Vagrants and Outcasts

Vagrants and Outcasts: Chinese Laboring Classes, Criminality, and the Spanish Colonial State in the Philippines, 1831-1898 is a detailed history focusing on the working-class Chinese during the nineteenth century. This volume 1 study examines the lives of vagrants and outcasts who were viewed as threats to the stability of the Spanish colonial state.

The text analyzes how specific state policies created precarious conditions for these marginalized groups. It explores how these individuals adapted to their material environments and resisted colonial measures regarding migration, taxation, and registration. This history provides a critical look at the intersection of criminality and colonial governance in the Philippines.