Transcript Chinese, Koreans, Japanese Asian Americans

Immigration in America
Songhua Hu
Sociology Department
Stanford University
[email protected]
Part I
Chinese, Koreans, Japanese Asian Americans
Asian American Immigration
Basic Questions:
• What were the immigration experiences of
Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans who first
came to the United States?
• What happens to Asians who immigrate to
the United States?
Why do people immigrate to the United States?
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Involuntary Immigration
– Many African Americans in the U.S. are descendants of forced immigrants
– Slavery
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Voluntary Immigration
– Push Factors
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Political or Religious persecution
Refugees
War
Economic
Environmental
– Pull Factors
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Work
Family
Education
Quality of Life
Asian Immigration History: the Chinese Experience
• Chinese immigration begins mid 1800s
• First to Hawaii, then to California (mostly San Francisco)
• Push factors:
– Many were escaping intense conflict in China:
• British Opium Wars
• Peasant rebellions
• Bloody wars between the Punti (local people) and the Hakkas
(guest people)
Asian Immigration History: the Chinese Experience
• Pull Factors:
– Cheap labor and docile work force
– Economic opportunities
• 1860s, in China a man might earn $3-5/month while
in America he could make $30/month working for
the railroad companies.
Asian Immigration History: the Chinese Experience
• Discrimination from white laborers
• Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882
– Severely limited the number of immigrants from China
– From 1910-1940, Angel Island was used to detain those
who were trying to come the U.S. from China.
• 1924 Immigration Act denies entry to virtually all Asians
Asian Immigration History: the Chinese Experience
Asian Immigration History:
The Japanese and Korean Experience
• Similar stories like Chinese immigration
• Push and pull factors
• Brought in to divide the labor force
Discrimination Against Asians
– 1906: School segregation
– 1913: Denial of right to own land
– 1924: Immigration Act denies entry to virtually all Asians
– World War II: Japanese Internment
• Japanese Internment:
– “all persons of Japanese ancestry” are given 2-5 days
notice to dispose of their homes and property and report
to the “camps”
– Why?
• Japanese Internment:
– “all persons of Japanese ancestry” are given 2-5 days
notice to dispose of their homes and property and report
to the “camps”
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120,000: Japanese Americans detained in the camps
80,000: U.S. citizens
40,000: younger than 19 years of age
$400,000,000 worth of Japanese property lost
• Apology for Internment
– 1987: House of Representatives
– 1988: U.S. Senate
– 1989: President George Bush: Pay $20,000/person to
each survivor of the camps.
Asian Immigration History: Women’s Experience
• Come along with their families
• Brought in for the interests of plantation owners
• “Picture Brides”
Contemporary Asian Immigration
• Importance of the 1965 Immigration Act
– changed the criteria for judging immigration applications.
– National origin was no longer a criterion
– helped many Asian groups enter America
Number of Immigrants
Annual Number of Immigrants
25000
20000
1961-1965
15000
1966-1968
10000
1969-1972
5000
0
China and Hong
Kong
Japan
Origin
Korea
From Chinese, Japanese, Koreans to Asian Americans
• What happens to Chinese, Japanese,
Koreans who have been in the United States
for a long time or their entire lives (second
generation and beyond)?
Melting Pot or Salad Bowl
•Melting Pot (Assimilation)
–Discard old identity
–Adopt American culture, tastes and habits
–No longer feel ethnic or close to immigrant identity
•Salad Bowl (Pluralism)
–Maintain “old” culture and identities
–Share common goals of the nation
Asian American Stereotypes in U.S.
• Asian Males portrayed in U.S. media
– Everybody knows kung-fu
– Everybody is good at math
• Asian Females portrayed in U.S. media
– Submissive and quiet
– Sexually exotic and desirable
Part II
Recent Immigration Debate
Illegal Immigrants in the United States
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11.5
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4
2
0
7.1
1.3
1980s
1990s
2006
How big is the problem?
• About 11.5 million undocumented immigrants in the United States
• Each year some 500,000 to a million more enter the country
• Mostly through the US-Mexico borders
• Many are poorly educated, unskilled workers
• For example, much of California's agriculture relies on migrant labor
Why is it so charged?
• Polls: illegal immigration as a very serious problem
Why is it so charged?
• Polls: illegal immigration as a very serious problem
• Minutemen movement
Minuteman Movement
Why is it so charged?
• Polls: illegal immigration as a very serious problem
• Minutemen Movement
• “Day without Immigrants” protest
“Day without Immigrants”
Mountain View
Stanford
San Jose
What are the key issues?
• The enforcement of the country's land borders
• The reform of existing laws on immigration
• A wall along the border?
• The penalties against businesses employing illegal migrants
• Plans for guest-worker programs
• English as a required language?
The debate
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National security
Taking Americans’ jobs
Punish the employers
Have tried amnesty, but it did not work
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Human rights and civil rights
American dream
Family ties
Be practical
Guest-worker program
Conclusion
• The history of Asian immigration in the USA
• Melting pot or salad bowl
• Immigration debate