Model Minority Myth

After civil war had settled down, many immigrants came to America to live from many countries such as Germany, Ireland, and England. There are as many as 12 million immigrants at this time. Regarding Chinese immigration, they immigrated to the United States from 1849 to 1882. Between this period, America had California Gold Rush, which is one of the reasons Chinese people immigrated. Because the Chinese Exclusion Act was taken into practice, no more Chinese people could immigrate to the United States after 1882. Chinese immigration is the divergent point for Chinese’ lives who lived in America.

Among the stereotypes of Asian Americans, the myth of the Model Minority and Panethnic Identity are among the easiest to attribute to Asian Americans. What exactly are these stereotypes? How did they come about? Whose responsible for perpetuating these terms? And what harm are they are they doing to Asian Americans anyway?

When they arrived in America most of the Chinese immigrants moved west. Most of the Chinese immigrants moved west because they wanted to get jobs in rural areas and build homes for their families. A lot of Chinese immigrants got jobs working on building railroads. The Chinese immigrants were very good at this job, because they got paid very low wages, and that affected the pay rates of white Americans, European immigrants, and Russian immigrants. In the 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. This act stated that Chinese laborers could not enter the country, because chinese immigrants accepted low wages, and also affected the pay rates of others. However Immigrants from Italy and Russia did not have to go through this. They also had an easier time getting jobs because of

Before World-War II, the Chinese immigrants to the U.S had many characteristics. First, the Chinese immigrants mainly came from mainland China, such as the Guangdong province. The Chinese immigrants mainly came from the Guangdong province of China because of the location of Guangdong province. The Guangdong province was close to coastal areas where Guangong people could take the boasts and migrate to America. Also, Guangdong people was far away from the Chinese government's control. Therefore, Chinese immigrants could easily migrated from the Guangdong province of China to America. Second, most of the Chinese immigrants were poor and came from rural areas in China. They migrated to America because they suffered from poor harvests and

The motivations for the Chinese to come to the United States are similar to most immigrants. These motivations are what most people call "The American Dream." These could be looking for a better life, having a better job, running away from political issues. However, for Chinese these American dreams were not too easy to achieve at first compared to other immigrants. Chinese suffered a lot more obstacles and discriminations because they are relatively small and easy to be targeted on. Even more the legal system passed a law in 1963 forbidding Chinese to testify against white men in court. This anti-Chinese action was most critical in the Pacific Coast; as a result, it caused the dispersion of Chinese that had settled in California to the

Chinese coming raised issues of social and cultural diversity, discrimination, and national identity when migrating to the United States Relocate to the west- People moved for the availability of land. Americans sought the cheap land that would afford them economic independence. America’s growing industry-

There was not a lot of Chinese in the United States until around the California Gold rush in 1849, many entrepreneurs trying to make it rich. In the 1860s a pushback was sparked by political parties of labor groups like the Knights of Labor who wanted to protect American jobs because in their perspective, they couldn’t compete with the cheap labor source of immigrants. These political labor groups emphasized the feeling that the Chinese didn’t belong, shortly after massacres began to occur. California tried to band Chinese immigrants in 1858; however, that power was way above the states, thus resulting in failure. Again by 1878, there was enough people in congress to pass the Chinese exclusion Act; however, a man named Rutherford B Hayes had strong ties to the Republican party and other interests that he vetoes the bill, and once again the efforts to ban Chinese ends in failure.

While thousands of European immigrants came into the United States on the East Coast, Chinese immigrants arrived on the West coast in smaller numbers. Approximately 200,00 Chinese immigrants arrived between 1851-1883. Beginning in 1910, Chinese immigrants entered the United States through the Angel Island Immigration Station, where they might be detained in barracks for weeks or months. Pull factors for Chinese immigrants included the California Gold Rush in 1848 and jobs working on the construction of the transcontinental railroad (1862-1869) and other railroads in the West. In the later years of this wave of immigration, Chinese immigrants worked as “stoop laborers” in farming, mining and also domestic service such as laundering. Friction

