Asian American Assimilation Into American Society

Many new arrivals still struggle to survive and often Chinese Americans still encounter suspicion and hostility. Chinese Americans have achieved great success and now, like so many others, they are stitching together a new American identity. As Michelle Ling, a young Chinese American, tells Bill Moyers in Program 3, “I get to compose my life one piece at a time, however I feel like it. Not to say that it’s not difficult and that there isn’t challenge all the time, but more than material wealth, you get to choose what you are, who you are.” (www.pbs.org)

Asian Americans are a diverse group of people who are among the fastest growing minority groups in the United States. Despite their minority status, they often surpass Whites in America and do so while holding on to their cultural values regarding family, education, and success.

In this essay, I attempted to lay bare the issues of being an Asian-American and being labeled as an ethnic “other” in modern America. This label of “other” causes them to become marginalized and lose their sense of identity, belonging neither to Western culture nor Eastern culture. In order help stop this loss of identity in Asian-Americans, we must tear down the social construct of the “other” and integrate the different cultures into the melting pot of popular culture. Once we have stopped alienating different cultures, we can then have a moral society that upholds diversity and identity.

It is expected that ultimately there will be a loss of ethnic distinctiveness for immigrants in the U.S., meaning the lack of attachment to the country of origin. (Golash-Boza, 2006) It is argued that all ethnic distinctiveness will no longer exist by the seventh or eighth generations. Before exploring the influence of foreign born vs. U.S. born parents on their children’s cultural assimilation; the different theories of assimilation will be explored. The idea of Assimilation came about in the early 20th century. (Golash-Boza, 2006) Assimilation is surrounded by two theories, the first that all immigrants will assimilate sooner or later and that the generational status of the individual is one of the main factors in determining the

When they arrived in America most of the Chinese immigrants moved west. Most of the Chinese immigrants moved west because they wanted to get jobs in rural areas and build homes for their families. A lot of Chinese immigrants got jobs working on building railroads. The Chinese immigrants were very good at this job, because they got paid very low wages, and that affected the pay rates of white Americans, European immigrants, and Russian immigrants. In the 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. This act stated that Chinese laborers could not enter the country, because chinese immigrants accepted low wages, and also affected the pay rates of others. However Immigrants from Italy and Russia did not have to go through this. They also had an easier time getting jobs because of

In the 1800s, after the Civil War (1861 to 1865), massive waves of new settlers migrated to the United States. May these were Chinese immigrants who sought to take advantage of the Gold Rush in California. Most of them were men, without family. Between that time, hundreds and hundreds of Chinese immigrants arrived, mostly in San Francisco, where they established a place called “Chinatown.” Establishing the place helped encouraged around four thousand Chinese women per year to immigrate to the United States, to be with their husband or father, helping Chinamen managing household. The gold attracted so many immigrants to California, and the desired for wealth attracted Southerners, who brought with them their racial attitude from the south. Work was well paying; a prejudice against Chinese was born. Hate and violence accompanied the competence against Chinese; and brutality against

The Asian American population is a major facet of American life; beginning their lives as immigrants they have worked their way to become integral members of society. In 2010 there were 14.7 million Asian Americans living in the United States and in 2011 that number increased to 18.2 million.1 Culturally, Asian American people have traditions and beliefs that contradict those of the Western world.2 “Culture molds people’s values, attitudes, and beliefs; influences their perceptions of self and others; and determines the way they experience their environment.”10 As a result there are certain barriers that exist when communicating with Asian Americans due to their cultural background. Additionally, Asians living in America suffer from the Model Minority Myth, which typecasts these people as being financially and educationally well off in comparison to other ethnic groups.2 Due to this Asian Americans aren’t considered more at risk for many health risks compared to other ethnicities; cultural and physical barriers act as a hindrance to Asian Americans receiving healthcare services, primarily mental health related services.

