Takeyuki Tsuda
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813060804
- eISBN:
- 9780813050874
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813060804.003.0011
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter discusses why the American public has a significantly more negative opinion of Mexican immigrants than Asian immigrants. Anti-immigrant sentiment is directed almost exclusively at ...
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This chapter discusses why the American public has a significantly more negative opinion of Mexican immigrants than Asian immigrants. Anti-immigrant sentiment is directed almost exclusively at Mexicans, and Asian immigrants are rarely the target of any public hostility. Mexican immigrants are seen as more disruptive because of their perceived size, their status as predominantly illegal and unskilled immigrant workers, and their apparent unwillingness to assimilate culturally. In contrast, Asians are viewed as a smaller immigrant group that is legal, highly skilled, and better-integrated in American society because of socioeconomic mobility and cultural assimilation. However, the public perception of the disruptive impact of Mexican immigration seems to be exaggerated and Asian immigrants may be more socially and economically disruptive than commonly assumed.Less
This chapter discusses why the American public has a significantly more negative opinion of Mexican immigrants than Asian immigrants. Anti-immigrant sentiment is directed almost exclusively at Mexicans, and Asian immigrants are rarely the target of any public hostility. Mexican immigrants are seen as more disruptive because of their perceived size, their status as predominantly illegal and unskilled immigrant workers, and their apparent unwillingness to assimilate culturally. In contrast, Asians are viewed as a smaller immigrant group that is legal, highly skilled, and better-integrated in American society because of socioeconomic mobility and cultural assimilation. However, the public perception of the disruptive impact of Mexican immigration seems to be exaggerated and Asian immigrants may be more socially and economically disruptive than commonly assumed.
Yen Le Espiritu
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520225619
- eISBN:
- 9780520929869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520225619.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
The chapter serves as an initial attempt to survey the field of modern Asian immigrants, as well as the effects of employment patterns on gender relations. It shows that the development of ...
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The chapter serves as an initial attempt to survey the field of modern Asian immigrants, as well as the effects of employment patterns on gender relations. It shows that the development of female-intensive industries in the United States—and the corresponding preference for female and racialized labor—has improved the employability of some Asian immigrant women and has placed them as the co-providers or primary providers of their families. Based on the provided data, it is suggested that gender relations can be experienced differently in various structural occupational locations. The chapter shows that today's Asian immigrants are composed of not only low-wage service sector workers, but also significant numbers of white-collar professionals. It also takes a look at three occupational categories and the gender issues found within each group: the wage laborers, the salaried professionals, and the self-employed entrepreneurs.Less
The chapter serves as an initial attempt to survey the field of modern Asian immigrants, as well as the effects of employment patterns on gender relations. It shows that the development of female-intensive industries in the United States—and the corresponding preference for female and racialized labor—has improved the employability of some Asian immigrant women and has placed them as the co-providers or primary providers of their families. Based on the provided data, it is suggested that gender relations can be experienced differently in various structural occupational locations. The chapter shows that today's Asian immigrants are composed of not only low-wage service sector workers, but also significant numbers of white-collar professionals. It also takes a look at three occupational categories and the gender issues found within each group: the wage laborers, the salaried professionals, and the self-employed entrepreneurs.
Robert W. Fairlie, Julie Zissimopoulos, and Harry Krashinsky (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226473093
- eISBN:
- 9780226473109
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226473109.003.0007
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, International
This chapter discusses the flow of Asian immigrants to Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, to analyze the selection in with regard to entrepreneurship and success in running the ...
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This chapter discusses the flow of Asian immigrants to Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, to analyze the selection in with regard to entrepreneurship and success in running the business. The microdata from the censuses of the three countries are used to compare differences across the ethnic backgrounds that entrepreneurs come from—in particular, Chinese, Indian, and other Asian immigrant groups. A few striking facts emerge from the research. Asian immigrants to all three countries have education levels that are higher than the national average, and in the United States, the education levels of Asian immigrants are particularly high relative to the entire population. Some of the variation in the education of Asian immigrants across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom is likely to be due to immigration policy. Business ownership rates of Asian immigrants in the United States and Canada are similar to the national average, and in the United Kingdom, they are substantially higher than the national average and the highest among all three countries. Businesses owned by the various immigrant groups are found to concentrate in different industries, which may be related to their relative skills and selection.Less
This chapter discusses the flow of Asian immigrants to Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, to analyze the selection in with regard to entrepreneurship and success in running the business. The microdata from the censuses of the three countries are used to compare differences across the ethnic backgrounds that entrepreneurs come from—in particular, Chinese, Indian, and other Asian immigrant groups. A few striking facts emerge from the research. Asian immigrants to all three countries have education levels that are higher than the national average, and in the United States, the education levels of Asian immigrants are particularly high relative to the entire population. Some of the variation in the education of Asian immigrants across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom is likely to be due to immigration policy. Business ownership rates of Asian immigrants in the United States and Canada are similar to the national average, and in the United Kingdom, they are substantially higher than the national average and the highest among all three countries. Businesses owned by the various immigrant groups are found to concentrate in different industries, which may be related to their relative skills and selection.
