CITIZENSHIP NOTWITHSTANDING:An analysis of social exclusion narratives by Filipino postcolonial diaspora in Winnipeg

Many Canadians perceive the Filipino community as a model minority migrant group for seeming to have successfully integrated into mainstream Canadian society. However, based on months of in-depth fieldwork and a widespread literature review into Filipino diaspora experience— particularly in the city of Winnipeg, the author contends that due to the Filipinos’ unique identity, influenced by colonisation and therefore colonial mentality, combined with the constitutional and structural socially differentiating aspects of Canadian multiculturalism, they are excluded all the same. Following the narratives of three distinct sub-groups of the community: the early pioneers, the new pioneers and the offspring, the author further analyzes how intra-Filipino interaction and conflict affect Filipino perceptions, reactions and encounters of racial discrimination, even within a culturally pluralistic context.