Asian Americans have been labeled a “model minority” for their high rates of achievement, and some say they are on their way to becoming “white.” But these expectations can be a burden, and the predictions are surely premature. Even today, many Americans see Asians as “forever foreign.”
References
1.
HortonJohn. The Politics of Diversity: Immigration, Resistance, and Change in Monterey Park, California.Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995. This study of a Chinese immigrant community in an affluent Los Angeles suburb explores how new immigrants confront resistance from more established Anglo, Asian-American and Latino neighbors.
2.
KibriaNazli. Becoming Asian American: Second-Generation Chinese and Korean American Identities.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. This book depicts the challenges of migration and resettlement faced by Vietnamese immigrants in inner-city Philadelphia.
3.
LiuEric. The Accidental Asian.New York: Random House, 1998. This is a thoughtful memoir of a second-generation Chinese American.
4.
LopezDavidEspirituYen. “Panethnicity in the United States: A Theoretical Framework.”Ethnic and Racial Studies13, 2 (1990): 198–224. This article examines how diverse national-origin groups organize as pan-ethnic movements.
5.
TuanMia. Forever Foreign or Honorary White? The Asian Ethnic Experience Today.New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1999. Tuan's account of West Coast Asian Americans reveals the hidden and not-so-hidden injuries of race suffered by the second- and third-generations.
6.
WuFrank. Yellow: Race in America beyond Black and White.New York: Basic Books, 2002. This insightful book explores, among other topics, the model-minority myth and issues of racial diversity.
7.
YuHenry. Thinking Orientals: Migration, Contact, and Exoticism in Modern America.New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Yu details how social scientists at the University of Chicago addressed the “Oriental problem” during the first half of the 20th century.
8.
ZhouMinGatewoodJames V., eds. Contemporary Asian America: A Multidisciplinary Reader.New York: New York University Press, 2000. This collection shows how contemporary immigration from Asia creates issues of identity and assimilation for both native-born and foreign-born Asian Americans.