Kevin Escudero
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781479803194
- eISBN:
- 9781479877812
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479803194.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter focuses on the case of Asian undocumented youth to explain immigrant youth activists’ efforts to unearth the silenced history of Asian undocumented immigration and to place this history ...
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This chapter focuses on the case of Asian undocumented youth to explain immigrant youth activists’ efforts to unearth the silenced history of Asian undocumented immigration and to place this history in conversation with current immigration debates. As part of these efforts, activists use storytelling strategies to counteract stereotypes of Asian immigrants as solely high-skilled workers and individuals who have come to the United States to attend college, noting that Asians were and continue to be affected by the issue of undocumented immigration. Asian undocumented activists also strategically draw upon their intersectional identities as both Asian and undocumented individuals in Latinx organizing spaces to work alongside members of a group that is largely invoked in the national imaginary in discussions of undocumented immigration. As part of activists’ efforts to push beyond discussions solely of the need for increased representation of Asian and other non-Latinx undocumented activists, this chapter emphasizes the extensive efforts that Asian and Latinx undocumented organizers have undertaken to employ a broad, multiracial approach to framing undocumented identity.Less
This chapter focuses on the case of Asian undocumented youth to explain immigrant youth activists’ efforts to unearth the silenced history of Asian undocumented immigration and to place this history in conversation with current immigration debates. As part of these efforts, activists use storytelling strategies to counteract stereotypes of Asian immigrants as solely high-skilled workers and individuals who have come to the United States to attend college, noting that Asians were and continue to be affected by the issue of undocumented immigration. Asian undocumented activists also strategically draw upon their intersectional identities as both Asian and undocumented individuals in Latinx organizing spaces to work alongside members of a group that is largely invoked in the national imaginary in discussions of undocumented immigration. As part of activists’ efforts to push beyond discussions solely of the need for increased representation of Asian and other non-Latinx undocumented activists, this chapter emphasizes the extensive efforts that Asian and Latinx undocumented organizers have undertaken to employ a broad, multiracial approach to framing undocumented identity.
Madhavi Mallapragada
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252038631
- eISBN:
- 9780252096563
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252038631.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
This chapter explores how desi activism reimagines the Indian immigrant location and seeks to mobilize the politics of citizenship around issues of race and class. Using drumnyc.org, the homepage of ...
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This chapter explores how desi activism reimagines the Indian immigrant location and seeks to mobilize the politics of citizenship around issues of race and class. Using drumnyc.org, the homepage of New York-based organization Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), as a case study, it foregrounds a particular mode of citizenship among South Asian immigrants wherein belonging and rights are negotiated through technologies of race and immigration and through network cultures. The site represents its immigrant members as active political subjects in the U.S. homeland who craft a cultural location for themselves by engaging, resisting, and responding to the disciplinary strategies of the technologized racial state. In doing so, the activists of DRUM reveal how belonging is produced and enacted through the transnational online media and through immigrant, labor, and racial coalitions. Desi is here articulated to labor struggles, racial alliances, and immigrant collectives to produce desi networks as brown, working-class spaces of political leadership.Less
This chapter explores how desi activism reimagines the Indian immigrant location and seeks to mobilize the politics of citizenship around issues of race and class. Using drumnyc.org, the homepage of New York-based organization Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), as a case study, it foregrounds a particular mode of citizenship among South Asian immigrants wherein belonging and rights are negotiated through technologies of race and immigration and through network cultures. The site represents its immigrant members as active political subjects in the U.S. homeland who craft a cultural location for themselves by engaging, resisting, and responding to the disciplinary strategies of the technologized racial state. In doing so, the activists of DRUM reveal how belonging is produced and enacted through the transnational online media and through immigrant, labor, and racial coalitions. Desi is here articulated to labor struggles, racial alliances, and immigrant collectives to produce desi networks as brown, working-class spaces of political leadership.
