Data analysis: ‘who counts?’

Phase 1 has three-fold aims namely: (a) to estimate the Filipino diaspora in the UK and at the same time highlight; (b) changes over the years; and to (c) estimate the second-generation population. To do this I turn to statistical information on overseas population, journeys, settlement, and citizenship grants. Full discussion of tables and patterns in graphs are presented in Chapter 4.

Journeys

To describe mobilities between the Philippines and the UK, I count the total number of journeys using the following formula:

∑( )

Where:

= Total number of journeys from 1976 to 2009 (except 1997) i=0 = year 1976

n = year 2009

Permit = work permit holders

Family = family members and other dependants

27 _{‘The Annual Population Survey (APS) combines data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and national}

boosts. Datasets contain 12 months of data and responses from 155,000 households and 360,000 people. It thus improves intercensal monitoring of key variables for a range of policy purposes.’ [Source:

Student = students

Return = passengers returning from temporary absence abroad Others = all other passengers and visitors

Journeys, in this sense, are numbers of arrivals in UK ports of individuals who are Philippine passport holders. It is possible that a person can be counted multiple times depending on the number of journeys made during a particular year : they are counted every time they arrive. Journey statistics are important indication of appreciating the flows of people that link the Philippines and the UK. Whilst most of these journeys are just short trips a defined segment of work permit holders and family members are also included. These segments are more likely to later take the permanent settlement route and therefore can potentially increase the Filipino diaspora in general and second-generation population in particular.

Settlement

To account for Filipinos who were granted permanent residence or indefinite leave to remain in the UK, the following formula is used:

∑( )

Where:

= Total number of persons granted settlement from 1976 to 2009 (except 1997) 1 = year 1976

n = year 2009

Husband = total number of grants to husbands for year considered Wife = total number of grants to wives for year considered

Children = total number of grants to children 18 years old and below for year considered Dependants = total number of grants to other relatives of main applicant for year considered

Others = total number of grants on the basis of employment and other discretionary grants for the year considered

A grant of settlement is only given once and therefore each count per year refers to a discrete count that can be added to arrive at a composite figure. As such this summary statistic provides an estimate of the ‘Filipino diaspora’ in the UK. An estimate of the second- generation is arrived at by segregating ‘Children’ in the formula. These children may also be referred to as the de facto second-generation provided that they were born in the Philippines and were granted settlement as dependent of their immigrant parent. Using these numbers we can arrive at an estimate of the decimal generation from the 2.0 generation. Technically people who were granted settlement in the hostland remain to be citizens of the homeland. The only difference is that from the point of the view of the UK as a hostland these people now have the rights for them to have indefinite leave to remain. Unlike temporary migrants whose stay in the hostland is determined by employment contracts permanent residents are no longer bound by work permits. Another methodological point about settlement statistics is that given availability of these figures they can then be compared with estimates of permanent residents as gathered by the CFO.

Citizenship

In general, there are three pathways for persons of other nationalities to become naturalised British citizens: (a) by meeting residence requirements, (b) by marriage, and (c) by registration of minor children. People turn to naturalisation because it is an advantageous option to pursue with few impediments to achieving it. Naturalisation also indicates a change in legal relationship between the person and the government (Blinder, 2012). In the case of Filipinos naturalisation is a very strong indication of settledness in the UK and therefore a favourable condition where the second-generation (particularly the 2.0 generation) can emerge.

To estimate the number of Filipinos who became British citizens over the last five decades, I used this formula:

∑( )

Where:

= Total number of citizenship grants from 1962 to 2009

1 = year 1962 n = year 2009

Residence = number of grants on account of residence for the year considered Marriage = number of grants on account of marriage for the year considered

Children = number of grants to minors children for the year considered

Under UK rules, a minor who is born in the UK on or after 1 January 1983 and were not British citizens because of status of parents or where at least one parent became settled or naturalised citizen can be registered by entitlement. That is why an estimate of the 2.0 generation is arrived at by segregating ‘Children’ in the formula. For details on categories subsumed under each of clusters in the three formula presented above, see Appendix A.

In summary statistical records of the UK and Philippine governments on migration, settlement, and citizenship were used in order to examine official representations of first and second-generation Filipinos. This phase of the study shows that official statistics may be used to broadly ‘narrate’ and describe the growth of the second-generation and the diaspora-at- large. However, the second-generation remain to be invisible and uncounted as these resources are largely unknown to potential users such as the Philippine Embassy and the Filipino organisations throughout the UK. Although limited in its approach Phase 1 shows how individuals are categorised based on parental nationality, country of birth, and of parents’ (previous) citizenship or age at immigration. From an administrative point of view migration,

settlement, and citizenship statistics impute a person’s belonging. Whilst I have already highlighted the usefulness of this approach in surfacing the Filipino diaspora in the public arena this does not capture the shifting, multi-layered, and sometimes ambivalent sense of belonging that an individual undergoes throughout their life. In contrast to official statistical reports that consolidate these imposed categorizations, life stories offer avenues to examine self-descriptions: how they transform from childhood to adulthood, and the salient dimensions and strategies for making sense of difference and social positioning. These issues are problematised in Phase 2 of the study.