Asian Pacific Americans ( Apa )

For millions of immigrants, America has been seen as the land of opportunity where anyone could become anything he or she wanted to be. A family that believes strongly in the American dream can be found in Amy Tan’s short story, “Two Kinds.” The story centers around the daughter of a Chinese immigrant who desperately wants her daughter to become successful. In the story, the author shows the difficult lives immigrants face when moving to a new culture. In this short story, the theme shows the protagonist’s conflict with her mother on the type of daughter her mother wants her to be. The author establishes the theme of how difficult mother-daughter relationships can be through characterization, setting, and symbolism.

For many immigrants the journey of assimilation in the end has always bared the fruit of a better life. Yang and her family are a perfect example of that. “The Latehomecomer” is a memoir, that focuses on the journey of a Hmong family from Laos that flees the aftermath of the secret war, Yang, the author elegantly composes a commentary on immigrants assimilating to American society through the literary devices of irony and imagery as her family strives to become Hmong American.

Asians are one of fastest growing minority groups in America today. During this century, various factors at home and abroad have caused people from Asia to immigrate to the United States for better or for worse. Due to these factors, Americans and American teachers, in particular, need to educate themselves and become aware of the Asian American students’ needs in terms of success and happiness. Before beginning my research, I felt I had an easy subject: studying Asian Americans in relation to their education in public schools. How simple! Everyone knows they are smart, hard working, driven to succeed in spite of their nerdish, geeky, non-athletic, broken-English stereotype. Of course they are

Over the past thousand years or so, many immigrants have had countless complications and obstacles while finding their home here in the United States. Migrants tended to have a stigma or stereotype associated with their race, class, or culture. In no way did the United States make it “easy” or “free” whenever the mass of people came to the country. The experiences between the immigration groups of the Chinese, Irish, and Germans over the years show that they have overcome prejudice through their work.

The ‘Joy Luck Club’ was formed by four Chinese women who moved to the US in an effort to follow the American dream just like many others. Every week they met to play mahjong and tell stories to one another. What sets these women apart from the typical immigration story, is that each of them went through agonizing experiences before moving to the US. Because of their past they all wish to raise their children without the mistakes and faults that they committed, but history inevitably repeats itself through their daughters. The mothers’ experiences have a common theme of peril and portrayal as victims and finally success because their daughters are happy with their lives.

The pain and the suffering, the oppression, and the exclusion all describe the history of Asia America. When they arrived to the United States, they become labeled as Asians. These Asians come from Japan, China, Korea, Laos, Thailand, and many other diverse countries in the Eastern hemisphere. These people wanted to escape from their impoverished lives as the West continued to infiltrate their motherland. They saw America as the promise land filled with opportunity to succeed in life. Yet due to the discrimination placed from society and continual unfair

The United States of America is the place of opportunity and fortune. “Many immigrants hoped to achieve this in the United States and similar to other immigrants many people from the Asian Pacific region hoped to make their fortune. They had it in their minds to either return to their homelands or build a home in their new country (Spring, 2013).” For this reason, life became very complicated for these people. They faced many challenges in this new country, such as: classifying them in terms of race and ethnicity, denying them the right to become naturalized citizens, and rejecting them the right for equal educational opportunities within the school systems. “This combination of racism and economic exploitation resulted in the educational policies to deny Asians schooling or to provide segregated schooling (Spring, 2013).”This was not the country of opportunity and fortune as many believed. It was the country of struggle and hardship. Therefore, like many other immigrants, they had the determination to overcome these obstacles that they faced to prove that the United States was their home too.

Ever since the end of the Vietnam War; Vietnamese immigrants have become the sixth largest immigrant group coming into the United States. Due to factors such as persecution, and government upheaval during the mid-1970’s to the late 1990’s. With three major waves of refugees or immigrants comprise the majority of those coming into the country. With a small, steady flow between each major wave. Even though the first group did have advantages that other immigrant group would not have, they would still struggle to be accepted within the United States. The second group would face an even more difficult time assimilating into the United States. They would consist of refugees that had very little resources compared to the first wave. They did not have access to the same levels of education, or were capable of speaking English like the first wave of immigrants. The third wave would still face difficulties, but had more resources when they arrived in the United States. Many of the immigrants of the third wave consisted of family members of people already here in the United States. They had access to a support system, unlike those that were part of the second wave. Even though they have become part of society, they still face adversity like many other immigrant groups.

Asian Americans have been migrating to the United States since the 1850’s. The Chinese came over first and decades later, the Japanese, Koreans, and Filipinos followed. All of these Asian American populations faced discrimination, racial hostility, inequality, deportation, and possible death. They paved the way for other Asian American populations wanting to make better lives for themselves and for their families.

Asian-American students from widely divergent backgrounds have tended to be grouped together under the “model minority” stereotype. In result, a misconception that Asian students are conscientious, brainy and successful made teachers became in unattentive to those Asian-Americans who we may label them as unsuccessful groups.

Asian/Pacific Americans are viewed as more successful than other minority groups. This has specifically cause problems for them which are called intergroup hostilities and other phrases.

For millions of immigrants, America has been seen as the land of opportunity where anyone could become anything he or she wanted to be. A family that believes strongly in the American dream can be found in Amy Tan’s short story, “Two Kinds.” The story centers around the daughter of a Chinese immigrant who desperately wants her daughter to become successful. In the story, the author shows the difficult lives immigrants face when moving to a new culture. In this short story, the theme shows the protagonist’s conflict with her mother on the type of daughter her mother wants her to be. The author establishes the theme of how difficult mother-daughter relationships can be through characterization, setting, and symbolism.

In "A Struggle To Be An All-American Girl," Elizabeth Wong describes the difficulty of assimilating into American culture. From a young age, Wong always enjoyed reading English books, eating tacos, and celebrating Cinco de Mayo, but her mother restricted this enjoyment. Her Chinese Mother wanted to be in tuned with her background. Although Wong separates herself from China, this essay is significant because immigrant teenagers have trouble with self-worth and racial profiling.

The reality of Asian and Pacific Islander communities is contradictory compared to the Idealized one put upon by American expectations. The model minority myth is the unrealistic perception of how Asian and Pacific Islander communities expected behavior and status, as the successfully assimilated group that other minority groups should emulate with no communal problems. The reality is much different than the expectations as Asian communities encompass a wide range of countries, and backgrounds, no singular group is the same as they are often depicted or at worst stereotyped. The struggles of refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia are much different than those of Chinese and Japanese that may have been American citizens for generations. The status of Asian Immigrants and the issue of mixed-race children are also different than what the American perception of Asians as an identity. Asian and Pacific Islander were not always peaceful and accepting about their situation, they fought and struggled to have the same rights as citizens like other minority groups and fought alongside them. The identity of Asian and Pacific Islanders is not just a model minority who is always complacent about their situation, they have a complex history with diverse ideologies and status with numerous communities of distinct people.

During the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century, many Chinese and Japanese people immigrated to the United States, specifically to the West Coast, under the belief that they would be not only be welcomed and accepted but that they would also be able to start fresh with their lives and become successful. However, once they arrived on the coast, they experienced intense inhospitality, mistreatment, and great hardships. Many of them felt that they were misled by the United States promoting friendship and welcoming arms as well as claiming that all American citizens and immigrants alike could achieve the great “American Dream” with a little work.