Willow S. Lung-Amam
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520293892
- eISBN:
- 9780520967229
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520293892.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
This chapter explores why the valley became such an important hub of racial and ethnic diversity, especially among recently arrived Asian immigrants in the latter half of the 20th century and the ...
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This chapter explores why the valley became such an important hub of racial and ethnic diversity, especially among recently arrived Asian immigrants in the latter half of the 20th century and the early 21st century. Beginning with a brief look back at the pathways forged by early Asian American pioneers, the chapter focuses on the sweeping changes that occurred in the region economically, spatially, and socially after World War II. The chapter shows how Asian Americans navigated their new terrain and put down roots in working- and middle-class neighborhoods, in particular underscoring how the Fremont suburb's rapid growth and development were prefaced on the valley's booming innovation economy and Asian Americans' own suburban dreams.Less
This chapter explores why the valley became such an important hub of racial and ethnic diversity, especially among recently arrived Asian immigrants in the latter half of the 20th century and the early 21st century. Beginning with a brief look back at the pathways forged by early Asian American pioneers, the chapter focuses on the sweeping changes that occurred in the region economically, spatially, and socially after World War II. The chapter shows how Asian Americans navigated their new terrain and put down roots in working- and middle-class neighborhoods, in particular underscoring how the Fremont suburb's rapid growth and development were prefaced on the valley's booming innovation economy and Asian Americans' own suburban dreams.
Jennifer Jihye Chun, George Lipsitz, and Young Shin
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037573
- eISBN:
- 9780252094828
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037573.003.0012
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
This chapter examines the role that grassroots organizing and leadership development play in tackling social and economic inequalities along multiple axes of difference, including race, gender, ...
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This chapter examines the role that grassroots organizing and leadership development play in tackling social and economic inequalities along multiple axes of difference, including race, gender, immigration status, and language ability. It locates immigrant women workers at the center of social change by focusing on Asian Immigrant Women Advocates's (AIWA) self-reflexive organizing approach. AIWA is a grassroots community-based organization whose mission is to improve the living and working conditions of Asian immigrant women employed in low-paid and socially devalued jobs. AIWA's English-language dominance workshop embodies many of its core principles and organizing philosophy. The chapter analyzes AIWA's theory and method of change as well as its intersectional organizing approach, with particular emphasis on its English-language classes, workplace literacy classes, and Community Transformational Organizing Strategy (CTOS). It shows that AIWA produces new kinds of politics, polities, and personalities by placing immigrant women workers at the center of the struggle.Less
This chapter examines the role that grassroots organizing and leadership development play in tackling social and economic inequalities along multiple axes of difference, including race, gender, immigration status, and language ability. It locates immigrant women workers at the center of social change by focusing on Asian Immigrant Women Advocates's (AIWA) self-reflexive organizing approach. AIWA is a grassroots community-based organization whose mission is to improve the living and working conditions of Asian immigrant women employed in low-paid and socially devalued jobs. AIWA's English-language dominance workshop embodies many of its core principles and organizing philosophy. The chapter analyzes AIWA's theory and method of change as well as its intersectional organizing approach, with particular emphasis on its English-language classes, workplace literacy classes, and Community Transformational Organizing Strategy (CTOS). It shows that AIWA produces new kinds of politics, polities, and personalities by placing immigrant women workers at the center of the struggle.
Soniya Munshi
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814786437
- eISBN:
- 9780814786451
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814786437.003.0010
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter examines how South Asian immigrants were affected by the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), which significantly increased the number of deportable ...
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This chapter examines how South Asian immigrants were affected by the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), which significantly increased the number of deportable offenses and reduced potential deportees' legal rights, and the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which recognized and institutionalized violence against women as a law enforcement priority in the United States. More specifically, the chapter considers the logics of exceptional violence and of punishment that are deployed in order to produce violence that is legible to the state. It discusses two components of state responses to domestic violence that directly affect South Asian immigrant survivors: the criminalization of domestic violence and the institutionalization of a legally recognized “battered immigrant woman” in VAWA, along with the limitations that transpire for immigrant survivors of domestic violence who are ineligible for membership in this category. It also explores the implications of both state responses for the advocacy work of the South Asian Women's Organization.Less
This chapter examines how South Asian immigrants were affected by the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), which significantly increased the number of deportable offenses and reduced potential deportees' legal rights, and the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which recognized and institutionalized violence against women as a law enforcement priority in the United States. More specifically, the chapter considers the logics of exceptional violence and of punishment that are deployed in order to produce violence that is legible to the state. It discusses two components of state responses to domestic violence that directly affect South Asian immigrant survivors: the criminalization of domestic violence and the institutionalization of a legally recognized “battered immigrant woman” in VAWA, along with the limitations that transpire for immigrant survivors of domestic violence who are ineligible for membership in this category. It also explores the implications of both state responses for the advocacy work of the South Asian Women's Organization.
