Pacific Islander (or Pacific Person, pl: Pacific People, also called Oceanic[s]), is a geographic term used in several places, such as New Zealand and the United States, to describe the inhabitants of any of the three major sub-regions of Oceania.^[1][2]

In New Zealand, the term refers to a person who has emigrated from one of the smaller islands of the Pacific to New Zealand in modern times, or one of their descendants born in New Zealand. The adjective Pasifika is also commonly used in New Zealand to mean people, and things in general, of Pacific Islands origin. While the majority of these people originate from Polynesia, others come from Micronesia and Melanesia. These terms are used to distinguish these people from the indigenous New Zealand Māori (who are also Polynesian but arrived in New Zealand many centuries earlier), and from other ethnic groups. A stated reason for making the ethnic distinction is that the Pacific peoples suffer from socio-economic disadvantages as a group and benefit from culturally targeted social and health assistance.

In Australia, "Pacific Islander" means a person from islands in the Pacific, such as New Zealand. In the United States, "Pacific Islander" refers to people from the same locations, most commonly seen as "Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders". In the United Kingdom "Pacific Islander" refers to people who originate from the islands in the Pacific (excluding the larger islands of Australia and New Zealand).

The category excludes people who trace to non-Pacific Island origins (e.g., descendants of Chinese or European colonists) that may now reside on the islands. It would also exclude New Zealanders, (except the Māori natives, who are Polynesian), as well as Australians and indigenous Australian Aborigines (except perhaps Torres Strait Islanders, who are generally not included under that designation).

For instance, a U.S. Census category was "Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders" (NHPI). NHPI refers to people having origins from any of the indigenous peoples of Hawaii, the Marianas, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands. It includes people who indicated their race or races as "Native Hawaiian", "Guamanian or Chamoru", "Samoan", or "Other Pacific Islander", or wrote in entries such as Tahitian, Mariana Islander, or Chuukese.

Inhabitants of Russia's Kuril Islands, Alaska's Aleutian Islands, and the Taiwanese, Japanese, Philippine, and Indonesian islands, although technically bordering edges of the Pacific Ocean, do not fall under the definition of "Pacific Islanders" because such islands are not actually located within the Pacific or therefore any of the three regions of Oceania (Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia), and ethnicities native to the latter four among the aforementioned are thus classified as "Asians" on the U.S. Census.

Despite this, a growing number of Filipino Americans have denied the classification of being "Asian" (this is clearly noticeable on social networks such as Myspace), instead claiming to be "Pacific Islanders". Most Filipino Americans who acknowledge themselves as Pacific Islanders use the idea that Filipinos are considered Pacific Islanders because the Philippines is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean. These claims have provoked dismay among many Pacific Islanders who actually belong to the Oceanic cultures comprising the commonly accepted definition of the term, and has also prompted allegations of cultural denial from other Filipinos, the worldwide majority of whom identify themselves as being Asian (as the Filipino government has stated since its foundation that the Philippines is a part of Asia). The Philippines is a part of an alliance known as ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) & not the Pacific Islanders Cultural Association (PICA).

It should also be noted both groups, as well as aboriginals from Taiwan, other countries of Maritime Southeast Asia (including Indonesia), and the Madagascar Malagasy are all closely related ethnically and can be grouped together under one umbrella term, the Malays, which is a linguistic term. To be more specific, the ethnic group that makes up the majority of Filipino lineage would be the Malays.

However, the Austronesian people who had discovered and settled Polynesia (and the rest of Oceania), lost all ties with Mainland Asia and never experienced the varied waves of migration that occurred between the mainland and the Malay Archipelago, a fact that separates those who are ethnically Asian and Pacific Islander.

Some other examples of island nations that are in Asia are Japan, Taiwan, and the islands of Indonesia. Therefore, the people of the Philippines are not considered Pacific Islanders just because the country is a island in the Pacific Ocean. This idea does not justify being a Pacific Islander. The Philippines, as well as Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, East Timor, and Papua New Guinea, is part of the Malay Archipelago, a part of Southeastern Asia.

Furthermore, the Philippines is not the only country in Asia that has the Austronesian background. Austronesian constitutes the dominant ethnic group in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, the Pattani region of Thailand, and East Timor inside the Malay Archipelago, in Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia inside Oceania, in Madagascar, and in the Cham areas of Vietnam (the remnants of the Champa kingdom which covered central and southern Vietnam) , Cambodia, and China and the Moken of Myanmar and Thailand. In essence, Austronesian can be seen as one of the many ethnicities/linguistic/cultures terms found throughout Asia. So using the Austronesian background as a reason to justify not being Asian is invalid. This can be seen as a example as to how stereotypes and ignorance has crippled the identity of a particular group.

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The definitions and differences between Asian and Pacific Islanders are also clearly defined:

Asian. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam. Thus it includes "Asian Indian," "Chinese," "Filipino," "Korean," "Japanese," "Vietnamese," and "Other Asian."

Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry. They include sub-ethnic groups such as Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, Indian Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Korean Americans, Japanese Americans,Taiwanese Americans, Cambodian Americans, Laotian Americans and others whose national origin is from the Asian continent (exactly from the countries in Far East Asia, Southeast Asia and Indian subcontinent. Read Asian people in the USA for more details).

