Posted: November 3rd, 2020

Analysis of Asian American

The United States has become the most diverse society on the face of the earth. For more than a century, most immigrants to the United States were Europeans—Germans, English, Italians, and so forth. However, according to “Globalization and Contemporary Immigration to the United States” by Min Zhou and J. V. Gatewood, “non-European immigration to the United States began in the late 1960s and has accelerated at rapid speeds since the early 1990s after a long hiatus due to restricted immigration. More than one million people a year migrate, mostly from Asia and Latin American- is transforming America into a multicultural society.
At the same time, diversity became a distinguishing characteristic of contemporary Asian American. Cultural, social, economic and geopolitical factors have contributed to the diversity and also has brought new challenges for immigrants and their children to adapt themselves to the new environment. (Min Zhou and J. V. Gatewood) There are four aspects about “the development of a coherent vision for future Asian American” as what Min Zhou and J. V. Gatewood described. Firstly, variously national origins, which make impact on both the immigrant generation and the second and third generation in language and religions. Secondly, socioeconomic diversity brings about different kinds of mobility patterns.
Thirdly, diverse settlement modes influence the development of Asian American community. Finally, “immigration complicates intergenerational relations and ethnic solidarity. ” As what Min Zhou and J. V. Gatewood referred, “the Philippines, China/Taiwan, Korea, India, and Vietnam have been on the list of top-ten sending countries since 1980. Even though there were different kinds of laws to restrict immigration from the “Asian-Pacific triangle”, Asian immigrants found other ways to become eligible citizen. For example, marrying white Americans.

With the development of globe economy, the U. S. immigration policy had been changed. On the one hand, the United States sought cheaper labor and resources abroad to develop the globalization of its economy. “Since the 1980s, about on e-third of the engineers and medical personnel in the U. S. labor market have come from abroad-mostly from India, China, Taiwan and the Philippines. ”( Min Zhou and J. V. Gatewood) Further, more and more Asian study abroad, therefore, many international students, namely, foreign students, had found permanent employment in America so that they could stay here. On the other hand, globalization had played a significant role in immigration. For one thing, developing countries’ economics and occupational structures were interposed by the U. S. investment. The U. S. imported the abroad material and then processed, finally, exported to those developing countries. For another thing, with the increase number of labor demand, rural-urban migration increased rapidly.