E.D.C, Growing Up in the Philippines and Immigrating to Canada, History 150 Honors Spring 2021, Conducted by Joaquin Dela Cruz, March 6, 2021.

Overview to Interview: 

Making the decision to leave your home country is not an easy one. It gets even harder when you have had a lifetime of memories there. That was the decision that my grandmother, E.D.C, made in the late 2000s. From the Philippines, she immigrated to Canada because her youngest son had worked there, and he petitioned the Canadian government to bring her and her husband over. After going over much paperwork and taking classes about what to expect, they finally moved to meet the family. Before immigrating however, she was an elementary school teacher, teaching grades one through six and retiring just before emigrating. When asked about what she missed the most about the Philippines, she listed many things. But the one most important to her was family, the ones that she has not seen for a very long time. She also misses the food and the sense of community she had in the place that she had lived for all of her life. Now, she takes care of her youngest grandchildren and their home in Canada.

Biography: 

E.D.C. was born on September 23, 1948 in Navotas, Philippines. In 1960, she received her Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Far Eastern University, and taught children in grades one through six. Upon her retirement and her youngest son immigrating to Canada in the late 2000s, she and her husband decided to move there as well. She now lives with him, her youngest son, and her two youngest grandchildren cleaning and taking care of the home.

Research:

Metro Manila: Metro Manila is one of the three nationally defined metropolitan areas in the Philippines. It comprises of sixteen cities, including Navotas, the city my grandmother was born in, and has a population of over 12 million people as of 2015. In 2000, 34.2% of the population (5.2 million families) lived below the poverty threshold of 144, 506 Philippine Pesos, or about 2,890 US Dollars a year (Ragragio). According to Asian Development Bank, an organization that provides financial assistance and advice to countries for development, 35% of the urban population live in “flimsy, one-room” shelters that are often next to unhealthy environments such as railroad tracks and dump sites (Fry, Cousins, and Olivola).

President Marcos: President Ferdinand Marcos was the President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. Starting in 1972, he ruled the Philippines under martial law, rewriting the Philippine Constitution, intimidating voters using the military, taking control of all major media outlets, and arresting political dissidents in the process. After a series of demonstrations against the dictator in 1986 and after the complete loss of control over the military due to multiple kill orders on civilians, Marcos was forced to flee to Hawaii, ending his presidency.

Canadian Immigration: Compared to the United States, the Canadian government has a stricter definition of “family ” They only allow the potential sponsorship of spouses/partners, dependent children, parents, and grandparents. Brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, or grandchildren can only be sponsored if they are orphaned. In contrast, the United States allows all immediate family to be sponsored in addition to other relations such as unmarried adult children of U.S. citizens, spouses and unmarried children of U.S. permanent residents, etc. Although the criteria for immigration may be stricter, Canada accepts more immigrants overall, accepting 32 percent of the number of legal immigrants that of the United States receives with only with 11 percent of its population. The Canadian government also does not have a larger problem with unauthorized immigration, though there was an increase when President Trump announced his intention to end the Temporary Protected Status for several groups.

Bibliography:

Ragragio, Junio M. “The Case of Metro Manila, Philippines.” 2003

Fry, Cousins, and Olivola. “Health of Children Living in Urban Slums in Asia and the Near East: Review of Existing Literature and Data.” Prepared for the Asia and Near East Bureau of USAID under EHP Project 26568/OTHER.ANE.STARTUP, May 2002.

“The Fall Of The Dictatorship | GOVPH”. Official Gazette Of The Republic Of The Philippines, https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/featured/the-fall-of-the-dictatorship/.

“A Layered Look At Canadian And U.S. Immigration”. Wilson Center, 2021, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/layered-look-canadian-and-us-immigration.

Transcript:

Joaquin Dela Cruz: Hello, this is Joaquin Dela Cruz and his grandmother, EDC, about her experiences as an immigrant. How are you?

 

EDC: Good.

 

JDC: This interview will be conducted in our native language, Tagalog, just to make things a little easier and so that will start right now.

 

(Translated from Tagalog)

 

JDC: When and where were you born?

 

EDC: Do you want me to answer now?

 

JDC: Yes.

 

EDC: I was born and raised in the city of Navotas in Metro Manila, [Philippines].

 

JDC: When?

 

EDC: Huh?

 

JDC: When is your birthday?

 

EDC: I was born on September 23, 1948, also in Navotas.

 

JDC: How was your childhood in Navotas and what do you remember?

 

EDC: I grew up without a mother because when I was six, she passed away. My step siblings took care of me for the most part. My father was not very present in my life. You could say he was always in the air and off the ground, so I was always in the care of my siblings.

 

JDC: I remember earlier you told me that you went to Far Eastern University to be a teacher. what were the reasons that you want to be a teacher? [Far Eastern University is a private research university located in Manila, Philippines.]

 

EDC: Ever since I was a child, I always loved my teachers because they were always so sweet, and they helped me a lot with my learning. I wanted to be like them when I grew up so when I went to Far East University, I got a BSEd and taught children.

 

JDC: What is a BSEd?

 

EDC: Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education. It allowed me to teach from grade one to grade six.

 

JDC: Thank you. Fast forward to more recently, I want to ask you about your experiences as immigrant. My first question is how did you make the decision to move to Canada?

 

EDC: I always dreamt of visiting another country, but I never thought of it because I was always teaching. I got my chance when my youngest child worked abroad in Canada and he petitioned the Canadian government to bring us over. Fortunately, I just retired from teaching and so I agreed to move over there. [To petition means to ask the government to bring a relative into the country. In this case, my permanent resident uncle petitioned the Canadian government to bring my grandmother and grandfather over.]