Aihwa Ong
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520229983
- eISBN:
- 9780520937161
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520229983.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
This introductory chapter is concerned with Asian immigrants, specifically Cambodians, Mien, and Laotians. It first discusses the debate surrounding American citizenship before looking at the various ...
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This introductory chapter is concerned with Asian immigrants, specifically Cambodians, Mien, and Laotians. It first discusses the debate surrounding American citizenship before looking at the various concepts of political identity. This is followed by a section on gender differentiation and racial bipolarism. It then discusses the techniques the text uses to examine citizenship and other techniques for self-making and subject-making. The chapter ends with a section on the transition of the Cambodians from the utopian communism introduced by Pol Pot to the advanced liberalism of the United States. A summary of the other chapters is included.Less
This introductory chapter is concerned with Asian immigrants, specifically Cambodians, Mien, and Laotians. It first discusses the debate surrounding American citizenship before looking at the various concepts of political identity. This is followed by a section on gender differentiation and racial bipolarism. It then discusses the techniques the text uses to examine citizenship and other techniques for self-making and subject-making. The chapter ends with a section on the transition of the Cambodians from the utopian communism introduced by Pol Pot to the advanced liberalism of the United States. A summary of the other chapters is included.
Joshua Takano Chambers-Letson
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814738399
- eISBN:
- 9780814745250
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814738399.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter traces the ways in which Dengue Fever band centralizes the figure of the immigrant in its performance practice, reading the band within the historical and legal context responsible for ...
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This chapter traces the ways in which Dengue Fever band centralizes the figure of the immigrant in its performance practice, reading the band within the historical and legal context responsible for the racialization of Cambodian immigrants and Cambodian Americans. Given that the Asian-immigrant body in the United States is often racialized as an “illegal” national security risk, lead singer Chhom Nimol Chhom's performance of Asian-immigrant subjectivity onstage complicates the racialization of the Cambodian-immigrant body as always already illegal and thus subject to the intrusive and often violent legal regulation of the state. The band performs repurposed scraps of a forgotten past in order to refuse the politics of imperial amnesia that have shaped Cambodian American racialization from the post-Vietnam War era to the present.Less
This chapter traces the ways in which Dengue Fever band centralizes the figure of the immigrant in its performance practice, reading the band within the historical and legal context responsible for the racialization of Cambodian immigrants and Cambodian Americans. Given that the Asian-immigrant body in the United States is often racialized as an “illegal” national security risk, lead singer Chhom Nimol Chhom's performance of Asian-immigrant subjectivity onstage complicates the racialization of the Cambodian-immigrant body as always already illegal and thus subject to the intrusive and often violent legal regulation of the state. The band performs repurposed scraps of a forgotten past in order to refuse the politics of imperial amnesia that have shaped Cambodian American racialization from the post-Vietnam War era to the present.
Amy Brandzel and Jigna Desai
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037832
- eISBN:
- 9780252095955
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037832.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter looks at Seung-Hui Cho and the violence at Virginia Tech to critically interrogate Asian American masculinity and racial formations in relation to contemporary postracial discourses in ...
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This chapter looks at Seung-Hui Cho and the violence at Virginia Tech to critically interrogate Asian American masculinity and racial formations in relation to contemporary postracial discourses in the American South since 9/11. On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho killed thirty-two people on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. The media soon dubbed the event the “deadliest shooting rampage in American history,” and news coverage was inundated with uncovering the “madness at Virginia Tech.” What stood out beyond the numbers of murdered individuals in a “school shooting” was the shooter himself, a Korean American whose identity and location as “alien-other” marked him as always already suspicious, dangerous, and outside. The chapter then analyzes the important ways in which Seung-Hui Cho was simultaneously racially othered as an Asian immigrant alien and whitened as disenfranchised male youth.Less
This chapter looks at Seung-Hui Cho and the violence at Virginia Tech to critically interrogate Asian American masculinity and racial formations in relation to contemporary postracial discourses in the American South since 9/11. On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho killed thirty-two people on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. The media soon dubbed the event the “deadliest shooting rampage in American history,” and news coverage was inundated with uncovering the “madness at Virginia Tech.” What stood out beyond the numbers of murdered individuals in a “school shooting” was the shooter himself, a Korean American whose identity and location as “alien-other” marked him as always already suspicious, dangerous, and outside. The chapter then analyzes the important ways in which Seung-Hui Cho was simultaneously racially othered as an Asian immigrant alien and whitened as disenfranchised male youth.
