Chapter Main Points

  • Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are diverse and have brought many different cultural and linguis­tic traditions to the United States. These groups are growing rapidly but are still only a tiny fraction of the total population. Like Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans have a high percentage of first-generation members and are growing more rapidly than the population as a whole.
     
  • Chinese immigrants were the victims of a massive campaign of discrimination and exclusion and responded by constructing enclaves. Chinatowns became highly organized communities, largely run by the local CCBAs and other associations. The second generation faced many barriers to employment in the dominant society, although opportunities increased after World War II.
     
  • Japanese immigration began in the 1890s and stimulated a campaign that attempted to oust the group from agriculture and curtail immigration from Japan. The Issei formed an enclave, but during World War II Japanese Americans were forced into relocation camps, and this experience devastated the group eco­nomically and psychologically.
     
  • Recent immigration from Asia is diverse in terms of national origins, contact situation, levels of human capital, and mode of incorporation into U.S. society. Some immigrants are highly educated professionals, while others more closely resemble the “peasant laborers” who have come from Mexico in recent decades and from Italy, Ireland, Poland, and scores of other nations in the past.
     
  • Overall levels of anti-Asian prejudice and discrimination have probably declined in recent years but remain widespread. A recent survey suggests that people perceive prejudice and discrimination as being less of a problem for Asian Americans than for other racial minority groups. This might reflect “positive” stereotypes of Asian Americans and/or the movement of the group toward “honorary” whiteness.
     
  • Levels of acculturation and secondary structural assimilation are variable. Members of these groups whose families have been in the United States longer tend to be highly acculturated and integrated. 
     
  • Recent immigrants from China, however, are “bipolar.” Many are highly educated and skilled, but a siz­able number are “immigrant laborers” who bring modest educational credentials and are likely to be living in poverty.
     
  • The notion that Asian Americans are a “model minority” is exaggerated, but comparisons with European immigrants and colonized minority groups suggest some of the reasons for the relative “success” of these groups.