THE INTERSECTION OF RACE, ETHNICITY, AND CLASS - THE MULTIPLE IDENTITIES OF 2ND-GENERATION FILIPINOS

Through the prism of life stories, this paper examines the constructio n of identities among the children of professional immigrants from the Philippines. It pays particular attention to the strategies that thes e Filipino Americans use to construct multiple and overlapping identit ies and to rework dominant ideologies about their place in contemporar y U.S. society. Stressing flux rather than continuity, and multilinear ity rather than unilinearity, this analysis indicates that ethnic iden tification is a more dynamic and complex social phenomenon than has be en predicted by either the assimilationist or pluralist model. Because of the class status, racial positioning, and ethnic background of the se Filipino Americans, their reconstructed identities represent both r esistance to and acceptance of class and racial hierarchy in the Unite d States.