Abstract
Asian Immigration to the United States is a welcoming addition to immigration research and Asian American studies. This is the first book-length study of post-1965 Asian immigration to the United States using a social science perspective. It proposes a novel macro–micro interactive and cumulative causation theory that offers by far the most comprehensive and convincing explanation of Asian immigration to the United States. This theory, which was first published in Journal of Asian American Studies in 2010 and included in this book with minor modifications, also won the Research Paper Award of the Asia and Asian American Section of the American Sociological Association for Yang in 2011. This book comprehensively discusses three themes: causes of Asian immigration, its impacts on American society, and adaptation of new Asian immigrants and their children. Its solid empirical analyses yield a prodigious amount of data largely based on nationally representative samples. The book is thoroughly researched, comprehensive, with high quality and originality in both content and structure. The compiling of INS/USCIS data on Asian immigration is to be applauded, as are the efforts of collecting and presenting a variety of data sources that are largely based on representative samples. These are crucial to the arguments of the book and constitute original analyses. The figures and tables lay out the data well and help readers to comprehend their complexity.
After the preface, the book has a total of seven chapters. Well-suited for the purpose of the book, the Introduction chapter opens up with a series of mini stories that match the three themes of the book: ‘who they are and why they come’, ‘how they have impacted America’, and ‘how they adapt to American life’. The stories range, for example, from a Chinese university professor to an undocumented Chinese immigrant, a transnational migrant raised in both Taiwan and Japan, a Japanese war bride, an Indian IT graduate, a Filipina nurse, a Vietnamese farmer-turned refugee, a Vietnamese auto repair shop owner, a Korean middle-class immigrant, a Korean adoptee, a Pakistani doctor, a Cambodian refugee, a restaurateur from Hong Kong, ‘the King of American ginseng’, and ‘Jenny’ Lang Ping. Such mini-portraits showcase the diverse backgrounds and experiences of post-1965 Asian immigrants and provide vivid illustrations of the points made. This chapter then sets a goal to ‘offer a comprehensive examination of Asian immigration to the United States with an emphasis on the post-1965 period’ (p. 9). It poses three central research questions and presents three central arguments. The explanation of data used, including the 2006–2008 three-year American Community Survey (ACS) data, brings us up-to-date with the most recent available datasets at the time of the publication.
Chapter 2, ‘A theory of Asian immigration’, lays the theoretical underpinning for the explanation of Asian immigration to the United States. It offers a comprehensive review and critique of classical push-pull theory, economic models, sociological models, and integrated theories, and their applicability to Asian immigration. It then presents the author’s new synthetic theory attempting to explain Asian immigration historically and contemporarily. Such theoretical groundings guide the discussion of why Asian immigrants migrate to the US throughout the next two empirical chapters, Chapters 3 and 4, which address pre-1965 and post-1965 Asian immigration to the United States, respectively.
Chapter 3 reviews the histories of Asian immigration in chronological order and by major immigrant groups including the Chinese, the Japanese, Koreans, Asian Indians, and Filipinos, and describes how these Asian groups came and were one by one excluded or restricted from immigration in the pre-1965 era. Chapter 4 documents the sea changes since the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 in immigration policies, trends, settlement patterns, types of immigrants, and most importantly causes of immigration. It also discusses two additional important issues – the transnational connections of, and the undocumented among, Asian immigrants.
Chapter 5, ‘Impacts of Asian immigration on US society’, turns to a seldom systematically discussed topic in the literature – the impacts of Asian immigration. It analyzes how post-1965 Asian immigrants have influenced the shifting demographic profiles, racial and ethnic relations, economic development (labor market and finance), sociocultural and health outcomes, and politics in America. Chapter 6, ‘Adaptation of Asian immigrants and their children’, has its own conceptual underpinnings. It starts off with a critical evaluation of prevalent adaption theories followed by empirical analyses, here again based largely on nationally representative datasets. It examines the cultural assimilation and retention of Asian immigrants and their children in language and religion; their socioeconomic adaptation in terms of educational attainment, occupational profiles, income, entrepreneurship, and poverty; their structural adaptation in terms of residential segregation or integration; their marital assimilation (intermarriage); their identificational adaptation; and their political adaptation in terms of naturalization and political participation rates. The author again convincingly argues how different theories are able or unable to explain the adaptation patterns of Asian immigrants and their offspring. The conclusion (Chapter 7) succinctly revisits the three main themes of the book on the causes of Asian immigration, the impacts of Asian immigration on American society, and the adaptation of Asian immigrants and their offspring. It ends the book with the prediction of some possible future trends in Asian immigration and research directions.
The only major issue I would encourage for further discussion is to more systematically address Asian temporary migration beyond H1-B visa holders. This is because Asians admitted to the US on temporary visas surpass the total numbers of Asian immigrants (including both newly admitted and status adjustment) in many years. They include, but are not limited to, holders of H1-B visas, and student and scholar visas (F-1, J-1, M-1, many of whom stay for a year or longer). They may or may not become immigrants eventually, but are important components of Asian migration in general. Moreover, census data (including the ACS) do include temporary migrants, so analysis based on those data includes these migrants. Although it is impossible to separate them from immigrants in empirical analysis, it would be helpful to conceptually differentiate the two groups, as the trends and profiles, contributions, and adaptation patterns of temporary migrants are often different from those of ‘permanent migrants’, i.e. those ‘legal permanent residents’ or green card holders, and naturalized US citizens.
In short, Asian Immigration to the United States adds sociological analytical vigor to Asian American studies and enhances the Asian American perspective in sociological research on immigration. This book would fit upper division undergraduate courses in Asian American studies, ethnic studies, or immigration nicely. Given its solid theoretical grounding, empirical analyses, and overview of Asian immigration, it would serve well as a main or supplementary reading for graduate seminars as well. It is a great reference for anyone specializing or interested in Asian immigration.