Micronesians

Micronesians

ETHNONYMS: Carolinians, Chamorros, Chuukese (Trukese), Guamanians, I-Kiribati (Gilbertese), Kosraeans, Marshallese, Micronesian Americans, Pacific Islanders, Palauans, Pohnpeians, Nauruans, Yapese

Orientation

Identification. Micronesians of North America are Pacific Islanders whose homeland comprises over twenty-five hundred minuscule coral islets and volcanic islands of the Western Pacific. The term Micronesia, meaning "tiny islands," was coined by the French geographer Domeny de Rienzi in 1831 and used by subsequent explorers and cartographers. Geographically, the area includes three great archipelagoes, the Mariana, Caroline, and Marshall Islands, covering an ocean expanse equal to the continental United States. Anthropologists define Micronesia as one of the three "culture areas" of Oceania, which also includes Polynesia and Melanesia. The "culture area" identification, however, cloaks considerable Diversity among different island societies within Micronesia. Politically also the Micronesian area is diverse and includes seven entities: two are independent republics (Kiribati and Nauru); two are in a unique "free association" with the United States (the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands); one is a commonwealth (the Northern Mariana Islands); one is an unincorporated territory of the United States (Guam); and one (the Republic of Belau) has yet to finalize a treaty defining its relationship to the United States as of late 1990. The ethnonym "Micronesia" is primarily an artifact of European cultural categories and geographic divisions imposed as part of a larger heuristic upon the multitudinous island societies of Oceania. There is very little if any common ethnic identification or shared cultural heritage among the different island groups subsumed under this term.

Location. Micronesians in the United States and Canada are one of the smallest and most recent immigrant groups, and its characteristics are changing quickly. Very little Research has been directed toward Micronesians in the United States, and it was not until the 1980 census that Micronesians were enumerated separately from other Asian and Pacific Islanders. Consequently, geographic and demographic information on Micronesians in the United States is very sketchy. Most of the Micronesians immigrating to the United States initially take up residence in Hawaii or on the Pacific Coast. The 1980 census indicated that 55 percent of Guamanians (or Chamorros, as the indigenous people of Guam are called) in the United States reside in California. Other Micronesians, such as Chuukese, Marshallese, and Palauans, have formed small pockets of settlement in Washington, Oregon, southern California, and Texas, but the non-Guamanian Micronesians probably reside in largest numbers in Hawaii. These Pacific Islanders prefer West Coast and southern states with sunny climates similar to the tropical Pacific. Micronesians live predominantly in urban or suburban areas where they have access to the employment and educational opportunities that motivated their migration. Although the earlier immigrants—mainly the Guamanians who came to the United States in the 1950s and 1960s—may own homes in working-class suburban neighborhoods, the more recent Micronesians are mainly apartment renters in lower-class urban neighborhoods.

In Canada, the majority of immigrants from the Pacific Islands are Asian Indians who emigrated from Fiji. Pacific Islanders in Canada reside almost exclusively in British Columbia, with less than one thousand in Ontario and Manitoba.

Demography. The 1990 estimated population of the seven island entities composing Micronesia is roughly 375,000, of which the great majority are ethnic Micronesians. On the larger U.S.-affiliated islands in Micronesia there are minority communities of Americans, Filipinos, and Asians who hold professional and technical positions. Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, currently enjoying an economic surge of tourism-related growth, employ sizable numbers of Korean, Chinese, and other Asian construction workers on short-term contracts. In much of Micronesia the population was declining from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, owing mainly to the effects of introduced diseases in small, vulnerable populations. Since the advent of antibiotics, Micronesia has undergone a dramatic demographic reversal, and the population today is young and highly fertile. The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) currently have annual population growth rates of over 3 percent, and the resultant population pressure is one major incentive for increasing migration to Guam, Hawaii, and the U.S. mainland. Micronesians in the United States probably numbered no more than 60,000 in 1990, of which about 85 percent were Guamanians. Demographically, Micronesians in the United States show aspects typical of new migrant Populations: a low median age (less than twenty-three, compared with the U.S. median age of thirty) and a preponderance of males over females. The largest concentration of Micronesians—roughly 20,000—is in Long Beach, California, where the naval base has attracted large numbers of Guamanians. Since November 1986, when the United States signed compacts of Free Association giving citizens of the FSM and RMI the privilege of free immigration to the United States, there has been a surge of emigrants from these two island countries. A sizable Marshallese community has grown up in Costa Mesa outside of Los Angeles. The numbers are nearly inconsequential by U.S. national standards, but the thousand or so emigrants annually from Micronesia to the United States since 1986 represents a significant outflow of people from these small island communities.

