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There have been Asian writers in Britain for almost as long as there have been Asians in Britain: since the seventeenth century. In the wake of mass migration from the 1950s, however, for the first time there exist in large numbers Asians born in Britain or settled since childhood, and now, as a result, British-born or British-raised Asian authors. This book focuses on the works of fiction produced by British Asians. Its central contention is that British Asian authors, who have emerged only in notable numbers in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, mark the establishment of a definitive genre of British Asian literature deserving recognition in its own right. Throughout the book, the term ‘British-born/raised’ is employed in preference to the terms ‘second generation’ (for those born in Britain) or ‘1.5 generation’ (for those raised in Britain). The book examines the writings of Salman Rushdie and V. S. Naipaul, Hanif Kureishi, Ravinder Randhawa, Atima Srivastava, Nadeem Aslam, Meera Syal, Hari Kunzru, Monica Ali and Suhayl Saadi.

This chapter presents a reading of writer, poet, and performer Anida Yoeu Ali’s epic poem “Visiting Loss” and installation piece “Palimpsest for Generation 1.5.” These two works reproduce a transnational refugee subjectivity formed in the interstices of U.S. foreign policy, Cambodian genocide, Cambodian American remembrance, and juridical activism. The chapter concludes that Cambodian American memories form the foundation for a multivalent archive constitutive of Cambodian history, Khmer/American culture, and U.S. racial politics. From memoir to documentary, from hip-hop to staged performance, Cambodian American cultural producers strategically access legible forms of testimony within the United States to generate both a literal and an imagined space of justice in Cambodia while living in the United States.

This chapter examines variations in diaspora policies across generations and migration status, considering changes in migrants’ precarious status from the perspective of the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program. It focuses on the ways in which the rhetoric and implementation of Mexico’s diaspora programs has adapted focusing on the 1.5 generation, and the ways in which these policies have been challenged by returned migrants. In the context of massive deportations that have coincided with the rise of the Dreamers movement and the implementation of DACA, origin countries’ attempts to engage this group reveal the challenges and contradictions of diaspora policies that offer assistance abroad and expand the concept and practice of extraterritorial membership in specific moments and for particular groups, but have limited resources and opportunities for those same populations upon their return to their country of origin.

This chapter examines two novels by Filipino American writers: Brian Ascalon Roley’s American Son and Han Ong’s Fixer Chao. These novels document the lives of Filipino immigrants facing prejudice, racism, and alienation. They also reveal a number of common negative effects of globalization on young Filipino Americans: the overvalorization of and desire for wealth, First World products, and material goods; overdetermined and unattainable ideals based on Hollywood models of masculinity and beauty; and emotional and psychic transnationalism. The 1.5-generation children who grow up in these situations often resort to violence, fraud, and trickery in order to validate their sense of self, to gain acceptance into the dominant culture, and to obtain what they perceive to be the rewards of those who pursue the American dream.