Pallavi Banerjee
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037573
- eISBN:
- 9780252094828
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037573.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
This chapter examines the paradoxes of patriarchy by drawing on the experiences of South Asian immigrant women in ethnic labor markets. Most South Asian women who work in the South Asian labor market ...
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This chapter examines the paradoxes of patriarchy by drawing on the experiences of South Asian immigrant women in ethnic labor markets. Most South Asian women who work in the South Asian labor market in the United States are engaged in low-wage work within the ethnic labor market, employed by male-owned businesses and with little separation between the private and public spheres. The women and their families often live in same ethnic enclaves where they work. This chapter considers whether South Asian immigrant women's entry into a structurally stratified ethnic labor market creates a paradox in their lives. More specifically, it explores whether employment increases the women's bargaining power within the household and whether the close proximity between work and home facilitates working longer hours for little pay. The chapter reveals the paradoxes of immigration and gendered labor in ethnic enclaves. While the ethnic markets' familial/patrilineal structure creates social capital and a safe space for the South Asian women, it also makes them vulnerable to exploitation in terms of reduced wages and increased work hours.Less
This chapter examines the paradoxes of patriarchy by drawing on the experiences of South Asian immigrant women in ethnic labor markets. Most South Asian women who work in the South Asian labor market in the United States are engaged in low-wage work within the ethnic labor market, employed by male-owned businesses and with little separation between the private and public spheres. The women and their families often live in same ethnic enclaves where they work. This chapter considers whether South Asian immigrant women's entry into a structurally stratified ethnic labor market creates a paradox in their lives. More specifically, it explores whether employment increases the women's bargaining power within the household and whether the close proximity between work and home facilitates working longer hours for little pay. The chapter reveals the paradoxes of immigration and gendered labor in ethnic enclaves. While the ethnic markets' familial/patrilineal structure creates social capital and a safe space for the South Asian women, it also makes them vulnerable to exploitation in terms of reduced wages and increased work hours.
Robert F. Zeidel
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501748318
- eISBN:
- 9781501748332
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501748318.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter examines how numerous companies sought the services of Asian immigrants. Efficiency, availability, and manageability, along with the fact that they would work for lower wages than white ...
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This chapter examines how numerous companies sought the services of Asian immigrants. Efficiency, availability, and manageability, along with the fact that they would work for lower wages than white workers, made the Chinese an appealing source of labor to railroads and other businesses. Yet they remained desirable only so long as they met expectations of compliance and placidity. Employers would no more accept challenges to authority and prerogative from the Asians than they would from members of any other ethnic group. Although the Chinese escaped association with specific radical ideologies, such as anarchism or socialism, managers did not consider their assertions of agency to be any less subversive. Labor radicalism emanating from any source drew censure for being un-American. To some critics, Chinese immigrants lacked the wherewithal ever to become proper Americans. Their place of origin, sociocultural characteristics, and physical appearance engendered intense bigotry. Racially biased perceptions also came to justify animus on the part of other workers, who saw the Chinese as competitors whose low standards of living, greatly inferior to those of American laborers, enabled them to work for significantly lower wages. Enmity ultimately led to statutory discriminations.Less
This chapter examines how numerous companies sought the services of Asian immigrants. Efficiency, availability, and manageability, along with the fact that they would work for lower wages than white workers, made the Chinese an appealing source of labor to railroads and other businesses. Yet they remained desirable only so long as they met expectations of compliance and placidity. Employers would no more accept challenges to authority and prerogative from the Asians than they would from members of any other ethnic group. Although the Chinese escaped association with specific radical ideologies, such as anarchism or socialism, managers did not consider their assertions of agency to be any less subversive. Labor radicalism emanating from any source drew censure for being un-American. To some critics, Chinese immigrants lacked the wherewithal ever to become proper Americans. Their place of origin, sociocultural characteristics, and physical appearance engendered intense bigotry. Racially biased perceptions also came to justify animus on the part of other workers, who saw the Chinese as competitors whose low standards of living, greatly inferior to those of American laborers, enabled them to work for significantly lower wages. Enmity ultimately led to statutory discriminations.
Carolyn Chen and Russell Jeung (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814717356
- eISBN:
- 9780814772898
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814717356.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Over fifty years ago, Will Herberg theorized that future immigrants to the United States would no longer identify themselves through their races or ethnicities, or through the languages and cultures ...
