The Chinese Filipinos In Davao City:Their Migration, Way Of Life And Adaptation In The Philippines

Generally, as it would be the very first time to present a study about the Chinese Filipinos in Davao city, the study prompted to find out their reasons and motivation for migration, describe their way of life and from describing how they live, the study discovered how they adapted well in the Philippine society.Specifically, this study investigates the main motivating factors/reasons as well as the degree of motivation of the Chinese-Filipinos in Davao City to migrate and settle in the Philippines generally and specifically in Davao City using the Push-Pull Theory on Migration. Push-Pull Theory on Migration is a neoclassical theory that emphasizes a migratory move is being stimulated by positive (pull) and negative (push) factors. Pull (positive) factors are opportunities attracting in-migration to a place. Push (negative) factors stimulate out-migration from a place.After migration, settlement takes place in which way of life could be established. One’s way of life can be seen or reflected in the attitude, belief, culture, customs, practices and traditions on various aspects of life like family, community, organization/associations, education, business trade&industry, politics and government, religion, language and literature. In line with this, the study describes the Davao City’s Chinese Filipino’s way of life on the following aspects mentioned above.Describing their way of life could be a way to know if they are still imbibing Chineseness in every aspect of their life, and what aspect in their life that has more Chineseness.From describing their way of life, the study identifies how they have adapted to their new environment. Adaptation of migrants can be in two ways, it can be integration or assimilation. Integration is when individuals maintain their culture of origin and adapts to the culture of the host society (John W Berry,1997) Assimilation on the other hand, is the full adaptation to the host society’s culture and rejecting the culture of origin (John W Berry,1997). This study borrows the concept of Quadri-Modal Acculturation Model adopted from Berry (1997)(Figure1) to determine whether the Tsinoy in Davao city has been integrated or assimilated to Philippine’s way of life through focusing on the two fundamental issues, the maintenance of the migrants’culture of origin and the maintenance of relationships with members of the host society.The study found out that the Chinese-Filipinos (and their ancestors) in Davao city were prompted or pulled to move to Philippines due to a promise of a better life (economic reasons/financially secured future). Their migration was motivated by the many opportunities presented to them by Philippines. As for the ones who internally migrated to Davao city, they were pulled to transfer to the city due to close affinity to family and friends who might have a better living condition in the city. Their transfer to Davao city was motivated by following their family and friends who might have a better life in the city.Their settlement after migration paved the way of living their day to day life as Davao City Tsinoy and the study can describe their way of life as this-in almost of the aspects in their lives, preservation of Chinese heritage/culture and cooperation and unity with the Philippine society is prevalent. Among the aspects that gears towards preservation of culture are family, religion, business, language and literature. These aspects have all the inclinations from the Davao city Tsinoy to maintain their origin’s culture especially the family aspect that is surrounded more with traditional Chinese cultures. As for cooperation and unity, it is the aspect on organization/association, community, politics and government that gears toward achieving good relationship and cooperation with the Philippine society as well as with fellow Chinese Filipino.As Davao City Tsinoy’s way of life is gearing to maintaining their origin’s heritage and culture and at the same time achieving cooperation and unity with other members of community, it is more likely to say that Davao city Tsinoy are integrated to the Philippines and Davao city’s way of life.