Expats: Naturalization is very hard. Do you think the immigration policy to the Philippines is disgusting?

Question

I have to bring this topic up since so many people are thinking and complaining about this.

Expats who desire acquisition of Philippine citizenship are perplexed by the near impossibility of acquiring Philippine citizenship.

http://www.alloexpat.com/philippines_expat_forum/naturalization-t3813.html

Also, the constitutional requirements for acquiring naturalization is far too constricting.

http://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2001/ra_9139_2001.html

Ex: Applicants must be born in the Philippines and residing therein since birth...

WTH? This clause alone bars at least 8/10th of all aliens from ever acquiring Philippine citizenship.

Then theres the horridly illogical immigration quota limit of only 50 persons per year in the Philippine Constitution.

http://www.philembassy.se/consulr/qivs.htm

I ask why is the immigration system so lopsided?

How come a society which prides itself in being multi-cultural like the Philippines have such impossible immigration laws?

Answer 1

You asked  Philippine why immigration is  lopsided. You don't have  any idea  how harrowing it is for Filipinos  and other Asians to apply for  any types of visa just to visit the US or Europe.  Think how much ordeal the Filipinos have to go through  even to get application form for  US visa. If they are  lucky to be invited for interview at the US Embassy, they have to endure  series  of interviews  just to  prove that they are not criminals or hoodlums;  While Americans and Europeans never have to go through what Asians have to  endure. I'm sure you  didn't even sweat when you came  and  the visa  was stamp riht away as soon as  you landed  at the airport.

If the Philippine  government   makes it  all too  easy to  grant naturalization to would-be  applicants,  the whole Philippines would be owned by naturalized  citizens.  With their dollars and  business acumen,  they would easily buy  lands, build houses, and business empire. It would not take long for the Filipinos to lost their lands and their country.

Answer 2

I agree with 'Buwisit'. Even if other race thinks of the the Philippines as a multi-cultural nation...we are not. We may be open in welcoming foreigners in our country but its quite impossible to welcome them as a fellow-citizen.

I learned this when I was in Japan. One of my colleague use to work for the immigration office there. She explained to me why Japan isn't entertaining foreigners who would like to be Japanese citizen that much because the government wouldnt be that sure if that alien would want to be Japanese because they wanted to be of help to the country, or they would want to be of help to themselves whilst staying in Japan.

Although, there isnt any good explanation now as to why the Philippines wouldnt offer citizenship, but from the previous principles, Filipinos would like to keep the its distinction of being Filipinos.

You may be asking why does the government hasn't made any updates with the citizenship rule. The answer...they are preparing for the SONA so the president and everyone PRO her will make the most wonderful speech to brainwash people to invest money for her next campaign and so she can be the next dictator.=P

Hope this helps.

Additional Info: How do you define 'multi-cultural'? especially if it is to be applied here in the Philippines? Even if Filipinos are not entirely Filipinos anymore because of the colonization of other races...you have to admit that Filipinos are still very conservative and would still follow what the Catholic church (especially them) dictates. You may be thinking...what does the church has to do with the naturalization of other race to Filipinos. Because Filipinos aren't that open to suddenly adapting a big change like this. Even if people are quite open -minded nowadays, they would still go back to the old rules that was imposed from before.

I love my country, but I would have to admit that Filipinos cant leap big. They would usually dream of it but they cant put it into action.

Answer 3

If the Philippine allowed every Tom d**k and Harry to be naturalized Filipinos - you think there wouldn't be an exodus to this country of foreigners who want to make the most of their dollars and "rule" in this country? I have nothing against expats who want to become Filipinos for good reasons and family reasons but Filipinos have a hard time becoming naturalized in other countries as well, it takes years. An eye for an eye.

Answer 4

I agree with you.. The government just wanted things to go one way and that is to their advantage... They wanted to receive donations, gifts, and investments from other countries but doesn't do it to other countries themselves.. They wanted their citizens to be accepted as workers and immigrants and citizens overseas but they do not want to give the same treatment to people who wanted to be a citizen in the Philippines.. I guess that they just wanted people to keep on paying to stay in the Philippines.. So pathetic...

Answer 5

You asked: "How come a society which prides itself in being multi-cultural like the Philippines have such impossible immigration laws?"

The Philippines hasn't and isn't really multi-cultural technically speaking, as compared to other countries such as the US and Canada. The Philippines is 85% Catholic and is mostly composed of a single ethnic group--not exactly a rainbow of diversity.  The Philippines is by no means a country of immigrants as the US and increasingly Canada is. Perhaps the present immigration rules are based on that premise.  

Further, the Philippine immigration laws are about par in terms of its strictness and inflexibility with most other nations, with the exception of the US/Canada and Western European countries.

Besides, there isn't really a pressing reason to change the presently restrictive naturalization rules as only a figurative handful of resident foreign born individuals are h**l bent on becoming naturalized anyways (this excludes the 1000's  who are applying to regain their former Phil. nationalities.)

If there were millions of immigrants holding rallies in the streets, then maybe that's the catalyst for implementing changes to the present statute.

In the greater scheme of things, it's not a big deal to maintain the status quo.  I would rather the government concentrate on helping the millions of native-born pinoys first.

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Update: I'm certain my statements are correct.

As a side note: the US is presently only 75% Christian, not 90%, but these are further divided into many occasionally "warring" protestant sects with vastly different or DIVERSE views--and not a single omnipwerful Catholic diocese whos sometimes considered interchangeable with the government. Additionally, the US is also only 70% caucasian; the rest are very distinct ethnic groups such as hispanics, blacks and many many varities of asians.  Most of these groups maintain their core heritages even after many generations int he country and therefore maintain their ethnic affiliations distinctly.

Your Wiki article takes an excessive granular analysis of what defines an ethnic group.  According to its definition, it seems that you will be regarded as a separate ethnic group simply by a) moving to a neighboring island, b) marrying into the next tribe or c) learning a new related dialect.  I don't know about you, but I do not consider an Ilocano as someone of different ethnicity as a tagalog, waray, bicolano or visayan--in the same vein that Americans don't consider irish americans as different from italian, scottish, greek or welsh americans.  That's being silly.

Hoever, keeping things in context to your question, you have to agree that the explanation I gave of why naturalization is restrictive in the country is sound.  The reality is the process is no more strict than it is in most other nations.  How many Filipinos do you know have gained citizenship in the Middle Eastern and other Far Eastern nations where they have worked for decades as OFWS?  Few if at all.  You just have to accept the fact that the relatively lax and open immigration policies of the US, Australia/NZ and Canada is a unique situation.  There are 170+ other countries in the world, Philippines included, who don't follow the same mindset.  

Taking it further, my main point is that VERY few foreigners really want to obtain Filipino citizenship, so the 50 a year ratio may actually be a reasonable representation of the demand.  I know personally know no one of foreign descent who has ever pined for naturalization in the country.  In my opinion, the benefits would be marginal at nest for them to take that route.