Filipino Identity Outside the Homeland

In their wanderings Filipino migrants again and again are confronted with the issue of who they are. Many think that returning to the home country can help provide an answer to this question on identity. For those who cannot fly home they content themselves with undertaking a “journey within”—in the innermost thoughts—where their best memories of home are stored forever in the hopes of finding an answer there. For those who are able to come home the pilgrimage to the homeland becomes an occasion to “journey back” for cultural regeneration in affirmation of their Filipino identity. And so the actual travel and the thoughts of coming home always give Filipinos in diaspora a sense of belongingness. For in their hearts they know there is a nation that will always embrace their return as long as they keep the myth alive no matter how long it may take or no matter if it never happens at all.