In Canada, estimates from the 1986 census indicated that there were 5,305 residents of Pacific Island origin, about 90 percent of them from Micronesia or Melanesia. Whether this figure accounts for just native Pacific Islanders or includes some Fijian Indians is unclear.

linguistic Affiliation. All Micronesian languages are part of the Austronesian family of languages, which is dispersed over nearly one-third of the globe and includes language Communities as widely separated as Madagascar, Easter Island, Hawaii, and the Philippines. None of the Micronesian Languages has a writing system that predates European contact. Even today there are very few written materials in these Languages, and orthographies are not well standardized or widely accepted. Consequently there are very few contexts outside of the family where Micronesians speak, read, or write their own languages. Guamanians born in the United States usually do not speak their language fluently. According to the 1980 U.S. census, over 50 percent of Guamanians in the United States speak only English at home. Non-Guamanian Micronesians represent a much more recent immigration, and include a larger percentage of first-generation migrants. In the 1980 census, nearly 10 percent of non-Guamanian Micronesians indicated that they speak English "not well" or "not at all."

History and Cultural Relations

The first Micronesian immigrants to the United States were a very few islanders, known as "Bajinerus" in Guam, who shipped out from home as whalers or crewmen on merchant ships in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1898 the United States took possession of Guam as a booty of the Spanish-American War, and prior to World War II, young Guamanian men became eligible for the draft. Military service and the subsequent relocation of families in the 1940s and 1950s provided the first avenue for significant Micronesian immigration to the United States, although this route was limited Entirely to Guamanians. This wave of migration reached its peak during the 1950s and 1960s, owing to the Korean and Vietnam wars. The U.S. Naval Base in Long Beach, California, has been the primary employer of Guamanians as navy enlisted personnel and as civilians.

After World War II, the United States received trusteeship of the remainder of the Mariana Islands, the Caroline Islands, and the Marshall Islands, and the entire territory Except for Guam became the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. As the Americanization of Guam and the other Micronesian islands accelerated during the postwar decades, education gained increasing importance. American-style schools were built throughout Micronesia, and growing numbers of young Micronesian high school graduates arrived in the United States to pursue college education. This accounted for a second wave of Micronesian migrants. In 1972, U.S. Federal scholarship assistance in the form of grant and loan programs was extended to Micronesians, which considerably increased the tide of college-bound islanders coming to the United States. By the early 1980s, however, this stream of migration peaked. At its height, there were perhaps a maximum of five-thousand Micronesian college-age individuals (not counting Guamanians) in the United States, which represented a sizable percentage of the home population in this age bracket.

The third and most recent wave of Micronesian migration to the United States comprises individuals and families who have left their homes out of dissatisfaction with the Economic and social constraints of life in small island Communities and have come to the United States to seek a better life. This third wave is significantly different from the first two. The individuals are older, and rather than intending a shortterm circular migration for military service or educational training, these migrants usually intend to settle permanently or for a long period in the United States. The third wave shows aspects typical of chain migration. Often the migrants follow relatives or friends who had previously migrated for military or educational reasons, and they rely heavily on their social relations or kinship with previous migrants in order to find jobs and housing, and generally receive assistance in accommodating to their new life. Among Guamanians, this stream began in the 1960s and now accounts for the largest number of immigrants to the United States.

Other Micronesians gained unrestricted immigration into the United States only in 1986 when the Compacts of Free Association were signed, leading to a migration of Islanders seeking a better life during the past few years. Micronesian settlement in the United States still reflects the importance of military and educational centers of opportunity. Guamanians are concentrated around military bases in southern California and in the south bay cities of Long Beach, Carson, and Wilmington; settlement extends to border cities of Orange County such as Garden Grove and Buena Park. Other Micronesians tend to cluster around University and community college centers in Washington, Oregon, California, and Texas.

Economy

Micronesians in the United States mostly hold low-paying, semi-skilled or unskilled jobs in service industries such as restaurants and hotels, in the construction industry, and in factories. Some have attained middle-level management positions, but very few hold professional jobs, even among the Guamanians who came to the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. Per capita income of Guamanians and other Micronesians in the United States is about 25 percent below the national average, according to 1980 census data. Lack of education and specialized training, recency of migration, and the low median age are the main factors in Micronesians' Marginal integration into the economy. Also, there is no cultural tradition of capital accumulation or mercantile Entrepreneurship in the Micronesian societies, and strong kinship pressure still exists for the sharing and redistribution of resources. Many Micronesians send money and material goods back to relatives at home and help finance the migration and education of other relatives.

Kinship, Marriage and Family

Kinship. Micronesian kinship groups and descent vary from one island society to another, but generally give primacy to the female line. The most important kinship group above the level of the domestic unit is the matrilineage, a group of women closely related through their mothers. Kinship terminology reflects the authority of the female line. Micronesian kinship is complex, however, and relatedness is considered through a wide circle of relatives on both the mother's and the father's sides, as well as through "fictive" or constructed kin relations such as customary adoption of children.

