Immigration patterns, locale orientation, and life satisfaction among elderly Filipinos on Oah

This study on the quality of life of elderly Filipinos on Oahu, Hawaii demonstrates that the distinctive immigration history, bi-locale orientation, and pursuit of family reunification among the respondents greatly influence their life satisfaction. Employing both survey and field research techniques, information on objective and subjective quality of life, and history of immigration to Hawaii were gathered from 100 Cebuano-speaking Filipinos aged 60 and older in 1991 on the island of Oahu. Objective quality of life indicators include individual and group measures. Life satisfaction is measured in two ways: a simple question on current life satisfaction, and Cantril's Self-Anchoring Striving Scale method.;Though the respondents exhibit low socio-economic status, they report high levels of life satisfaction. Part of the explanation is their good health status. A fuller explanation comes from their historical, social, and cultural conditions that circumscribe their presence in Hawaii--their distinctive immigration pattern, bi-locale orientation, quest for family reunification, and strong collective consciousness.;Filipino immigration to Hawaii has been a four-step migration flow: (1) sakada migration to Hawaii; (2) return-migration to the Philippines; (3) repatriation to Hawaii of Hawaii-born children of sakadas; and (4) family-reunification immigration.;Most of the respondents were raised in the homeland and have maintained ties with relatives and friends across the Pacific. Their bi-locale orientation molds them to become people of two lands, which consequently fashions their compatriots in the homeland to be both standards for and evaluators of their life's conditions. Based upon the strength of ties in and affiliation with Hawaii and the Philippines, the respondents can be differentiated into four settlement types: stayers, sojourners, circulators, and undecided.;The liberalization of US immigration policy made family reunification the strongest force behind Filipino immigration to America. This quest for family reconstitution and the enduring ties with the homeland cause Filipinos to evaluate their life satisfaction not solely in terms of their existing objective conditions in Hawaii, but in terms of how much they have succeeded in reuniting their families in Hawaii, how much they have accomplished vis-a-vis their compatriots in the Philippines, and how they are evaluated by their compatriots in the homeland.