Compare the racial and ethnic experiences of Asian Americans in the United States

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The U.S. Census Bureau uses the term Asian Americans to designate the many diverse groups with roots in Asia. Chinese and Japanese immigrants were among the earliest Asian Americans. Today, Asian Americans belong to the fastest-growing minority group in the United States. The initial wave of Chinese immigration occurred between 1850 and 1880, when over 200,000 Chinese men were "pushed" from China by harsh economic conditions and "pulled" to the United States by the promise of gold in C a l i f o r n i a and employment opportunities in the construction of transcontinental railroads. Chinese Americans were subjected to extreme prejudice and stereotypes. Prejudice and discrimination ran high against Asian immigrants, preceeding Congress' passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which brought Chinese immigration to a halt. The Exclusion Act was not repealed until World War II, when Chinese Americans who were contributing to the war effort by working in defense plants pushed for its repeal. After immigration laws were further relaxed in the 1960s, the second and largest wave of Chinese immigration occurred, with immigrants coming primarily from Hong Kong and Taiwan. As a group, Asian Americans have enjoyed considerable upward mobility.

Most of the early Japanese immigrants were men who worked on sugar plantations in the Hawaiian Islands in the 1860s. Japanese Americans experienced one of the most vicious forms of discrimination ever sanctioned by U.S. laws. During World War II, when the United States was at war with Japan, nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps, where they remained for more than two years despite the total lack of evidence that they posed a security threat to this country. Since World War II, many Japanese Americans have been very successful. There have been three waves of Korean American immigration. Korean Americans have helped one another open small businesses by pooling money through the kye—an association that grants members money on a rotating basis to gain access to more capital. Today, Filipino Americans constitute the second-largest category of Asian Americans. Indochinese Americans include people from Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos.