ERIC Number: ED542472
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Mar
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The Amerasian Paradox
Kutschera, P. C.; Pelayo, Jose Maria G., III
Online Submission, Paper presented at Online Conference on Multidisciplinary Social Sciences (Australian International Cultural & Educational Institute, Mar 29-31, 2012)
Multiple anecdotal accounts and a thin body of extant empirical research on an estimated 250,000 multiple generation, mixed-heritage military Amerasians in the Philippines, and Pan Amerasians residing in other East and Southeast Asian societies, indicates substantial past and present stigmatization and discrimination--particularly Amerasians of African descent. However, a certain segment of Filipino Amerasians, females with pronounced Caucasian features, comprise a paradoxical exception. The abandoned progeny of U.S. servicemen, corporate military contractor and government male workers who occupied permanent bases for nearly a century, Africans and to a lesser extent, Anglo Amerasians, are targets of intense name-calling, verbal harassment and occasional physical violence beginning at an early age. This often transforms into a lifetime of socioeconomic marginalization and cultural isolation. Typically, Amerasians are ridiculed because of differential skin color, facial features and the stereotypical assumption that the majority were children of sex laborers and transient soldier fathers who had forsaken them. However, there is incipient research and anecdotal accounts bolstered by this five participant, purposive sample, multiple-case "pilot" study that young adult female Anglos may have not only eluded the stigmatized fate of the majority of Filipino Amerasians, African or Anglo, but in some cases actually benefitted socioeconomically and psychologically.
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Philippines
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A