking at issues and problems?</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Source: http://opinion.inquirer.net/96806/euro-pinoys-2</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=3629012486930784822&postID= 9037360943158628116&target=facebook" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8VZfdyGqGxYxPWoelwmGbf0QFLIKAuJeUY4gkUrOuG0ypMqSfMCY5oXqRyQNoFBeMj4-rf3fO2HSZuuzFh6RfAhiQUOB0mhu1FMnZNnkfdasfJ-Tjd3cZm3lh88B0ouKAVkPXVh278OA/s1600/sharefb185.png"></a> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=3629012486930784822&postID= 9037360943158628116&target=twitter" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip3bfhc90-5xenm9-eqI_ICgI5V8KPl28Gu8oXZsvNDA_oIk8ioAazonJE38acYIiOnSDyuPWj6zn-8wCMPPY5TMVVENEoNk2PfH73eNX5qkEIkvLossHYwU848ikKXjhyr1MRuJIjmFo/s1600/sharetw185.png"></a></div>

Events Europe News People Euro Pinoys Part 2

Euro Pinoys Part 2 By: Dr. Michael Tan When one of my graduate students (now a colleague in the faculty) had to attend a conference...

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Euro Pinoys

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhQEyo94oYVyQ_kti1BeAE6LuH1K5Bk_w2GddCWsr8JiPt9m9r7cGrdBfSfIemFFwqJjLsKGERqwA5iR08Piqbxdd7XP866ga4Phz1_Vv4r4ahR_8aW9qxHNsN-zhVDp_6HG2D1qP_5Zcf/s1600/EU-Scholarship.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhQEyo94oYVyQ_kti1BeAE6LuH1K5Bk_w2GddCWsr8JiPt9m9r7cGrdBfSfIemFFwqJjLsKGERqwA5iR08Piqbxdd7XP866ga4Phz1_Vv4r4ahR_8aW9qxHNsN-zhVDp_6HG2D1qP_5Zcf/s400/EU-Scholarship.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Euro Pinoys</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">By: Dr. Michael Tan</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">I was reading about a meeting of the leaders of Italy, France and Germany—the European Union’s three largest countries—and their optimism that they will continue to move forward even after Brexit (Britain Exit).</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">That got me thinking about Filipinos in Europe, and of the Philippines and Europe.  We, and the world, think of the Philippines as very Americanized, forgetting that Europe did influence us as well through more than 300 years of Spanish colonialism.  (A three-year British occupation, mainly of Manila, was almost insignificant in terms of cultural or political influence.)</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">We think of the Spanish influence mainly in terms of language. Although Castillan Spanish was spoken only by a minority even during the Spanish colonial period, many words—in areas ranging from food to philosophy—entered our local languages.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Then there’s religion, Roman Catholicism specifically, even if we practice it mixed with pre-Hispanic beliefs and practices.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">What we tend to overlook is the Spanish influence on political thought and governance. Some of our laws go back to the Spanish Civil Code of the 19th century.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">The 19th century was a time of ferment in Spain and Europe as liberalism rose and spread. Spain had several liberal governments and their reforms in government reached the Philippines, such as expanding the educational system in our islands. Rizal and fellow reformers were inspired by these liberal ideas, at first seeking not independence but representation in the Cortes, the Spanish Parliament.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">The 20th century was marked by American colonialism, and, many will say, neocolonialism, and we seemed to lose our awareness of Europe. But in the last 50 years or so we have seen a resurgence of ties with Europe through our overseas Filipinos.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">400,000 Euro Pinoys?</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">To project how our interactions might shape our future, let’s look at some of the statistics from the 2013 survey of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO). These statistics are important for projecting how the Philippines might develop in the future, not just through remittances but through ideas, world views, lifeways. (The statistics are available online and can be downloaded. Search for Stock Estimate of Overseas Filipinos, Commission on Filipinos Overseas.)</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Let’s get the big picture first. The CFO has figures for overseas Filipinos in every country in the world, broken down to “permanent,” “temporary” and “irregular.” North America still account for the largest percentage of overseas Filipinos, with some 3.5 million Filipinos in the United States and 721,000 in Canada. Together that’s about 40 percent of all overseas Filipinos. More than 90 percent of the Filipinos in the United States and Canada are there permanently.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Europe, which includes Turkey and Russia in the CFO census, is home to about 866,000 Filipinos, or 8 percent of the total population of overseas Filipinos. About half of them are classified as permanent. Many are married to local residents and, needless to say, have “hyphenated” children—Filipino-British, Filipino-Italian, etc. That would mean more than 400,000 “Euro Pinoys,” if we count only the permanent residents.