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Asian Americans in the US
Introduction
The modern American world and the traditional Asian American world from which their parents originated are the two worlds that the second-generation Asian Americans bridge. The focus of this paper is on the emergence of the second generation Asian Americans, the tension between the second generation Asian Americans and their first generation parents, ways in which the second generation Asian Americans forged their paths (socially, politically and economically), how the experiences of second-generation Asian Americans were shaped by race and lives of second-generation Asian Americans between 1900-1940s.
The emergence of the second generation Asian Americans
Individuals born in the US whose either mother or father is not a citizen of the US by birth is considered as a second generation American. That implies that a second generation American is a citizen of the US by birth. A unique ethnic identity, which is not yet American and not quite Asian, is what a second-generation Asian American depicts. By the onset of the 20th century, America hosted 120, 248 foreign-born Asian immigrants, the West Coast being their predominant residence. The figure was more than double by 1930. The increase in the population of second-generation Asian Americans is attributed to the growing presence of their parents, who are the first generation immigrants in America. It was more likely for the immigrants (first generation) to have children than the native-born adults.
The tension between the second generation Asian Americans and their first generation parents
The Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S Constitution guarantee U.S citizenship; though, there has been an increase in political debates who motives are geared towards repealing the right, an issue that raises tension between the immigrant generations about which generation will be affected in case the law is amended. Politicians who advocate the motion claim that the right encourages unauthorized immigration into the country. The Amendment XIV to the Constitution of United States was among the Reconstruction Amendments adopted on July 9th 1868. It was proposed following the Civil War in America in response to the issues faced by the former slaves. Equal protection of law and citizenship rights are the concepts addressed by the amendment.
Even though the second generation Asian Americans is different from their first generation parents, they are nearly identical as one. The first generation valued their cultures more and led their families towards upholding their fundamental norms and that is the reason they mainly married one another. On the other hand, the second generations Asian Americans prefer intermarrying with the other ethnicities in the country, including the natives. Also, a greater majority of both the first and the second generation perceive themselves as being better at the same stage of life than their parents.
How the Asian Americans forge their paths The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance saw its enactment on May 1st, 1992 and the founding convention was held in Washington, D.C. The launching of the labor alliance forged a new path in the major fight for justice and equality. Its establishment signaled an era in the campaign to promote the participation of Asian Americans in the labor movement ranks and to organize workers who are of Asian American origin. The Asian Americans had been part of the workforce that forms part of the U.S labor for about one hundred and fifty years; but, 1992 was the year when the initial time when a national Asian Pacific American Labor movement within the ranks of AFL-CIO was founded. The second-generation Asian-Americans make the use of religion in negotiating the American aspect of their identity with their ethnic and foreign aspects of their identity as another way of forging their paths into the American society. Immigrants often use religion as a tool to aid them in assimilating into the U.S culture and also as a means to reinforce their ethnicities because they end up forming social bonds in church when they meet co-ethnics. In this case, the religion is used as a marker of assimilation. The United States population comprises of only 5% of the Asian American population, yet they are highly represented in universities and colleges all over the country; hence, another way through which the Asian Americans forge their paths into the U.S society. They are actively involved in on-campus Christian ministries like the IVCF-Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. Their increased number of enrollment over the past twenty years is attributed to their commitment to achieving academic excellence.
How race shaped the experiences of Asian-Americans The class and racial system stratification that existed in America shaped and determined life chances and multifaceted experiences of second-generation Asian Americans. Even though the second-generation Asian Americans aspired to achieve parity with the dominant group in the U.S society and held firmly to the ideology of assimilation, they still internalized the limitations associated with the obsession and were aware of their inferior racial status. Straight line assimilation theory have it that the likelihood of the second generation immigrants to assimilate into the United States society increases with time when the immigrants are exposed for a longer time to the culture of the mainstream society. Additionally, the Asian Americans are included in debates as the ethnic and racial minority highly represented in universities and colleges since the 1980s; though, they have been used mostly to devaluate or legitimate the experiences of other ethnic and racial groups.
Lives of second-generation Asian Americans between 1900-1940s
Between 1900 and 1940s, Asian Americans were recruited to maintain or build the national infrastructure as contract laborers. They were also employed to assist in domestic tasks, to sustain or develop massive agricultural productions. The Asian Americans who resided in Hawaii and the West Coast States were used to provide services to the American internationalization and expansionism as a cheap source of labor.
On the onset of the great economic depression of the 1920s, the Asian Americans had a rougher experience because they were severely discriminated racially in almost all facets of daily life. That is because the Asian Americans were the first to lose their jobs in both farms and businesses. In the 1920s, Asian immigrants could not marry white people, become citizens or own land.
Conclusion
The process through which the second Asian American generation is assimilated into the U.S society affects their economic, political and social life; thereby, forcing them to develop better ways to assimilate into the society. The outcomes regarding assimilation among the second-generation Asian Americans were rather diverse and not random depending on the interplay between societal factors, community, individual and family. It is predicted by the theory of straight-line assimilation that every succeeding immigrant generation shows a greater rate of assimilating with the mainstream society. Thus, the theory implies that as time passes, second-generation Asian- Americans immigrants get exposed longer to the cultural mainstream of the U.S society thereby, increasing their likelihood of their assimilation into the community.