The first sight of Chinese immigrants came in 1848 on the coast of California. These immigrants came left all they knew back in the Guandong Providence in search of a more prosperous American future. Overpopulation mixed with economic and political crisis were the defining factors for their departure. During 1815-1855 on the entire opposite side of America, Irish immigrants were landing in Boston and New York. Their appearance in America can be divided through the time period in which they came. 1815-1844 Irish immigrants left their native island due to British encroachment, cruel landlords, as well as a explosive population growth from around four million to nine million. Yet, from 1845-1855 a majority of Irish immigrants left due to a fungal infection that wiped out the primary crop in Ireland, the Potato. While the Irish and Chinese had their separate reasons for leaving their original domicile, they ended in the same country facing the same racial

Early Chinese immigrants became laborers in mines and railroads. Due to many chinese immigrants taking jobs, there was a backlash in the 1870s against Chinese immigrants in the work force. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, which excluded Chinese laborers from entering the country barred all immigrants of Chinese descent from obtaining citizenship. Chinatowns were immigrant neighborhoods, where the old country still lives inside the new one. “As the American economy weakened, the Chinese labor force became a threat to mainstream society”(Chinatown Resource guide).

After the first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived in the United States in the early 1840s during the California Gold Rush, many Chinese people continued to travel across the Pacific, escaping poor conditions in China with hopes and ambitions for a better life in America. Many more Chinese immigrants began arriving into the 1860s on the Pacific coast for work in other areas such as the railroad industry. The immigrants noticed an increasing demand for their labor because of their readiness to work for low wages. Many of those who arrived did not plan to stay long, and therefore there was no push for their naturalization. The immigrants left a country with thousands of years of a “decaying feudal system,” corruption, a growing

Statistics that support this model minority theory can be found in many areas, the first being education. Fifty percent of Asian Americans 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree compared to twenty-nine percent of the white population. Many studies have used standardized tests and school records, such as SAT, GPA, and other measures to compare the academic performance of Asian American students with non-Asian American students. Several studies have indicated that the outstanding academic performance of Asian students might be attributed to their cultural and family values. Another area of model minority success is found in the professional workforce. Asian Americans as a group work in the same place of employment as whites. This alone suggests that they have succeeded. A high percent of Asians are found at the top of professional and managerial positions. This success in the workforce has also lead Asians to hold one of the highest income figures per family by race. On the other hand, the model minority label is also seen as a myth. This label suggests that Asian Americans conform to the norms of society, do well in school and careers, are hardworking and self-sufficient. It follows that Asian Americans are a model for all groups, especially other minority groups. However, a closer look uncovers

In 1882, Congress made considerably stronger move in the Chinese Exclusion Act, the country's first supremacist, prohibitive movement law. The Act suspended all movement of Chinese workers for ten years and precluded any court to concede Chinese individuals for citizenship. What brought the Chinese to America in any case? Likewise with numerous migrant gatherings, it was a combo of "push" and "draw" components. Numerous meant to escape destitution and oppression in China and would have liked to make a fortune in America, particularly after John A. Sutter uncovered gold in California in 1849, starting the Gold Rush. Maybe nothing better exhibits the gigantic trusts that the Chinese had for their lives in America than the way that they

Asians have migrated to and have lived in the Americas since the days of our founding fathers. The first to come from the Eastern Hemisphere were a small group of Filipinos in the early 18th century that settled in present day Louisiana. The first major influx of Asian Americans was Chinese Americans who came in the 1800’s to find financial opportunity during the California gold rush. They settled in the Golden State and eventually spread out all over the United States, creating the now-famous Chinatowns that millions of Americans visit every year. There is a continual migration of well educated South Asians and East Asians for job and education opportunities and their success has formed the basis for the “myth of the model minority” (MMM). This is the idea that all people who are Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are successful both socioeconomically and educationally. This does have a logical basis rooted in statistics—AAPI students are reported to have higher grade point averages, math scores, and overall standardized tests scores on tests such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Testing Exam (ACT). Other studies often use a racialized rhetoric comparing Asian Americans to white Americans in terms of education and socioeconomic status while contrasting them to the so-called “lazy” and “incapable” Hispanic and African Americans.

During the World War II, because China joined the Allied Powers, Franklin D Roosevelt who was President at the time decided to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Acts. This allowed Chinese to be considered American citizen, but instead of having a massive flood of people entering. They controlled and had restrictive laws on the Chinese. In 1980’s more people from China decided to migrate to the U.S. This was when a province called Fujian made their way to New York and started the Chinatown that we all know today. When they first arrived in New York, they were around E. Broadway, since it was the central hub for immigrants, from there they began to look to work. As more Chinese came from Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong the Chinese-American community