 

JDC: Do you remember the process of moving to Canada? Like paperwork, stuff like that?

 

EDC: Me and your grandfather had a lot of paperwork to do. We had to get passports and then our birth certificates, marriage certificate, proof of citizenship… What else did we get? We went to the Office of Foreign Affairs and we took a seminar on what to expect when you move to Canada, things like that.

 

JDC: How did our family react when they found out you were moving to Canada?

 

EDC: How did they react?

 

JDC: Yes.

 

EDC: They were happy. They knew about my dream to visit another country and they knew about how I grew up in a tough place, and so they were happy for me to get that opportunity. There were some that were sad, especially some of the teachers that I worked with that I sometimes saw even though I was retired. People were sometimes sad, sometimes happy. Personally, I was sad about all the memories that I was going to miss when I move.

 

JDC: Would you say that that was the hardest part of moving, not seeing your family anymore?

 

EDC: Yes. That was the hardest part because I was not going to see you and your dad anymore, but that was obviously before I found out that you were going to move to the United States. My other child of three was going to stay in the Philippines, so I was going to miss him too. I was also going to miss my home even though I knew my son was going to live there. I miss it just because I lived there for so long.

 

JDC: What is the biggest difference between the Philippines and Canada?

 

EDC: So many differences. First, the way of living. In the Philippines, when you are poor, you are very poor. Unlike in Canada if you are in a hard place you can still eat a full meal. In the Philippines, there are a lot of people who go hungry if they do not have a job, if they do not have an education, things like that. Do you want me to give some more examples?

 

JDC: Yes, if you want to.

 

EDC: Corruption, there is a lot of corruption in the Philippines. It is everywhere. It cannot be removed from our government. In every Department, in every place, there’s corruption. That is probably the biggest thing from President Marcos’ regime, it started back then and because of him, they became mainstream. [Marcos’ presidency is heavily remembered for its corruption and brutality to this day.]

 

JDC: This is my last question, unless there is anything else you wanted to say, but what do you miss most about the Philippines?

 

EDC: I miss lot of things from the Philippines, but I love living here too because two of my sons live in North America. We come to Virginia and they come over to Canada all the time, so I do not miss them that much. What I miss the most about the Philippines are my family. I miss my sibling who still lives there. I miss some of my other family who I have not seen in a long time. I also miss the food just because obviously if you grow up somewhere, you get used to the food. I also miss the beautiful places, like the beaches. Especially when I watch Filipino TV shows, I see all the beautiful places that I never got to see when I was there because I was too focused on raising my children and being a teacher, so I never thought about it. [Although much of the Philippines is full of metropolitan slums, it still has many natural beauties. The country is made up of many islands, therefore there are a large amount of beaches, forests, and other natural attractions largely untouched by man, which are often unreachable to the common folk.]

 

JDC: I just actually came up with an extra question. What is your day-to-day life like in Canada? I know you are retired but what do you do now?

 

EDC: When I was first deciding about going to Canada, I told your grandfather that I did not want to work anymore but he could if he wanted to. I wanted to do whatever I want to do and also help take care of the family at home. From then to now, I cook our food, clean, and when my grandchildren were younger, I took care of them because their parents worked until they could go to school.

 

JDC: Those are all my questions. Is there anything else you feel like is important to say about your experiences as an immigrant?

 

EDC: My experiences growing up in the Philippines?

 

JDC: Anything really.

 

EDC: My life was good. My experience in the Philippines was good. Sometimes sad, but I love being a teacher because I love the children. There were always some crazy ones, there were some nice ones. I just love children. I wanted them to be proud that I was their teacher. I wanted myself to be the ideal role model for them and so I put everything I can into teaching. Sometimes they can get wild, so I got angry but that happens in any line of work. I had a lot of good friends that I could go to to share my happy and sad moments with. I will never forget how my husband has helped me raise our three sons. He always worked so hard while I was teaching, and I will always remember that. That is it.

 

JDC: Okay, Ma. Thank you. That’s the end of the recording.

 

EDC: Hahaha, now it’s your turn to translate! Was it good?

 

Recording and Transcription Process: 

The interview was conducted on Zoom on March 6, 2021. We started talking in English and then transitioned into talking in our native languages, Tagalog. We did this because I wanted as much detail as possible to be kept in my grandmother’s answers and I also wanted it to flow in a way that would not have been possible in English. We kept our cameras on so that it would be more conversational and less awkward. After the interview, I translated my grandmother’s words by hand using Microsoft Word’s dictation application. I listened to the audio of the interview on my phone, and spoke the English translation out loud, which was then written down by Microsoft Word. I then added correct grammar and punctuation marks by hand. In regards to vernacular, I tended to translate the conversation to be much more formal than it was. I made this decision because I wanted to portray her answers as clearly as possible and some Tagalog words do not translate to English perfectly, therefore, I chose the closest word. I also added some commentary using brackets because I have a fear that I am portraying the Philippines in a negative light using the poverty statistics and talking about the Marcos presidency. Although these things are true about our history, it does not define us as a people and as a country.

Follow-up Commentary: 

I sent the transcript to my grandmother on March 26, 2021 and discussed the few changes over Facebook Messenger the next day. The only change she requested was the clarification of which of her sons immigrated to Canada, that being her youngest instead of her oldest as I initially wrote.