Marriage. Micronesian marriages are monogamous and in general are quite stable after the couple has begun having children. There is no particular preference for ethnic group endogamy, especially among the younger Micronesian college-age migrants to the United States. Micronesian Marriages to White and Latino spouses are fairly common.

Domestic Unit. In Micronesia, the domestic unit has narrowed considerably within the past two generations. Cash economy has replaced much of the subsistence fishing and gardening activities of the past that provided the rationale for larger, extended domestic groups who resided and worked Together and shared subsistence resources. Nevertheless, family structure among Micronesians in the United States is still close-knit and multigenerational. The average number of Persons per household among Guamanian and other Micronesian migrants is significantly higher (3.57 and 3.88, respectively) than the U.S. average (2.74).

Inheritance. Traditional inheritance of family land and group membership in most Micronesian societies is matrilineal, and married couples typically reside on the wife's land. But the succession of foreign colonial administrations in Micronesia—Spain, Germany, Japan, and the United States—has greatly altered the customary patterns of land ownership and inheritance, postmarital residence, and the transmission of surnames. Micronesians in the United States have largely adopted the American legal practice of children carrying their father's surname. Frequently the father's given name becomes the family surname in the United States, a practice foreign to Micronesian custom.

Socialization. Micronesian patterns of socialization are highly indulgent during the early years, and children are trained to be respectful toward older family members and to be sensitive toward harmonious social relationships. Responsibilities for infant and child caretaking frequently fall upon young adolescents, especially girls. This practice of multiple caretakers and early child-care responsibilities among older children may help foster socially affiliative and accommodating behavior among adults. Some high school-aged Guamanian youth have formed Chamorro youth clubs to promote ethnic identification, but generally there is very little formal socialization into the ethnic group among Micronesians in the United States.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social and Political Organization. Primary loyalty and identification traditionally among Micronesians are with Individual islands and villages. State and national allegiance within Micronesia is a recent political concept and is not strongly developed. In the United States, Guamanians have taken the lead in forming community associations, but other Micronesians are not especially well organized at the Community level. There are about a dozen large community organizations of Chamorros in California encompassing Chamorros from San Diego to Sacramento. Annual Chamorro cultural celebrations have recently been organized in Vallejo, and the Chamorro community also shares in the annual celebration of Guam liberation from Japan by U.S. forces following World War II. Some other Micronesian groups have organized community associations in Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast; these often center around a church organization and primarily involve social and recreational activities such as picnics and sports by college-aged individuals and their families. The Marshallese community in Costa Mesa is perhaps the only such Micronesian community association to have received substantial support from its home government and to have constructed a community center building. There is no political association that unifies the various Micronesian groups in the United States. In California, Chamorro Community organizations formed the Federation of Guamanian Associations in 1977, aimed at promoting and supporting Chamorro needs and concerns through community organizations and political action. No such overarching political structure exists for other Micronesian groups in the United States.

Social Control and Conflict. In Micronesian islands, Social control and conflict resolution customarily were in the hands of traditional chiefs and lineage leaders. Formal legal litigation and arbitration of disputes is a rather newly imposed judicial system in Micronesia and is not entirely understood or accepted. In the United States, many Micronesians feel alienated from the political and legal system, preferring to settle disputes in informal ways. Micronesians in the United States seem to be involved in a disproportionate amount of police trouble relating to drunken and disorderly conduct and alcohol-related vehicular accidents. One factor in this pattern of criminal activity is the preponderance of young males in the migrant population. Within many Micronesian islands, the per capita consumption of alcohol is high by world Standards, and roughly 90 percent of arrests and emergency hospitalizations are alcohol-related.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. Guam was invaded and conquered by Spanish soldiers and missionized by Catholic priests Beginning in 1668, making the island the first Pacific outpost of European colonization and religion. All the Chamorro People from Guam and the neighboring islands were forcibly resettled into mission villages. Within the first forty years of Spanish missionization on Guam, the Chamorro people suffered catastrophic depopulation, losing perhaps 90 percent of their population to disease, warfare, and the hardships brought about by resettlement and forced labor on plantations. Protestant and Catholic missions were established elsewhere throughout the Micronesian islands during the mid-1800s, and a similar pattern of depopulation from introduced diseases ensued on Yap, Pohnpei, and other Micronesian Islands. All of the larger islands of Micronesia have been Christianized for at least a century, and in no place was local resistance successfully maintained for very long. Chamorros today are nearly entirely Roman Catholic, while in other areas of Micronesia, Protestants slightly outnumber Catholics. During the past twenty years a number of Christian sects have gained a small foothold, including Baptists, Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists, and Jehovah's Witnesses. In Guam, Catholic beliefs and practices are heavily flavored with elements from Filipino animism and spiritualism, indigenous Chamorro ancestor veneration, and medieval European idolizing of religious icons. Elsewhere in Micronesia, there is a similar syncretic mix of modern Christian theology and practice with indigenous beliefs in animism and many varieties of magic.

