The Differences and Similarities of the Different Asian American Immigrant Experiences - Research Paper Example

The Differences and Similarities of the Different Asian American Immigrant Experiences In A Different Mirror, the author Ronald Takaki writes on the history of the United States that brings to our attention the experiences of racial and ethnic minorities who visited the United States. The immigrants made dangerous crossings, though they were pushed by many factors such as political events and economic realities while at the same time being attracted by America’s demand for labor and their own personal dreams. From the book we find out that America started out with a large number of indentured servants who were people meant to work for someone else for a given period of time as means of paying off their expenses. In chapter 3, we find that all servants who came into America, still got discriminated against by the wealthy class of white people. During this time, Africans were being shipped as servants. Asian Americans have been here for over one hundred and fifty years, the Chinese arrived first but what happened to them influenced how the Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos and Indians altogether were received. We observe that many of the immigrants received hostile reception from the Native Americans and were treated as second rate citizens. 1882 saw the enacting of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which prohibited the entry of the newcomers on basis of their nationality. The Japanese likewise were not accepted in America. This they realized with a lot of pain when they were placed in internment camps during World War 11. Many of the Asian immigrants were received with some sort of discrimination in addition to laws and acts being enacted to prohibit certain countries immigrants from entering the USA which affected almost all the immigrant. There was competition between the white settlers and the Chinese which saw the enactment of Foreign Miner’s license Tax, where every foreigner not keen to become a citizen should pay three dollars on tax. Since Chinese could not become citizens, the enacting of the tax affected them entirely with act tax being followed by many others that were mainly intended to frustrate immigrants. Another similarity in experience is that at the beginning, Asia immigrants were welcomed because of the cheap labor they provided. For instance, the Chinese were welcomed in the building of railroad. This clearly came to change later as their hardworking nature made them a threat. A worthy experience for all Asians was that of the Anti- Asian Laws which was mainly intended to frustrate the difference Asians immigrants. A notable difference is that of the Chinese and Japanese. Though the Japanese migrated in large numbers to Hawaii, their numbers in the mainland was insignificant as compared to Chinese, this though changed as of 1902. Another difference in experience is actually the fact that Japanese were able to economically empower themselves through agriculture something that the Chinese never had. Another difference is that with time the Japanese Exclusion Act was eliminated which was on the same line as that of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Another worthy difference to note is the fact that the Hawaii Japanese later were able to populate and stated their own family something the Chinese never did. The Indians too, though, they had lived for long in the United States, they too experienced hurdles from the United States government. They received harsh treatment coupled with enactment of laws aimed at barring them from immigrating into the United States. They suffered with poverty realties too just like any other Natives Immigrant. Major changes in immigration patterns after 1945 A change in immigration pattern took a shift as of 1945 after world war II which was marked by refuges, war brides and grooms becoming important to the United States with enactment 1945 that the War Brides Act was enacted which saw the wives and husbands of citizens serving in the United States armed forces being admitted as non-quota immigrants.1948 saw the passing of the Displaced Persons Act, which allowed 205,000 European Refugees to enter the United States. The Displaced Persons Act was later modified in 1950, which allowed the number of refugees to rise to 415744. In 1952, the McCarran-Water Act of 1952 and the multiple immigration and naturalization laws of the United States were both incorporated into one comprehensible statue. This resulted to all races to being made eligible for immigration and citizenships and development of a color-blind system for the first time in American history. Immigration rose to 290,000 per year hence Immigration and National Act placing a significant emphasis on reunions of families. Another major change that was adopted was the creation of labor certificate, which ensured protection of native labors and general stability of the economy. In 1970, the modification of the immigration laws allowed more immigrants to enter into the United States which was followed with a shift in immigration patterns. This resulted to more refugees coming in and of higher skills than before and interesting majority were women. In 1980, the Refugee act was also enacted which saw more refugees entering the United States and foresee their domestic resettlement along setting up permanent procedure of admitting the refugee. The McCarran-Water Act was criticized a lot which led to the enactment of Hart-Cellar Act in 1965 which saw abolition of the nation’s origins quota system. As of the 1980’s, the patterns of immigration shifted sharply, which resulted to 56% of immigrants shifting from Canada, Mexico, Central America and Caribbean, 29% from Asia hence the number rising to 15 million in 2000. Racial tolerance seems to be the new culture in the United States of America societies. The issues of black vs. whites are now becoming an issue of the past. The Asians Americans are now achieving high educational attainments which also are helping them achieve income levels that are greater than their full population level. Having said this, the Asians are still somehow underrepresented in executive jobs especially in political official’s capacity. It’s also observed that the natives Indians are also have begun to take more control of their tribal economies, the only racial activity observed is that they still have high rates of poverty due to unemployment, though this changing. The healthy status of Natives American is also shifting where they are all subjected to accessibility of health facilities and insurances. Today, notably also, is that Natives America are free to live anywhere and their arts and culture is being respected. Additionally, most of the peasant immigrants have lost their language identity; this has seen almost extinction of parochial schools. Consequently, the peasant’s immigrants have surrendered many of their traditional family values. There is also a pattern where race and religion identity is still active which is exemplified in situations where romans catholic immigrants’ generations reached out to other catholic immigrants groups for friendship purpose and business likewise and eventually intermarried. Read More