Filipino American Faith in Action Immigration, Religion, and Civic Engagement [Hardcover]

Filipinos are now the second largest Asian American immigrant group in the United States, with a population larger than Japanese Americans and Korean Americans combined. Surprisingly, there is little published on Filipino Americans and their religion, or the ways in which their religious traditions may influence the broader culture in which they are becoming established.

Filipino American Faith in Actiondraws on interviews, survey data, and participant observation to shed light on this large immigrant community. It explores Filipino American religious institutions as essential locations for empowerment and civic engagement, illuminating how Filipino spiritual experiences can offer a lens for viewing this migrant community’s social, political, economic, and cultural integration into American life. Gonzalez examines Filipino American church involvement and religious practices in the San Francisco Bay Area and in the Phillipines, showing how Filipino Americans maintain community and ethnic and religious networks, contra assimilation theory, and how they go about sharing their traditions with the larger society.

“Breaks new ground in Asian American Studies and more broadly in migration studies by illustrating the transnational and intergenerational civic engagement of migrants through religion. . . . An eminently important study that expands our knowledge of Filipino migrant settlement in the United States.”
-Rhacel Salazar Parrenas,author ofThe Force of Domesticity: Filipina Migrants and Globalization

“;In this academic page turner Gonzalez blends rich ethnographic descriptions with theoretical sophistication.Filipino American Faith in Actionis THE book on the importance of religion for the Filipino migrant community. Gonzalez breaks new ground in the emerging field of religion and immigration with his use of diverse theoretical tools and compelling narratives. A must read.”