Recommendations from our site
“This book is personal for me and it has been on my mind throughout the pandemic, which has hit Filipino American nurses particularly hard. My mom is Filipina and she came to the United States to work as a nurse…But, also, it reminds us that we need to think about Asian migration to the United States through the lens of empire. One reason why we have so many immigrants who came to the United States from the Philippines to work as nurses is because in the early 20th century, when the Philippines became a colony of the United States, there was an effort to civilize Filipinos teaching them American standards of ‘health’ and ‘cleanliness’ (I’m using air quotes here). That enterprise of empire resulted in the United States starting nursing schools in the Philippines. Later in the 20th century, graduates of those schools migrated to the United States to address a nursing shortage here. It’s a really interesting story.” Read more...