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">The European countries with the largest numbers of Filipinos are Italy (271,946), the United Kingdom (218,126), Greece (61,716), France (48,018), Germany (47,214), Spain (42,804), the Netherlands (21,789), Switzerland (20,910), Cyprus (19,948) and Norway (18,088).</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">It seems all of the European countries have Filipinos, the three tiniest Filipino communities being in Bosnia and Herzegovina (10), Moldova (9) and Montenegro (7).  The Vatican has 3,490 Filipinos, all temporary and, presumably, mostly Catholic priests and nuns.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">The kind of interactions overseas Filipinos have with host countries depends on their type of residence and work. Permanent residents would, of course, be much more absorbed into the mainstream of their adopted country, to the point where they might not even intend to return to the Philippines.  While retaining a sense of being Filipino—for example through food—the Filipino identity will fade, even disappear as early as the second generation.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">“Temporary” and “irregular” overseas Filipinos do interact as well with their host cultures, some with hopes that they can become permanent residents and citizens.  As with permanent residents, they will pick up new languages quickly, which facilitates interactions with their hosts.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Euro politics</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">What I hope we can see in the near future is a research on how “Euro Pinoys”—permanent or temporary—perceive governance and politics in Europe, as well as culture, and how this affects their perceptions of and expectations for the Philippines.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">The political systems in Europe are very different from ours, which is practically a duplicate of the American presidential system, complete with electoral circuses. European countries use different parliamentary forms. The French has a hybrid  with a president and prime minister (which President Duterte favors). Italy has a complicated system; it also has a president and prime minister, and allows for an “additional member system” (similar to our partylist), which requires 4 percent of the national vote to earn a seat in parliament.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Political parties in Europe are marked by very real differences that run the spectrum of political philosophies from the extreme right to socialist and communist parties;  and if that’s not enough, there are also powerful Green parties with their platforms based mainly on environmental issues.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Some of the parties go back in time, but there are also “upstarts” with new programs, like Podemos (We Can!) in Spain, and other parties reacting to—and blaming—traditional politics for their economic crises.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Living in the Netherlands as a graduate student, I often felt Europe, Western Europe in particular, had reached a “post-State” situation, where government is almost incidental. Politicians are not the powerful VIPs we see here, surrounded by bodyguards and assistants.  In the Netherlands even prime ministers are known to bike, and there was one Scandanivan prime minister who would ride taxis so he could interview the drivers.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Western Europeans are also generally more liberal than the Americans (I use the term here to refer to the United States), especially on social issues. The Netherlands is usually stereotyped as the extreme in liberalism, with legalized sex work and marijuana.  Same-sex marriages are legal in 13 European countries, and same-sex civil unions in 12.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Considering the large numbers of Filipinos in Europe, will we see European ideas changing our politics and our social views?</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">I’ll do a second part to this “Euro Pinoys” column on Friday, with a focus on what we might learn from Europe’s vacillation between narrow nationalism and a broader sense of a European Union.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Source: http://opinion.inquirer.net/96751/euro-pinoys#ixzz4IHktbwbb </span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=3629012486930784822&postID= 6148669850508581500&target=facebook" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8VZfdyGqGxYxPWoelwmGbf0QFLIKAuJeUY4gkUrOuG0ypMqSfMCY5oXqRyQNoFBeMj4-rf3fO2HSZuuzFh6RfAhiQUOB0mhu1FMnZNnkfdasfJ-Tjd3cZm3lh88B0ouKAVkPXVh278OA/s1600/sharefb185.png"></a> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=3629012486930784822&postID= 6148669850508581500&target=twitter" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip3bfhc90-5xenm9-eqI_ICgI5V8KPl28Gu8oXZsvNDA_oIk8ioAazonJE38acYIiOnSDyuPWj6zn-8wCMPPY5TMVVENEoNk2PfH73eNX5qkEIkvLossHYwU848ikKXjhyr1MRuJIjmFo/s1600/sharetw185.png"></a></div>

People Spain Stories Euro Pinoys

Euro Pinoys By: Dr. Michael Tan I was reading about a meeting of the leaders of Italy, France and Germany—the European Union’s thre...

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