filipinos

Maria Violetta Rosario Dananay's happy life in the Philippines comes to an abrupt end when her father elopes with his pregnant mistress and her mother flees to New York.

After learning of her family's illegal immigrant status, Jasmine realizes that college may be impossible and that deportation is a real threat, uncertainties she endures as she falls for the son of a congressman who opposes an immigration reform bill.

An overview of immigration from the Philippines to the United States and Canada since the 1960s, when immigration laws were changed to permit greater numbers of people to enter these countries.