Philippines Emigration and Immigration

Online Sources

 * Immigrant Ancestors Project
 * Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild Choose a volume and then choose the Philippines under "Listed by Port of Departure" or "Listed by Port of Arrival".
 * 1852-1897 Deportados, 1852-1897 at FamilySearch Catalog; images only
 * 1890-1960 Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960 at FindMyPast; index & images ($); includes those with Destination of Philippines
 * 1937-1941 Philippines, Jewish Refugees, 1937-1941, index.
 * 1946-1971 Free Access: Africa, Asia and Europe, Passenger Lists of Displaced Persons, 1946-1971 Ancestry, free. Index and images. Passenger lists of immigrants leaving Germany and other European ports and airports between 1946-1971. The majority of the immigrants listed in this collection are displaced persons - Holocaust survivors, former concentration camp inmates and Nazi forced laborers, as well as refugees from Central and Eastern European countries and some non-European countries.

Immigration to Hawaii

 * 1900-1953

Passports

 * 1758-1898 Pasaportes II, 1758-1898 at FamilySearch Catalog; images only
 * 1860-1898 Pasaportes de extranjeros, 1860-1898 at FamilySearch Catalog; images only

Offices and Archives to Contact
If your ancestors emigrated from or immigrated to the Philippines, there may be a record in the Records Management and Archives Office or in the Commission on Immigration and Deportation, Department of Foreign Affairs. These records generally provide at least:


 * The person’s name
 * A place
 * A date

Sometimes they give information about:


 * Parents
 * Religious affiliation
 * Tribute status
 * Age

The Spanish administration kept fairly detailed emmigration records. The Records Management and Archives Office has a small collection of passports (pasaportes), deportations (deportados), and foreign passports (pasaportes de estranjeros). However, Chinese passports were often recorded separately under Chinese passports (pasaportes de chinos).

Most of these records have been microfilmed and are available at the Family History Library. To find deportation records, see the FamilySearch Catalog, Locality section. Look for the county and then under “Emigration and Immigration.”

- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has records about people who emigrated, immigrated, or gave service in consulates and embassies in foreign countries. The address of the ministry is:

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Padre Faura Ermita, Manila Metropolitan Manila, Philippines Internet: http://www.dfa.gov.ph/

Immigration and Naturalization Records (Radicación de extranjeros, Pasaportes, Naturalización de Españoles)
Research use: Very valuable for making proper connections to place of origin in other countries, and for pinpointing place of residence in the Philippines. Many researchers do not know their ancestor's place of origin.

Record type: Passenger lists, passports, certificates of residence, registers of foreigners, citizenship papers.

Time Period: 1800-present.

Content: Immigrant’s name, age, occupation, birth date and place, former residence, destination; wife’s name, childrens’ given names and ages or number of children; religion, race, nationality, sometimes picture. Chinese immigration records give names and places in Chinese characters.

Location: National Bureau of Records Management, port archives, municipal archives.

Population coverage: 15%.

Reliability: Good.

Immigration to the Philippines

 * Spanish colonization began in 1565. In 1571, Spanish Manila became the capital of the Spanish East Indies', which encompassed Spanish territories in Asia and the Pacific.
 * The Spanish successfully invaded the different local states, bringing most of what is now the Philippines into a single unified administration.
 * From 1565 to 1821, the Philippines was governed as part of the Mexico-based Viceroyalty of New Spain, later administered from Madrid following the Mexican War of Independence.
 * Manila was the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade.
 * During its rule, Spain quelled various indigenous revolts, as well as defending against external military challenges. Spanish forces included soldiers from elsewhere in New Spain, many of whom deserted and intermingled with the wider population. Under Spanish rule there was also immigration from elsewhere in the empire, especially from Latin America'.
 * Chinese Filipinos are mostly the descendants of immigrants from Fujian in China' after 1898, numbering around 2 million, although there are an estimated 20 percent of Filipinos who have partial Chinese ancestry, stemming from precolonial and colonial Chinese migrants.
 * As of 2015, there were 220,000 to 600,000 American citizens' living in the country. There are also up to 250,000 Amerasians scattered across the cities of Angeles, Manila, Clark and Olongapo.
 * Other important non-indigenous minorities include Indians and Arabs.
 * There are also Japanese people, which include escaped Christians (Kirishitan) who fled persecutions which the Spanish empire in the Philippines had offered asylum from.

Filipino Immigration to the United States

 * Some Filipino immigrants arrived in the United States as early as the mid-1700s, but most immigrants came after 1900.
 * Changes in U.S. agricultural techniques on the West Coast and in Hawaii created a high demand for labor. While persons from many countries were recruited to work in Hawaiian sugar cane plantations, Filipinos were the best source of labor because the Philippines was under U.S. administration for the first few decades of the twentieth-century.
 * Between 1900 and 1930, over 63,000 Filipinos immigrated to Hawaii and over 45,000 Filipinos immigrated to the mainland.

Emigration From the Philippines
Listed below are statistics for countries with large Filipino populations. Information on additional countries with smaller Filipino populations can be found at Overseas Filipinos: Countries and territories with Filipino populations
 * Australia: In the 2016 Census, there were 232,386 Filipino Australians.
 * Italy: As of 2015 there were 168,238 documented Filipinos living in Italy.
 * Japan: As of 2020 the Philippine government confirmed there were 325,000 Filipinos in Japan.
 * Malaysia: 325,089 Filipinos live in Malaysia
 * New Zealand: As of 2013 there were about 40,000 Filipino New Zealanders in New Zealand.
 * Qatar: As of 2014, there were approximately 195,000 Filipinos in Qatar.
 * Singapore: As of 2017, over 175,000 Overseas Filipinos in Singapore.
 * South Korea: As of 2017 there were about 63,000 Filipinos in South Korea.
 * Spain: There are about 150,000 Filipino nationals in Spain. In addition, thousands more hold dual citizenship. Being a former colony of Spain, Filipinos can apply for dual citizenship within two years residence.
 * Sweden: As of 2018 there were 24,456 Filipinos in Sweden.
 * Taiwan: As of 2016 there were about 78,000 Filipinos in Taiwan.
 * United Kingdom:The 2011 census recorded 117,457 people born in the Philippines resident in England, 5,168 in Wales, 4,264 in Scotland and 2,947 in Northern Ireland,[4] making a total of 129,836. Liverpool even had an area nicknamed 'Little Manila'.
 * United States: As of 2010 there were 3.4 million Filipinos in the United States, including those of partial descent. The United States hosts the largest population of Filipinos outside the Philippines, with a Historic Filipinotown in Los Angeles designated in August 2002, the first district established outside the Philippines to honor and recognize the area's Filipino community. Most Filipino Americans reside in California; there are other large populations in the New York metropolitan area, and Hawaii.