Religious Practitioners. Religious leaders in Micronesia command considerable respect in the wider social and Political arena and are frequently called upon as advisers for Government planning and development and as mediators in Political disputes. Although American and other foreign priests and ministers are working in all the larger islands in Micronesia, indigenous religious practitioners are being trained and are assuming leadership of churches throughout the area.

Ceremonies. Micronesians are faithful churchgoers, and in many communities the church functions as a focus of sociability and cohesion. But Chamorros and other Micronesians who have recently immigrated to the United States for educational reasons or to seek a better life are much less dedicated to churchgoing than the earlier immigrants who came for military service. Nevertheless, ceremonial occasions such as weddings, christenings, and funerals play an important role among Micronesians in the United States not only as occasions for religious observance but, more important, as Ceremonies that promote social interdependence and ethnic cohesion. Among Guamanians, one example of this is the prevalent custom of chinchule —giving money, food, or other gifts to a family at weddings, christenings, or deaths to assist the family in meeting the costs of the ceremony or to repay a prior gift. This practice reinforces the socioeconomic indebtedness and reciprocity that permeate Micronesian family relationships.

Arts. In traditional Micronesian societies, arts were closely integrated into functional and subsistence aspects of life, such as house building, weaving of clothing, and construction and embellishment of sailing canoes. There was no class of people who worked solely as specialist craftspersons or artists. Performing arts such as dance were also closely integrated into the agricultural calendar and into the cycle of arrivals and departures of people from their home islands. Among Micronesian immigrants in the United States, there are very few if any professional performers who sustain Micronesian arts, but there are frequent informal presentations of Micronesian singing and dancing at community gatherings and family social events.

Medicine. Medical knowledge traditionally was shared fairly widely in Micronesian communities. Although some individuals could gain a reputation for being especially knowledgeable in administering therapeutic massage, setting bones, practicing midwifery, or preparing herbal remedies, there were no specialist healers who were recognized and supported as such. Both magical and efficacious aspects of medical treatment were often used together and were inseparable in actual practice. Among Micronesians in the United States, there is still frequent resort to non-Western explanations of illness causation and to alternative treatments.

Death and Afterlife. Contemporary Micronesian beliefs about the afterlife are a syncretic mix of Christian and Indigenous ideas. Christian dogma regarding rewards and punishments in the afterlife is more explicitly formulated than indigenous Micronesian notions, but corresponds with and reinforces some indigenous beliefs in spirit worlds beneath the sea and beyond the horizon. Experiences of spirit possession and communication from the dead are rather widely believed and sometimes are given as an explanation for unnatural deaths such as suicide. Funerals are very important not only as occasions for community and family reintegration involving several days of ceremonial feasts and speeches but also as rituals to mark the departure of the dead properly and to put the person's spirit to rest. Among many Micronesians in the United States, great expense is incurred to return the body of the deceased to his or her home island and to provide a proper burial on family land.

Bibliography

Hezel, Francis X., and Michael J. Levin (1987). "Micronesian Emigration: The Brain Drain in Palau, Marshalls, and the Federated States." Journal of the Pacific Society 10:16-34.

Hezel, Francis X., and Michael J. Levin (1990). "Micronesian Emigration: Beyond the Brain Drain." In Migration and development in the South Pacific, edited by John Connell, 42-60. Pacific Research Monograph no. 24. Canberra: National Centre for Development Studies, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University.

Leon Guerrero, Ramon (1972). "An Exploratory Study of Life-Style Adjustments of Guamanians." Master's thesis, San Diego State University.

Levin, Michael J. (1984). "Pacific Islanders in the United States." Paper presented at the conference on Asia-Pacific Immigration to the United States Honolulu: East-West Population Institute.

Munoz, Faye Untalan (1979). "An Exploratory Study of Island Migration: Chamorros of Guam." Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles.

Shimizu, D. (1982). "Mental Health Needs Assessment: The Guamanians in California." Ed.D. diss., University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Underwood, Robert A. (1985). "Excursions into Inauthenticity: The Chamorros of Guam." In Mobility and Identity in the Island Pacific, edited by Murray Chapman and Philip S. Morrison. Special issue of Pacific Viewpoint 26:160-184.

DONALD H. RUBINSTEIN