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Over fifty years ago, Will Herberg theorized that future immigrants to the United States would no longer identify themselves through their races or ethnicities, or through the languages and cultures of their home countries. Rather, modern immigrants would base their identities on their religions. The landscape of U.S. immigration has changed dramatically since Herberg first published his theory. Most of today's immigrants are Asian or Latino, and are thus unable to shed their racial and ethnic identities as rapidly as the Europeans about whom Herberg wrote. And rather than a flexible, labor-based economy hungry for more workers, today's immigrants find themselves in a post-industrial segmented economy that allows little in the way of class mobility. This book draws on ethnography and in-depth interviews to examine the experiences of the new second generation: the children of Asian and Latino immigrants. Covering a diversity of second-generation religious communities including Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and Jews, the chapters highlight the ways in which race, ethnicity, and religion intersect for new Americans. As the new second generation of Latinos and Asian Americans comes of age, they will not only shape American race relations, but also the face of American religion.Less
Over fifty years ago, Will Herberg theorized that future immigrants to the United States would no longer identify themselves through their races or ethnicities, or through the languages and cultures of their home countries. Rather, modern immigrants would base their identities on their religions. The landscape of U.S. immigration has changed dramatically since Herberg first published his theory. Most of today's immigrants are Asian or Latino, and are thus unable to shed their racial and ethnic identities as rapidly as the Europeans about whom Herberg wrote. And rather than a flexible, labor-based economy hungry for more workers, today's immigrants find themselves in a post-industrial segmented economy that allows little in the way of class mobility. This book draws on ethnography and in-depth interviews to examine the experiences of the new second generation: the children of Asian and Latino immigrants. Covering a diversity of second-generation religious communities including Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and Jews, the chapters highlight the ways in which race, ethnicity, and religion intersect for new Americans. As the new second generation of Latinos and Asian Americans comes of age, they will not only shape American race relations, but also the face of American religion.
Stephen Hong Sohn
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479800070
- eISBN:
- 9781479800551
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479800070.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This introductory chapter argues that Asian American literature is traditionally understood as a body of texts written in English that depicts a specific social history in which individuals of ...
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This introductory chapter argues that Asian American literature is traditionally understood as a body of texts written in English that depicts a specific social history in which individuals of various ethnicities faced discrimination due to perceptions and laws that designated them as aliens. Common narratives involve the troubling acculturation process of the Asian immigrant; the intergenerational ruptures between Asian immigrant parents and their more Americanized children; and the problems of defining identity when an Asian American travels back to a land of ethnic origin. The book then challenges the tidy links between authorial ancestry and fictional content, and between identity and form, to expand what is typically thought of as Asian American culture and criticism.Less
This introductory chapter argues that Asian American literature is traditionally understood as a body of texts written in English that depicts a specific social history in which individuals of various ethnicities faced discrimination due to perceptions and laws that designated them as aliens. Common narratives involve the troubling acculturation process of the Asian immigrant; the intergenerational ruptures between Asian immigrant parents and their more Americanized children; and the problems of defining identity when an Asian American travels back to a land of ethnic origin. The book then challenges the tidy links between authorial ancestry and fictional content, and between identity and form, to expand what is typically thought of as Asian American culture and criticism.
Maura Toro-Morn, Anna Romina Guevarra, and Nilda Flores-González
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037573
- eISBN:
- 9780252094828
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037573.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
This book explores the labor experiences of immigrant women, primarily Asians and Latinas, engaged in low-wage work in the era of neoliberal globalization. It assesses the impact of neoliberal ...
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This book explores the labor experiences of immigrant women, primarily Asians and Latinas, engaged in low-wage work in the era of neoliberal globalization. It assesses the impact of neoliberal globalization on the economic, political, and social lives of immigrant women both at home and abroad, as well as the strategies used by these women to deal with labor disruptions—interruptions in immigrant women's labor patterns due to the social and political processes resulting from neoliberal globalization. Labor disruptions encompass both “for-pay” labor and gendered labor within the family and occur in ethnic enclaves and within the informal economy. The book seeks to elucidate how Asian and Latina immigrant women, with the assistance of community-based organizations, organize and mobilize against disruptions caused by neoliberal globalization and the neoliberal state. This introduction reflects on the challenges facing future scholars of labor and migration processes.Less
This book explores the labor experiences of immigrant women, primarily Asians and Latinas, engaged in low-wage work in the era of neoliberal globalization. It assesses the impact of neoliberal globalization on the economic, political, and social lives of immigrant women both at home and abroad, as well as the strategies used by these women to deal with labor disruptions—interruptions in immigrant women's labor patterns due to the social and political processes resulting from neoliberal globalization. Labor disruptions encompass both “for-pay” labor and gendered labor within the family and occur in ethnic enclaves and within the informal economy. The book seeks to elucidate how Asian and Latina immigrant women, with the assistance of community-based organizations, organize and mobilize against disruptions caused by neoliberal globalization and the neoliberal state. This introduction reflects on the challenges facing future scholars of labor and migration processes.
