The Taiwanese Americans - Essay Example

Introduction This paper represents a brief study about ‘Taiwanese Americans’ and shows the reasons that tended Taiwanese to immigrate to the United States. There are economic, political and educational reasons for the immigration, but more specifically religion had played a vital role in motivating Taiwanese to immigrate. This paper argues that Taiwanese immigrants have considered religion as a media for facilitating adaptation and preserving ethnicity. Taiwanese Americans From a political point of view, all immigrants who arrived in the United States from Taiwan can be called Taiwanese Americans. According to the 1990 US Census reports, there were 1,645,472 Chinese Americans including American born Chinese, those who migrated from Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. Taiwanese Americans, the immigrants from Taiwan and its descendants, are the prominent group in this Chinese American population. Most historical records show emigration from Taiwan only after 1950s. Opportunities for immigration from Taiwan to America were almost non-existent before this period of time and also because of that during 1840s when American Companies had conducted recruiting cheap labors from Asian countries to develop Hawaii and frontier west, Taiwan was not at all considered because it was too small. Till 1965, a small number of students Taiwanese students scattered in United States and they saw that coming to the United State was a continuation of the trend of previous Chinese who had trained in The United States. There was large numbers of students coming to United States for studying, professionals for getting high paid jobs and family members for reunification of their families in the United States and later on settle down there. It contributed much to the economic and social development of Taiwan. Franklin Ng says that by mid 1980s, Taiwan had achieved prominence as an economic miracle, a major economic power. With abundant capital, businessmen in Taiwan sought to invest in the United States. (Franklin Ng, p.19). Reasons for immigration Educational Education was the main reason for Taiwanese to come to the United States and to settle there. Many Taiwanese achieved higher education from school and colleges and hence they were preferred for most jobs and it was like ‘brain drain’ of human capital from Taiwan. James Loucky and Jeanne Armstrong are of the opinion that during 1979-1987 about 186,000 students came from Taiwan for education but only 12,000 students returned to Taiwan. After the United States established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1979 and terminated the security treaty with Taiwan, the threat of a PRC takeover of Taiwan created uncertainty and encouraged Taiwanese to emigrate. (James Loucky, Jeanne Armstrong, Lawrence J. Estrada p.141) The institute of International Education reported that during 2001-2002, a record number of foreign students- approximately 600,000- were attending American colleges and Universities. David M. Reimers says that the foreign student program became a network for future immigration and not merely the Chinese. Economist George Borjas has estimated that 13 % of all foreign students eventually become immigrants. Political and Economic reasons The immigration act of 1965 had increased the quota of Chinese immigrants to 20,000 and there was a provision for the family reunification. This really helped those who are waiting for long to bring their dependants and family members and there by to facilitate appropriate professions to them in the United States. The 1965 act had put forward some preferences to some exceptional skilled labors. There was a preference specifying that people with exceptional skills should be allowed to come to United States. There were some exceptional skilled labors who could enter in to the United States including cooks and restaurant chefs. There were some other people who came to work. No matter what ever kind of work they might do in America, they saw economic conditions in the United States as being much more favorable than that of Taiwan. This was another reason that brought most Taiwanese to immigrate to America and thereafter to settle there. Even though, the immigration act in 1990 revised the system of preferences established in the 1965 act, it included employment based preference for those with professional, research and occupational or industrial skills and as a result a number of professionals and skilled labors got permissions to the United States. It was a reason for professional and skilled migrants from Taiwan. The immigration act 1990 made it easier for investors to move in to United States and thereby to settle there. Wealthy businessmen in Taiwan were allowed to apply for immigration if they are able and willing to invest in the business and industrial sectors in the United States. Religious Reasons Religion plays significant role in motivating people to immigrate to the United States. “Religious institutions are centers of religious worship and educational, cultural, social, political, and social service activities. Immigrant religious congregations offer a wide array of formal and informal social services that facilitate the material, social and psychological adjustment of their members to American society” (Carolyn Chen). Immigrant religious institutions would normally offer English classes and information on employment and other social and welfare areas. Informal networks can possibly link immigrants to social and health services and thereby employment opportunities. Religion is voluntary organized in the United States. In the multicultural American society, religion can have a natural way for immigrants to mediate their differences and keep watch on their distinctiveness. Carolyn Chen emphasizes that immigrants use religious institutions to collectively reproduce their traditions and customs among those within and signify their difference to those without. This ethnic concern is all the more heightened for immigrants who wish to preserve their inherited traditions in the new land (Carolyn Chen, p.7). Taiwan immigrants, almost like other immigrants from other parts of the world, are attracted to religion in the United States for some sorts of instrumental reasons so as to build networks, make friends over there, find quite favorable supports and preserve traditions. Immigrants could make use of religion to recreate themselves and their communities as a new one in the United States. This observation can be proved as there are only 3.9 % Christians Taiwan where the majority practices a religion that is a mixture of Buddhism, Taoism, and folk religion. But in comparison, Christians are approximately 20–25 percent of the Taiwanese population in the United States. Current Situations A large numbers of Taiwanese Americans are scattered throughout the United States, but they are mainly concentrated in California and East Coast areas. Taiwanese are particularly widespread in Los Angeles, San Jose and San Francisco. The town of Monterey Park has been called as Taipei because of its large Taiwanese population. According to David M. Reimers, within states and metropolitan areas, some of the more economically successful immigrants settled in predominantly white suburbs, where they found better housing and more competitive schools, some thing they deemed important for the education of their children (David M. Reimers, p. 161) The Taiwan immigrants could make use of the huge capital available as they have been able revitalize some failing communities and influence others both religiously and culturally. In the United States, Taiwanese presence is obvious in the areas where they have settled. They create islands of Taiwanese culture with all Chinese shopping malls offering every thing from Chinese food shops. The Taiwanese professionals settled where they found jobs using their skills. Physicians are the top class of the professional groups in Taiwanese. Others who are excellent English and possess excellent educational qualifications found employment among white collar workers, including employment with federal and local governments. Others like engineers and computer workers settled in California’s Silicon Valley. Families and networks of mutual aids and understandings are already set in the United States as they are always in their Taiwan. They tend to settle in those areas where large numbers of their countrymen are staying. Currently, the Taiwan American Community tends to preserve its values, language and cultural traditions even in between the difficult contemporary American life. References Chen C (2008), Getting saved in America, Princeton University Press David M. Reimers D M (2005), Other Immigrants: The Global Origins of the American People NYU Press Franklin Ng (1998), The Taiwanese Americans, Greenwood Publishing Group Loucky James, Armstrong Jeanne and Lawrence J. Estrada (2006), Immigration in America Today: An Encyclopedia, Greenwood Publishing Group Portes A and Rumbaut R.G (1997), Immigrant America: A Portrait, University of California Press Read More