Filipino American college students at the margins of neoliberalism

Abstract

This article analyzes the various ways that Filipino American students have navigated the system of higher education in lieu of expanding neoliberal public policies. In an era where neoliberalism has sought to minimize minority difference within a universal ''common sense'' pursuit of individual freedoms, the academic, economic, social, cultural, and political actions of Filipino Americans have served as continual reminders that the holistic contexts of under-served and under-represented student populations continue to significantly shape educational inputs, environments, and outcomes in ways neoliberalism cannot fully take into account. A review of the historical formation of the Filipino American identity, combined with contemporary Filipino American higher education experiences, collectively establishes the inability to reduce the Filipino American identity to an objective marker of social difference. Moving forward, implications of this research illustrate an inherent paradox in the neoliberal concept of ''diversity'' in higher education, wherein colleges and universities actively forge a dually marginalized Filipino American identity that exemplifies the continued significance of race, in spite of higher education institutions' growing attempts to downplay the correlations between race and educational access and attainment.