erin Khuê Ninh
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814758441
- eISBN:
- 9780814759196
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814758441.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
Anger and bitterness tend to pervade narratives written by second-generation Asian American daughters, despite their largely unremarkable upbringings. This book explores this apparent paradox, ...
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Anger and bitterness tend to pervade narratives written by second-generation Asian American daughters, despite their largely unremarkable upbringings. This book explores this apparent paradox, locating in the origins of these women's maddeningly immaterial suffering not only racial hegemonies but also the structure of the immigrant family itself. It argues that the filial debt of these women both demands and defies repayment—all the better to produce the docile subjects of a model minority. Through readings of Jade Snow Wong's Fifth Chinese Daughter, Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior, Evelyn Lau's Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid, Catherine Liu's Oriental Girls Desire Romance, and other texts, the book offers not an empirical study of intergenerational conflict so much as an explication of the subjection and psyche of the Asian American daughter. It connects common literary tropes to their theoretical underpinnings in power, profit, and subjection. In so doing, literary criticism crosses over into a kind of collective memoir of the Asian immigrants' daughter as an analysis not of the daughter, but for and by her.Less
Anger and bitterness tend to pervade narratives written by second-generation Asian American daughters, despite their largely unremarkable upbringings. This book explores this apparent paradox, locating in the origins of these women's maddeningly immaterial suffering not only racial hegemonies but also the structure of the immigrant family itself. It argues that the filial debt of these women both demands and defies repayment—all the better to produce the docile subjects of a model minority. Through readings of Jade Snow Wong's Fifth Chinese Daughter, Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior, Evelyn Lau's Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid, Catherine Liu's Oriental Girls Desire Romance, and other texts, the book offers not an empirical study of intergenerational conflict so much as an explication of the subjection and psyche of the Asian American daughter. It connects common literary tropes to their theoretical underpinnings in power, profit, and subjection. In so doing, literary criticism crosses over into a kind of collective memoir of the Asian immigrants' daughter as an analysis not of the daughter, but for and by her.
Lon Kurashige
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469629438
- eISBN:
- 9781469629452
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469629438.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to the Immigration Act of 1924 to Japanese American internment during World War II, the United States has a long history of anti-Asian policies. But Lon ...
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From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to the Immigration Act of 1924 to Japanese American internment during World War II, the United States has a long history of anti-Asian policies. But Lon Kurashige demonstrates that despite widespread racism, Asian exclusion was not the product of an on-going national consensus; it was a subject of fierce debate. This book complicates the exclusion story by examining the organized and well-funded opposition to discrimination that involved some of the most powerful public figures in American politics, business, religion, and academia. In recovering this opposition, Kurashige explains the rise and fall of exclusionist policies through an unstable and protracted political rivalry that began in the 1850s with the coming of Asian immigrants, extended to the age of exclusion from the 1880s until the 1960s, and since then shaped the memory of past discrimination. In this first book-length analysis of both sides of the debate, exclusion-era policies are more than just enactments of racism; they are also catalysts for U.S.-Asian cooperation and the basis for the 21st century’s tightly integrated Pacific world.Less
From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to the Immigration Act of 1924 to Japanese American internment during World War II, the United States has a long history of anti-Asian policies. But Lon Kurashige demonstrates that despite widespread racism, Asian exclusion was not the product of an on-going national consensus; it was a subject of fierce debate. This book complicates the exclusion story by examining the organized and well-funded opposition to discrimination that involved some of the most powerful public figures in American politics, business, religion, and academia. In recovering this opposition, Kurashige explains the rise and fall of exclusionist policies through an unstable and protracted political rivalry that began in the 1850s with the coming of Asian immigrants, extended to the age of exclusion from the 1880s until the 1960s, and since then shaped the memory of past discrimination. In this first book-length analysis of both sides of the debate, exclusion-era policies are more than just enactments of racism; they are also catalysts for U.S.-Asian cooperation and the basis for the 21st century’s tightly integrated Pacific world.
