While Miami doesn’t have a significant Asian population, workers from the Philippines flock to the city for contract jobs on the cruise ships. During their two-hour breaks they visit the dozen of Filipino and Southeast Asian businesses scattered around one square block between Flagler Street and NE 1st Street. It’s a little-known micro-neighborhood— a Little Manila— catering to the thousands of Filipino workers who make Miami’s world-famous cruise business run. There they can have authentic Filipino cooking, buy their favorite Filipino snacks to bring onboard, use the WiFi to call home, pick up packages of American goods for their families in the Philippines— and most importantly send remittances home to support their families.
Photos and video by Sydney Walsh / Miami Herald