Counting the Invisible: A Census of Filipinos in the Pacific Northwest
A 1929 study estimates roughly 7,000 Filipino workers scattered from Seattle to Alaska — and admits the numbers are guesswork, because many hid their identities from the people counting them.
They migrate every summer for jobs outside of the cities and towns. The approximate number of subjects in the study is about 7,000. They are scattered all over the Pacific Northwest, including Alaska. The centers of population in winter and their approximate inhabitants are as follows: In the state of Washington: Seattle and vicinity, 4,500; Cosmopolis and surrounding towns, 500; Yakima valley, 300; Tacoma, 200; Spokane, 100; Puyallup, 75. In the state of Oregon: Portland and suburbs, 300; Eugene, 55; Corvallis, 20. In the state of Idaho: Moscow, 20. And in the Territory of Alaska: Ketchikan, 25. Roughly about 900 are scattered in small communities within the area; for instance, in Ellensburg there are less than ten. As it is shown, the number of Filipinos in the given area is very small. But their tendency to concentrate into districts at certain times of the year makes it appear as though the number is more than what it actually is.
Perhaps a word about how the figures have been calculated may be wanting at this point. No records are available as to the exact number of Filipinos residing in greater centers. It is impossible to get exact figures because the Filipinos are too transient. Furthermore, some of them have acquired the bad habit of hiding themselves; they do not want people to know where they are, for reasons they alone know. For instance, even hotel registers reveal assumed names, so that they are not reliable records of their residence. Therefore, the only way one could get the figures is by estimation. Responsible Filipinos in each central district are asked to estimate the number of Filipinos in their respective district. These estimates are also reckoned with the records of the Immigration Bureau.
Most Filipinos reside on the Pacific coast. Immigration records in Seattle reveal that the majority of the Filipinos who entered the port of Seattle gave the Pacific coast as their destination. As a rule, even those who have intentions of going East have been forced to remain in regions on the Pacific coast for economic reasons. A little over ten thousand Filipinos entered the port of Seattle during the period between July 1920 to December 1928. Over two thousand returned to the Orient through Seattle during the same period, leaving a net immigration of over eight thousand. It has been estimated that out of the 8,000 net gain about 2,000 are in the East, and it leaves the Pacific Northwest about 6,000. The discrepancy between this figure and the total for the study is made up by the Filipinos from California. As to the number in smaller communities, the task of getting exact figures is easy, because in most cases the Filipinos in those districts are found in schools.
(The second installment of this article will appear in the issue of the Forum for April 30, 1929. —Editor)
“Some of them have acquired the bad habit of hiding themselves; they do not want people to know where they are, for reasons they alone know.”
The article's casual admission that Filipino workers 'hid themselves' from being counted is a window into a community living under surveillance and hostility — the same year Seattle saw violent anti-Filipino agitation. Today's debates over undocumented labor, census undercounts, and who gets to be 'seen' by the state echo this 1929 anxiety almost word for word.
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