For immigrants in America, two radically different choices of culture exist. First, the immigrants can choose to stay loyal to their ancestral roots and deny mainstream culture. Instead of contributing to the melting pot of opinions present they isolate within themselves by refusing to learn both the English language and American culture as a whole. Because they cannot communicate with a majority of the population, they don’t maintain any amount of control over American ideals including both politically and socially. The second opportunity available would be to embrace this new found culture, no matter how foreign it is to them, and develop a sense of unity with America. If immigrants wish to break the currently controlled system of power and privilege in America and truly become a part of American customs, they must learn to assimilate culturally.

In the early 1800’s industrialization of the northeast and other national endeavors such as railroads and road building required much manual labor. This vast manual labor job market opened the flood gates into the United States for immigrants seeking prosperity and a better life for themselves and their families. By the mid 1800’s many Chinese immigrants had made the voyage to the U.S. and sought work mainly in the factories of the prosperous northeast as well as the California gold mines. Culturally the Chinese people’s actions are motivated by the concept of bringing honor and respect to the family as a whole, and less concerned about individual successes or prestige, which resulted in Chinese immigrant’s willingness to do high quality work for long hours for very little pay. This was beneficial to the employer and company, but displaced many other immigrant workers which caused racial tensions. Chinese immigrants were accustomed to living in tight quarters, working together as families or community units and making do with what was available. These qualities assisted in the development of China Towns, housing and cultural centers for the Chinese immigrant population, near or in the large cities where their populations were greatest such as New York and San Francisco as. Many Americans viewed these China Towns as unsanitary and unhealthy brothels where prostitution and smoking opium was commonplace.

Chinese immigrants during the 1800s was a vital contributor to the success of the Central Pacific transcontinental railroad. The railroad would not be such a big accomplishment for its size and time it took to complete, if not from the contribution of foreign labor, in this case Chinese. While the importance of foreign labor is very evident from the creation of the transcontinental railroads, the Chinese workers life while in the United States during this time did not illustration that. The life of the average Chinese workers saw an increased discrimination, compared to their counter parts. This is demonstrated by lower wages, harder living conditions, and various laws passed by the United States government till about the mid-1900s.

In the essay “Growing Up Asian in America” by Kesaya E. Noda the reader learns of the author’s past experiences and how it helps her discover her identity and why it’s important. Noda discovers what it is to be racially Japanese, Japanese American, and Japanese American woman. Found in lines 53-79 Noda tells the story of her visit to Japan where she fully discovers her Japanese identity. Kesaya sees her aunt kneel at the foot of stone stairs as she can not climb the stairs to offer her morning prayer. This reminds Noda of her grandmother’s daily prayer, but up until this moment Noda has never truly understood how significant this was to her grandmother.

The Fillmore district of San Francisco experienced a ‘visible revolution’. Japanese shops are taken over by African-American businessmen and the Asian population declined.

Immigration of Chinese into the United States began around the same time as the California gold rush in 1849. The gold rush caused thousands of Chinese men to flock to San Francisco where they expected to work and dig gold and return to China as “rich” men. Chinese were responsible for much of the construction of the Western railroads in the United States and Canada. Even with them doing work for the country, the white race saw them as inferior

Places such as Chinatown and the Little Manila are homes of which Asian immigrants find refuge from the predominant white areas and despite the separation, they are vulnerable to harassment. While the Little Manila lacked permanent residents and a community that a stable population that would be tailored to their work patterns, the community was created to be an accomplished and functioning center (Sasaki, Week 8). The Little Manila in Stockton was referred to the only place that homed and welcomed the people of the oriental quarter and that the neighborhood was extremely diverse, but from outside most whites would generalized the area as Chinatown (Little Manila:

Chinese immigrants were one of the ethnic groups strongly targeted by the United States government. The first stream of Chinese immigrants came to United States during the California Gold Rush in the mid-nineteenth century. In the next few years after the California Gold Rush, many of the Chinese immigrants were recruited to build different portions of the transcontinental railroad. From the time they arrived and over the following couple decades, these Chinese immigrants worked at many different positions such as railroad workers, domestic servants, miner and other occupations that were often shunned by whites. Their work greatly contributed to the American expansion. The Chinese population rose dramatically during this