A few weekends ago, I was sitting on my living room couch, scrolling through social media while the rest of my family bustled around the house. It was a typical day of lazing around- until something caught my attention on my Tiktok feed. It was a video of a post someone made, about how “Filipino culture was optimized for staying poor”.
As I was reading the words that flashed on my screen, I was reminded of some research that I did a while back. The post mentioned that because the Philippines is such a family orientated country, where children are expected to carry their families financially, it has made even the better-earning Filipinos poor enough to live from paycheck to paycheck. It also goes on to talk about financial illiteracy, and how that has contributed to the continued impoverishment in the Philippines.
I realized how strikingly familiar this was to my research- Asian culture’s emphasis on family causes Asian individuals to feel burdened and financially responsible for their own families. This not only makes it difficult to save and accumulate wealth, but it creates an internalized struggle to live as frugally as possible to not waste money. Furthermore, this connects back to my post about model minorities– many people are unaware of these Asian populations who are suffering financially due to lack of financial literacy. Although, Filipinos in the United States are actually doing particularly well in the US, from English proficiency to educational attainment. Nevertheless, the success of Filipino immigrants do not accurately reflect the entirety of the Asian population- that is the key misconception many individuals make about Asian Americans.
Ultimately for Filipinos in the Philippines, this is unsustainable in the long run; how does one escape from poverty, when their very own lifestyle prevents them from doing so?
Moreover, as I looked more into this problem, I realized more and more that we can’t talk about money without talking about culture. Culture, especially to Asian populations, can affect spending. In the Philippines, as we now see, money is expected to be spent on your family, not on financial endeavors that can generate more money in the long run. When considering Asian Americans and Asians who have immigrated to the United States, the same problem applies; because of their traditions and culture, Asian individuals make poor financial decisions that lead to poverty. Even more so in foreign countries, where language barriers make it difficult to navigate the financial realm.
But this raises the question; how can we support these Asian individuals struggling in our nation and help them make beneficial financial choices? By encouraging financial literacy. Financial illiteracy is a rampant problem in the United States, especially among immigrant populations.
Because of language barriers, many Asian immigrants do not know how to save, get a loan, etc. We can support these people by offering financial services in a different language, or by writing easily-accessible articles about finance and how to manage your money.