Joaquin Jay Gonzalez
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814731963
- eISBN:
- 9780814733257
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814731963.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Filipinos are now the second largest Asian American immigrant group in the United States, with a population larger than Japanese Americans and Korean Americans combined. Surprisingly, there is little ...
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Filipinos are now the second largest Asian American immigrant group in the United States, with a population larger than Japanese Americans and Korean Americans combined. Surprisingly, there is little published on Filipino Americans and their religion, or the ways in which their religious traditions may influence the broader culture in which they are becoming established. This book draws on interviews, survey data, and participant observation to shed light on this large immigrant community. It explores Filipino American religious institutions as essential locations for empowerment and civic engagement, illuminating how Filipino spiritual experiences can offer a lens for viewing this migrant community's social, political, economic, and cultural integration into American life. The book examines Filipino American church involvement and religious practices in the San Francisco Bay Area and in the Philippines, showing how Filipino Americans maintain community and ethnic and religious networks, contra assimilation theory, and how they go about sharing their traditions with the larger society.Less
Filipinos are now the second largest Asian American immigrant group in the United States, with a population larger than Japanese Americans and Korean Americans combined. Surprisingly, there is little published on Filipino Americans and their religion, or the ways in which their religious traditions may influence the broader culture in which they are becoming established. This book draws on interviews, survey data, and participant observation to shed light on this large immigrant community. It explores Filipino American religious institutions as essential locations for empowerment and civic engagement, illuminating how Filipino spiritual experiences can offer a lens for viewing this migrant community's social, political, economic, and cultural integration into American life. The book examines Filipino American church involvement and religious practices in the San Francisco Bay Area and in the Philippines, showing how Filipino Americans maintain community and ethnic and religious networks, contra assimilation theory, and how they go about sharing their traditions with the larger society.
Amy Sueyoshi
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824834975
- eISBN:
- 9780824870683
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824834975.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
In September 1897 Yone Noguchi (1875–1947) contemplated crafting a poem to his new love, western writer Charles Warren Stoddard. He viewed their relationship as doomed by their introverted ...
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In September 1897 Yone Noguchi (1875–1947) contemplated crafting a poem to his new love, western writer Charles Warren Stoddard. He viewed their relationship as doomed by their introverted dispositions and differences in background. While confessing his love to Stoddard, Noguchi had a child with his editor, Léonie Gilmour; became engaged to Ethel Armes; and upon his return to Japan married Matsu Takeda—all within a span of seven years. This book argues that Noguchi was not a dedicated polyamorist: He deliberately deceived the three women, to whom he either pretended or promised marriage while already married. The book asserts further that Noguchi's intimacies point to little-known realities of race and sexuality in turn-of-the-century America and illuminate how Asian immigrants negotiated America's literary and arts community. As Noguchi maneuvered through cultural and linguistic differences, his affairs assert how Japanese in America could forge romantic fulfillment during a period historians describe as one of extreme sexual deprivation and discrimination for Asians, particularly in California. Moreover, Noguchi's relationships reveal how individuals who engaged in seemingly defiant behavior could exist peaceably within prevailing moral mandates. In unveiling Noguchi's interracial and same-sex affairs, this book attests to the complex interaction between lived sexualities and socio-legal mores as it traces how one man negotiated affection across cultural, linguistic, and moral divides to find fulfillment in unconventional yet acceptable ways.Less
In September 1897 Yone Noguchi (1875–1947) contemplated crafting a poem to his new love, western writer Charles Warren Stoddard. He viewed their relationship as doomed by their introverted dispositions and differences in background. While confessing his love to Stoddard, Noguchi had a child with his editor, Léonie Gilmour; became engaged to Ethel Armes; and upon his return to Japan married Matsu Takeda—all within a span of seven years. This book argues that Noguchi was not a dedicated polyamorist: He deliberately deceived the three women, to whom he either pretended or promised marriage while already married. The book asserts further that Noguchi's intimacies point to little-known realities of race and sexuality in turn-of-the-century America and illuminate how Asian immigrants negotiated America's literary and arts community. As Noguchi maneuvered through cultural and linguistic differences, his affairs assert how Japanese in America could forge romantic fulfillment during a period historians describe as one of extreme sexual deprivation and discrimination for Asians, particularly in California. Moreover, Noguchi's relationships reveal how individuals who engaged in seemingly defiant behavior could exist peaceably within prevailing moral mandates. In unveiling Noguchi's interracial and same-sex affairs, this book attests to the complex interaction between lived sexualities and socio-legal mores as it traces how one man negotiated affection across cultural, linguistic, and moral divides to find fulfillment in unconventional yet acceptable ways.