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Pacific Islander. A native or inhabitant of any of the Polynesian, Micronesian, or Melanesian islands of Oceania. Some examples of the ethnic groups that would be considered Pacific Islanders are the indigenous peoples of Hawaii, the Marianas, Samoans, Guamanian, Chamoru , Tahitians, Mariana Islander, and Chuukese.

[1]</ref><ref name=Umich>University of Michigan. Census 1990: Ancestry Codes. August 27, 2007. [2]

Information found on Wikipedia also supports the fact that Filipinos are considered Asian, such as Filipino American. Which provides the following information that the Filipino American (Fil-Am for short) community is the second largest Asian American group in the United States and the largest Southeast Asian American group. Filipino Americans are also the largest subgroup of the Overseas Filipinos.

The Filipino Americans who seem to identify with the term Pacific Islander, prefer this label rather than "Asian" because in the U.S the term Asian is stereotypically used to identify mainly East Asians such as Chinese, Japanese, Koreans.

Filipinos as compared to SE ASIA

The Philippines is a country in Asia with a similar history to Singapore:

1. They both have had ties to European colonization.

1. They both have been melting pots of varies ethnicities (i.e Malaysian, Chinese, Indian, etc.)

1. They both are located in Southeast Asia.

There is no doubt that Singapore is considered an Asian country, and that Singaporeans are considered Asians. Should there be any doubt then that Filipinos too are Asians? Filipinos also have similarities with Indonesia, which is also a nation made of islands in the Pacific, and other Southeast Asians in both languages and physical features, so how is that Filipinos are the only ones in question of not being Asian?

Some people in the U.S. also like to comment on the fact that because Filipinos have Spanish surnames, this gives them the generalization that all Filipinos are of Spanish descent. However if you look at another similar example of surnames, such as African-Americans and their surnames, you could see how a surname does not exactly justify or imply one's ethnicity or racial background.

Most Filipinos descended from Austronesian, or more specifically the Malays, and around an estimated figure of less than 1% to 2% may have Spanish ancestry. The Filipinos with Spanish ancestors are generally referred to as Spanish mestizos (Spanish: "mestizos españoles", Filipino: "mestisong Kastila"); these comprise the majority of the Spanish-descended population. According to genetic research, around only 3.6% of all Filipinos have European ancestry. The history of the country suggests that European ancestry in the population derives from either Spanish or American colonization

Further studies in regards to Filipino lineage, a Stanford University study conducted during 2001 revealed that Y-chromosome Haplogroup O3-M122 (labeled as "Haplogroup L" in this study) predominates among Filipino males. This particular haplogroup is also predominant among Chinese and Korean males. That finding is consistent with the theory that people migrated from China south into the Philippines.

There is even Filipino American media that embrace the label of "Asian". An example would be Asianjournal.com, which proclaim to be a leader in the Filipino-American Media industry.

Some other examples in the U.S. media that refer to Filipinos as Asians and not Pacific Islanders are,

• The Sacramento Bee says "Filipino Americans-- at roughly 1 million -- are now the largest Asian ethnic groupin California". --Sacramento Bee, May 19, 1996, p.A1. "Out From The Shadows" by Stephen Magagnini.

• The Los Angeles Times states that Filipinosare "California's largest Asian community" --Los Angeles Times, January 26, 1996, p.A1. "Filipinos Happy With Life in U.S., But Lack United Voice" by K. Connie Kang.

How Application Forms Caused Part of the Confusion:

Many Filipinos in the United States may have filled out college or job applications and had come across the part where you had to check your ethnicity. Many times, “Filipino” was listed separately from Asian, leading people to assume that the two groups are separate.

Why was this? And what was the reasoning behind this? One theory according to a Filipino-American:

1. The Philippines was once a colony of the United States.

1. The English language (in addition to the Pilipino langague) is an official language of The Philippines.

1. Filipinos have the uniqueness of being under American influence throughout most of the 20th century.

1. Filipinos were one of the largest ethnic groups of Asia immigrating into the U.S. during the 20th century.

Is there any wonder that part of the confusion may have originated from The Philippines being a former colony of The United States? And with a need to classify Filipinos apart from other Asian groups, application forms and the like were tailored so that various government, corporate and private organizations could further differentiate certain ethnic groups from one another for statistical purposes.

The Whole APA Fiasco

On the other hand, to add to the confusion, certain authoritative entities had lumped both Asians and Pacific Islanders into one ethnic group for simplicity’s sake… namely APA, or Asia Pacific Americans. Though it may have been innocently done and with good reason, group Asians and Pacific Islanders together into one group has proven detrimental to the identity of Filipino Americans. Even though the definitions between Asian and Pacific Islander are clearly defined.

There also seems to be a cultural gap & social conflict between Filipinos from the Philippines and Filipino Americans. This could also be the reason as to why many Filipino Americans grow up in the United States not being able to speak a Filipino language or dialect, such as Tagalog. There also seems to be a number of Filipino Americans who degrade Filipinos from the Philippines because of their accents. This issue was made apparent on the Filipino channel's show called, SPEAK OUT. In the episodes, Filipino Identity & Filipinos vs Fil-Ams, people discuss the issue of discrimination between both groups.

• Asian Pacific Americans in the U.S. Army