Ethnic Studies Asian Americans

UNIT THREE: ASIAN AMERICANS ASIAN INDIANS ● The second-largest Asian American group (after Chinese Americans) is composed of immigrants from India and their descendants ○ about 2.8 million in America ● Sometimes immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka are also included in this group. IMMIGRATION ● Like several other Asian immigrant groups, Asian Indians (or East Indians) are immigrants. ● Roughly 17,000 total came in between 1820 to 1965, with the majority of those arriving before 1917. ● Immigration laws gave priority to those who tended to be more skilled, so the Asian Indians arriving in the 1960s through the 1980s usually were more educated and spoke English ○ More than twice the proportion of Asian Indians aged 25 and older had a college degree, compared with the general population. ● More recent immigrants aren't speaking English as well, and the training they have tends to be less easily adapted to the U.S. workplace. ○ More likely to work in service industries, alongside their members from their extended families THE CURRENT PICTURE ● With more than 1.2 billion people in 2011, India will be the most populous nation in the world by 2025. ● Hindus are the majority in India and also among the immigrants to the United States, but significant religious minorities include Sikhs, Muslims, Jains, and Zoroastrians. ○ religious orthodoxy often among immigrants that it is in India ● Older immigrants see challenges not only from U.S. culture but also from pop culture from India, which is shown through movies and magazines. ● One of the major challenges for Asian Indians immigrating to the United States is maintaining their traditions in their household amongst their family. ○ Parents are concerned about how the traditional familial authority among the desi might change over time ■ Desi is a general name for people who trace their ancestry to South Asia, especially India. ● An example of a cultural practice that is practiced overseas but not as practiced or observed in American pop culture are arranged marriages. ○ An arranged marriage is when others choose the bride and groom, not based on any preexisting attraction between the two ○ Like other immigrant groups, Asian Indians, to a certain degree maintain their cultural traditions. FILIPINO AMERICANS ● Filipinos are the third-largest Asian American group in the United States, with 2.5 million people ● Social science literature considers them Asians for geographic reasons ○ physically and culturally, they also reflect centuries of Spanish colonial rule and the U.S. colonial and imperialist governments. IMMIGRATION PATTERNS ● Immigration from the Philippines has been documented since the eighteenth century; it was relatively small but significant enough to create a “Manila Village” along the Louisiana coast around 1750. ● Increasing numbers of Filipino immigrants came as American nationals when, in 1899, the United States took the Philippine Islands at the end of the Spanish–American War. ○ In 1934, the islands gained their commonwealth status. ○ The Philippines gained their independence in 1948 ■ but, with their independence they lost their immigration rights, which were unrestricted, to the United States. ● Immigration was sharply restricted to only 50-100 people annually until the 1965 Immigration Act lifted these restrictions ● The immigration of the Filipino people can be divided into four distinct periods: ○ The first generation, which immigrated in the 1920s, was mostly male and employed in agricultural labor (meaning farming) ○ A second group, which also arrived in the early twentieth century, immigrated to Hawaii to serve as contract workers on Hawaii’s sugar plantations. ○ The third group are post–World War II arrivals which included many war veterans and wives of United States soldiers. ○ The newest immigrants, who include many professionals (physicians, nurses, and others), arrived under the 1965 Immigration Act. ● As in other Asian groups, the people are diverse. ○ Filipinos can also be defined by various states of immigration (different languages, regions of origin, and religions) and different distinctions that differentiate people ● The Filipino population increased significantly when restrictions on immigration were relieved in 1965. ● More than two-thirds of the new arrivals qualified for entry as professional and technical worker ○ but like Koreans, they have often worked at jobs they were overqualified for, and they ranked lower than those they left in the Philippines. ● An important part of the immigration era from the Philippines includes a more professional educated class in the area of health professionals. ○ Despite the positive benefits that have arisen, this has long been a brain drain on the medical establishment of the Philippines. ● Despite their numbers, no significant single national Filipino social organization has formed for several reasons. ○ Filipinos’ have a strong sense of loyalty to family (sa pamilya) and church, particularly Roman Catholicism ○ This takes up enough of their time that results in not many being able to form a single Filipino organization ○ Their broad diversity also makes forming ties problematic. ● Although Filipinos have organized many groups, their relations tend to be similar to a club KOREAN AMERICANS ● The population of Korean Americans, with more than 1.4 million, is now the fifth-largest Asian American group ○ yet Korean Americans often are overlooked in studies in favor of groups such as Chinese Americans and Japanese Americans, who have a longer historical tradition in the United States. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ● Today’s Korean American community is the result of three waves of immigration. ○ The initial wave of a little more than 7,000 immigrants came to the United States between 1903 and 1910, when laborers migrated to Hawaii. ○ The second wave took place during and after the Korean War, accounting for about 14,000 immigrants from 1951 through 1964. ○ The third wave was initiated by the passage of the 1965 Immigration Act, which made it much easier for Koreans to immigrate. ■ This third wave, which continues today, reflects the admission priorities set up in the 1965 immigration law. ● Korean American immigrants who arrived with their families and parents to the US when they were younger now are in a middle, marginal position between the cultures of Korea and the United States. ○ They have also been called the ilchomose, or the “1.5 generation.” CURRENT PICTURE ● Young Korean Americans of today face cultural conflicts that are common to any initial generation born in a new country. ○ It is very difficult to maintain a sense of Korean culture in the United States ■ the host society is not particularly helpful. ● Korean Americans face many problems typical for immigrants, such as difficulties with language. ○ The Korean immigrants’ high level of education helps them cope with the challenge. ● Korean American women commonly participate in the labor force, as do many other Asian American women. ○ About 60 percent of U.S.-born Korean American women and half the women born abroad work in the labor force. ● ● ● ● ● ● ○ Many Korean American men usually start small service or retail businesses and then gradually begin to involve their wives in the business. Under economic pressure, Korean American women must move away from traditional cultural roles. Korean American businesses are seldom major operations; most are small. They do benefit from a special form of development capital (or cash) used to subsidize businesses, called a key. ○ Korean Americans pool their money through the key, an association that grants members money on a rotating basis to allow them to gain access to additional capital. ○ Keys depend on trust and are not protected by laws or insurance, as opposed to bank loans In the early 1990s, nationwide attention was given to the friction between Korean Americans and other subordinate groups, primarily African Americans and Hispanics. ○ Such friction is not new; earlier generations of Jewish, Italian, and Arab merchants encountered similar hostility from what to outsiders seems an unlikely source—another oppressed subordinate group. Among Korean Americans the church is the most visible organization holding the group together. Half the immigrants were affiliated with Christian churches before immigrating.