According to the 1990 census, the Filipino community is now the largest segment of Asian Americans, 21.5%, followed by the Chinese and the Vietnamese (Patel 112). In logic, we can assume that this year, more than 2 million Filipinos are living in the United States. Nevertheless, the numbers across America, Europe and throughout the globe has not yet been included and the figures will naturally be surprising and even appalling in the same instance.
The Filipino Diaspora, or the dispersion of Filipinos from the Philippines, is one of the subjectively unpopular phenomenons in our country today. The invariable quest of Filipinos for greener pastures or for the crème of the crop is being judged intuitively where dissimilarity of opinions and ideas are walloping each other, each contesting for justification and acceptance. The verdict: one could only assume as studies about the phenomenon are still being processed with researchers trying to present the current social issue in an objective perspective.
Drastic speculations about this diasporic phenomenon of Filipinos have been conducive in affecting the viewpoints of the homegrown Filipinos who remained in the motherland in a negative or positive way. Meanwhile, some who were involved in the phenomenon were in point of fact celebrating their Filipino diasporic identity, with others continuously baffling the idea, apprehensively questioning the implications this diasporic occurrence could result to.
One major viewpoint regarding the Filipino Diaspora is the question of patriotic responsibility and personal fulfillment. The concern of our obligation to return to the motherland the favors and graces that we received from it i.e., the education and the talents honed on us by the mother country so that in time we will be able to help it rise as it sink from poverty. The urgency of self-fulfillment may have also forced these people to give in to the phenomenon.
In line with this, the role of verbal and visual advertising sounds as one of the major causes of this “brown phenomenon”. The information fresh graduates obtain from the billboards, advertisements, and even through verbal persuasion is likely the reason why newly-graduate Filipinos ruckus over the trend. The effectiveness of these visual and verbal advertising must be stupendous to create a global impact such as this, regardless of the positivity or the negativity of the phenomenon. And for that reason, determining the gravity of the function of these advertisements are one of the major objectives of this study.
The role of these advertisements and even the advertisers are to be measured and scrutinized as to whether they contribute to the diasporic phenomenon or not, which is naturally likely. The factors that should also be taken for consideration are the existing statistics and accessible yet credible information. Available data regarding the Filipino Diaspora is indeed limited, considering the fact that those who are aware of this phenomenon are the ones who are involved; in addition they also appear to be the ones who shrugged off the significance of the idea.

The term Filipino Diaspora was fundamentally patterned after the famous Jewish Diaspora, a term coined during the massive migration and dispersion of the Jews during World War II, as the communist, specifically the Nazi party of the Third Reich in Germany under the rule of Adolf Hitler incessantly chased and persecuted the Jews away from Germany and across the globe. It was also originally referring to the populations per se of Jews exiled from Judea in 586 BCE by the Babylonians, and Jerusalem in 135 CE by the Roman Empire. Nonetheless, the course of history and the endless development of man paved the way for the term to be employed interchangeably to refer to the historical movements of the dispersed ethnic population, the cultural development of that population and the population itself.
In the course of time, the term Diaspora was now applied to the growing social “brown phenomenon” of Filipinos, which is now called the “Filipino Diaspora”. The term was surfaced into my consciousness when the representative of the Philippines, Patricia Evangelista, in the famed English Speaking Union in London won with her piece regarding the trendy bashing and acceptance of this social issue in a relatively small scale – discussing the way of life of Filipinos who assimilate cultures with foreign cultures and the growing acceptance of Filipinos as international citizens. The piece she presented, arouse the consciousness of the researcher regarding the Filipino Diaspora and how little attention the Filipinos concern it with.
The Filipino Diaspora, or the dispersion of the Filipinos from the Philippines across the globe, become apparent to Filipinos for the very reason of looking for a well-off lifestyle and grander job opportunities [not mentioning the comparatively higher income] which the Philippines failed to offer for the valid reasons existing such as unemployment issues, etc.
The problem appeared to become more staid when most high school students preferred taking up courses which are very likely to be in-demand abroad such as nursing courses and other medical courses that would give them the edge of being employed in a foreign country. Statistics chorusing the fallout of professional doctors in the Philippines, who apply as nurses abroad, is but another determinant of the Filipino Diaspora, a phenomenon becoming a fad.
Indications implying the gravity of the current social issue are the alarming swarming population of naturalized citizens in the Americas and in Europe. Conducted studies reverberate the end results, and the conclusions are seemingly painstaking realizations that Filipinos are leaving the country behind with the rotting poverty after the motherland honing them the talents they employ to enrich a foreign country. There is also a disparity of standpoints about the issue, making the Filipinos confused whether to join or retract from involving themselves to this current phenomenon.
As a Communication student, I found the urge to conduct the study to further realize the causes of this social phenomenon. Upon relating the topic inquiry with media and its constituents, the role of advertising points a question. Could it be that the advertisements are at fault for the onslaught of this phenomenon?
The idea whether to take opportunities abroad or to remain in the motherland and suffer the lowest pays and narrowed job opportunities are always the major discrepancies. Naturally, as a Filipino and as a citizen of a Third World country, options are farfetched and promising even through the incisive capacities and capabilities of an individual. Practicality in judgment and the level of patriotism or nationalism are bashing each other to most Filipino new graduates as they plan for their future.
Timothy Mo, a British novelist is one of the proofs of the increasing popularity of the Filipino Diaspora. In his Breakfast on Brownfruit Boulevard he mentioned how the Philippines is employing human resource importation to gain benefits. Filipinos are now famed to be construction workers to Iraq, nurses to Dubai and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and even prostitutes to Lagos and Japan. Such readings that the researcher had encountered led to a deeper urge in conducting a study regarding the a great social issue which has not been paid sufficient attention; much less it was not even widely known to the Filipinos who remained in their homeland. Not that the social issue should be sensationalized, but rather paid attention. And thus, the researcher ended up conducting a study of the Filipino Diaspora, in anticipation of paving the way for future researchers and succeeding studies about the topic inquiry in a more serious and to suggest probable solutions to this growing social issue after determining the gravity each determinant and influence of the Diaspora.
As the term Diaspora now applies to around eight million of Filipinos living or working across the globe, the society they left seemed uncaring notwithstanding the fact that those who departed from the Philippines are likely to loose their Filipinos sense of identity. Furthermore, the researcher could not help but notice that all the geniuses we produce ended up working for the First World countries or industrialized nations.
According to recent surveys, and even without these surveys as it is now being felt, highly victorious upper crust of doctors, lawyers, nurses, doctors, dentists and highly salaried professionals who are in fact needed in the Philippines are making it in the United States. Even the most recent news on television asserts that the figures of medical players are rapidly decreasing in the Philippines. Is it possible that sooner our own country would end up needing back these human resources?
The Diaspora after all is not just a phenomenon or a simple trend that will soon fade out. It will linger, and for sure it will linger for a couple of decades, or more, notwithstanding the truth that the end result is possibly preemptively unpredictable.

- Tanya Tuble