Family Ties Bring U.S. Within Reach

After waiting 25 years for permission to emigrate from the Philippines, Oscar Alvarez launched a new life in Southern California last year, working a graveyard shift stocking shelves in the toy department at Target.

The retired 69-year-old gas company manager and his wife, Evelina, who works in the retailer’s clothing department, hope to stay here for at least five years. That would give them enough time to save money, earn U.S. citizenship and sponsor their own children’s move here.

The Alvarezes are the latest link in a family chain of immigrants that began in 1967. So far, more than 20 relatives have come, with others waiting to join them.

“Life is miserable in the Philippines,” said Alvarez’s brother-in-law, Loreto Versoza, 71, a Manhattan Beach resident who made the journey more than 30 years ago. “Here, everyone has a chance.”

One by one, family by family, the Philippines has become one of the largest exporters of emigrants to America. The Asian nation is a prime beneficiary of a 1965 immigration reform law that replaced quotas based on national origin with a system that favors families and skilled workers.

More than 90% of the 1.7 million Filipinos who legally immigrated to the U.S. since 1930 arrived after the law was changed.

Four decades later, the law has dramatically reshaped the U.S. immigrant stream in ways policymakers never envisioned -- by increasing the flow and changing its ethnic composition.

During the 1950s, for example, the United States admitted 2.5 million immigrants, including 1.3 million Europeans, 153,249 Asians and 299,811 Mexicans, according to U.S. immigration statistics.

But the flow had markedly changed by the 1980s, when the nation legally admitted 7.3 million immigrants during the decade. The breakdown: 761,550 Europeans, 2.7 million Asians and 1.7 million Mexicans.

Today, about two-thirds of legal immigrants annually admitted come from Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

As Congress renews debate over U.S. immigration policy, however, some groups are pushing to end “chain migration.” Proposed legislation would eliminate some family preferences, including siblings and grown children of U.S. citizens and permanent residents.

Supporters argue that such preferences create an unnecessarily large flow of immigration, taxing public resources and increasing job competition for low-wage U.S. workers. They contend that relatives who are not part of a nuclear family deserve no special consideration.

Overall, family members accounted for 620,000 of the 945,000 immigrants admitted last year, according to U.S. immigration statistics. Reform advocates are targeting the 211,000 of those who were parents, grown children and siblings of U.S. citizens and legal residents.

“Chain migration is the primary reason since the 1960s that legal immigration to the U.S. has quadrupled,” said Caroline Espinosa of NumbersUSA, a Washington-based organization that advocates reduced immigration. “It’s one of the chief culprits in America’s record-breaking population boom and the accompanying sprawl, congestion, school overcrowding and other impacts.”

But others said the impact has been exaggerated.

Carl Shusterman, a Los Angeles immigration attorney, said the wait for siblings of U.S. citizens to obtain a visa is so long -- 23 years for Filipinos -- that it actually discourages emigration. His own Filipino wife, for instance, applied to bring all eight of her siblings from the Philippines in the late 1970s, but by the time they were all approved two decades later, only one was willing to come, he said.

“There really is no such thing as chain migration if you’re from the Philippines,” he said. “It takes too long; people are dead by the time they get approved.”

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Loreto and Lily Versoza’s family offers evidence for both viewpoints.

Loreto’s entire family immigrated to the United States, including his parents, four siblings, their spouses and children. But only one of Lily’s six siblings -- Oscar Alvarez -- is here.

The Versoza couple lives in a tidy home in Manhattan Beach that features American flags planted in azalea pots and icons of Jesus and Mary.

Loreto is a retired Defense Department engineer; Lily works part time as a floral designer after a career in bookkeeping and other office work. The couple split their time between California and the Las Vegas area, where their son is studying cooking.

In many ways, they illustrate a classic journey of Filipino immigrants.

Taking advantage of the 1965 law’s new visa categories for professional workers, Loreto Versoza and his sister, Haydee, came first -- she as a chemist in 1967 and he as an engineer in 1968. Like many Filipino immigrants, they arrived with professional degrees and speaking fluent English. Both attributes are legacies of U.S. colonialism, which imposed English-language instruction and helped spawn an extensive higher education system.

According to Yen Le Espiritu, head of UC San Diego’s ethnic studies department, sponsors of the 1965 law never intended it to kick open wide the doors to Asia, even though they touted it as an equal opportunity measure passed under pressure in part by the civil rights movement.

“It was only through Asian ingenuity that they were able to come here at all,” Espiritu said. “What they did was overuse the professional preference.”

For instance, she said, Asians accounted for 14% of all immigrant scientists and engineers in 1964 but 62% in 1970. Today, Asians still account for more than 60% of all immigrants admitted under professional categories.

After obtaining citizenship in the early 1970s, Loreto and Haydee began helping other family members emigrate.

Loreto sponsored his younger brother, Lizardo, who brought his wife and six children. Haydee brought her parents and her younger sister, Marife. Meanwhile, a third sister, Lilia, a dentist, came on her own through the professional category and then sponsored her husband and four children. Within three decades, the entire family was here.

The Versozas have prospered under close-knit family values of mutual aid, thrift, hard work and a desire for self-improvement through continual education. Loreto and Lily, for instance, began their American journey sharing a Los Angeles downtown studio apartment with two other relatives -- one slept on a kitchen bench and another slept in a closet -- but they now own three homes and an apartment building.

In turn, the Versozas have shared their largesse with relatives who came after them. Oscar and Evelina Alvarez, for instance, are living in the Versozas’ Redondo Beach apartment building.

After Lizardo Versoza arrived in Los Angeles in 1988, he said Loreto provided him with cars, shelter and a $20,000 business loan.

“This guy has backed me all the way,” Lizardo said of his older brother.

Lizardo, 58, left servants, a chauffeured car and a good job as a government transportation specialist. His wife, Socorro, a lab scientist, had a personal manicurist. But when the U.S. visa finally arrived after a decade-long wait, Lizardo said he took the plunge for his children’s future. The Philippines, he said, is plagued with crime, political instability and a bleak job market.

Once here, Lizardo focused on work -- any work. Although he holds degrees in geology and geography, he sold Christmas trees and pumpkins, newspapers and skewered meat. He started an auto repair shop. He opened a restaurant; his wife, who never even knew how to boil eggs, gamely learned to toss pizzas like a pro, he said.

For the past several years, Lizardo has worked in pest control for the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Along the way, both Versoza brothers have fed their hunger for new skills through a steady stream of adult-education classes after work, including aircraft mechanics. In 1991, at the age of 56, Loreto earned a computer science degree at Chapman University in Orange.

He said that studies are a habit instilled by their father.

“My father said to us, ‘We are not rich. When we pass away we can’t give you wealth. But I’ll work hard to let you go to school. Your education will always remain with you. It’s your biggest asset.’ ”

Despite the grueling work, Lizardo said his American sojourn has transformed him. Although he struggles for every dollar, he said material goods are less important than spirituality, and he attends Mass every day. He said he has grown closer to his wife in their journey to survive.

“I’m glad I came because of my humbling,” he said. “If I were in the Philippines, drinking, women, dancing are easy to come by. I didn’t really spend time with my family. Now my mind is stable.”

As for the Alvarezes, the couple were initially hesitant to make the move. Oscar said he thought he was too old to start a new life, but his sister, Lily, urged them to try.

Alvarez said his laborious job leaves him aching every day, but he intends to tough it out. Here, the couple’s income is 17 times greater than their $100 monthly pension back home.

Most important, he said, he must persevere for his sons and their families.

“My two sons are waiting to come here,” he said. “As soon as possible, they want me to petition them.”