Exploring the Socioeconomic and Immigration Health Contexts of Asian Americans

Despite an overall picture of good health for Asian Americans in the aggregate, growing evidence shows that specific subgroups—particularly those with high proportions of immigrants—have diverse patterns relative to socioeconomic position and health. Using data from the largest U.S. state health survey, this study explores the contributions of socioeconomic and immigration factors to health status among Asian American subgroups. Results indicate that level of education, income, and English language ability were significant predictors of health status for the Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese subgroups. Varying patterns in the results by subgroup are discussed in the context of immigration policy.     

Using Photovoice as a method to examine microaggressions: Conceptualizing culturally competent practice and curriculum with Asian Americans

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the racial microaggressions has increased significantly in the social work education and negative impact of racial microaggressions on individual’s family and group in their community well-being. Microaggressions can occur out of misunderstanding and lack of awareness of cultural differences and similarities. Microaggressions also are common everyday whether intentional or unintentional. The purpose of this study is to examine the evolving methodology, usage of photovoice, and conceptualizing culturally competent practice and curriculum with Asian Americans.     

Predicting group consciousness among Asian Americans: Considering commonalities,shared interests,panethnic group identification,and linked fate

Identifying factors linked to the development of group consciousness is important toward bettering our understanding of group formation processes among marginalized ethnoracial groups. This study examines predictors of group consciousness among Asians and Asian Americans in the United States, focusing on numerous dimensions of this concept, including linked fate, panethnic group identification, and four specific sources of perceived group commonality and interests: (1) cultural, (2) economic, (3) political, and (4) racial. We use data from a national survey to examine socio-structural, political, discrimination, and immigration correlates associated with separate dimensions of Asian group consciousness. We found that perceiving interpersonal discrimination increased the importance of being Asian; heightened the odds of feeling linked fate with other Asian people; and enhanced the odds of identification as “Asian American.” Republicans and Independents were less likely to perceive different elements of Asian group consciousness compared to Democrats. Educational attainment, income, gender, employment status, ethnicity, and English-speaking comfortability had varying effects across certain measures of Asian group consciousness. For Asians and Asian Americans, interpersonal discrimination and certain socio-structural, political, and immigration factors may be especially meaningful toward the development of linked fate, shared group interests and commonalities, and panethnic identification, all of which are key toward activating group consciousness.     

City of Quartz

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the production of Indian ethnicity in the United States through a close reading of the Cultural Festival of India, an event that took place over four weeks in 1991 in Edison, New Jersey. The festival, organized by the Gujarati Hindu sect, Bochasanwasi Swaminarayan Sanstha, presented an extravagant and general vision of ‘India’ for Indian as well as non-Indian Americans through arts performances, shopping displays, food stands and cultural exhibits. The Cultural Festival of India can be seen as an occasion for a new type of ‘imagined community’, or as an instance of diasporic nationalism, that is, produced by immigrant Indians intent on projecting a positive image of themselves, and is steeped in romantic notions of the home country.

As Indians in First World countries form larger and more visible populations, they begin to develop elaborate strategies for constructing associative identities. In the United States, the Indian middle class has chosen the terminology and the historical precedents of ‘ethnicity’ to construct itself as a group within the political and cultural landscapes of a ‘multicultural’ nation. The rapidly expanding Indian capitalist economy simultaneously procures foreign investment through connections maintained with these overseas Indians as well as through a new image projected abroad of India as a source of progress. Nationalism, diaspora, culture and identity become confounded both as theoretical categories and as material forces. The Cultural Festival of India illustrates these developments through the reification of Indian ‘culture’, the portrayal of idealized Indian social values and the celebration of technological innovation. Through an examination of the festival, the article explains the continuities in colonial and postcolonial strategies of building national and transnational communities.     

Understanding Asian American Clients

Abstract

Asian Americans are the fastest growing ethnic minority in the United States today. Therefore, the Asian American population greatly needs the services of qualified cross-cultural counselors. An ethnic match between an Asian American client and his/her counselor is generally recommended. However, due to the limited number of qualified Asian American counselors and problems sometimes encountered with an ethnic match, an ethnic match between the counselor and client is very often not realistic nor always preferred. However, Western counselors who work with Asian Americans need to understand their clients' acculturation problems. They also need to understand the preventable mistakes often made in counseling Asian American clients.     

Asian Americans and Mental Health Services

Abstract

Research in the 1970s and 1980s revealed that Asian Americans, compared with other ethnic groups, tended to under-utilize mental health services. This article is aimed at adding new information to the literature by examining data from the 1990s. The raw data comprised 97,212 total admissions representing 45,774 total individuals utilizing mental health services during a four-year period in San Diego County, California. By comparing our findings with previous research cases on utilization patterns of mental health services, new evidence is found about Asian Americans in terms of their (1) underrepresentation in mental health services, (2) presentation of more severe symptoms than those of other racial/ethnic groups when first seen at clinics, (3) lower dropout rates and higher average lengths of stay than other racial/ethnic groups, and (4) higher percentages of using day treatment and outpatient programs but lower percentage of using inpatient programs.     

Patterns,Determinants, and Implications of Intermarriage Among Arab Americans

This study examines Arab American intermarriage using 1990 U.S. Census data. The results indicate high rates of intermarriage consistent with an assimilation perspective. Over 80% of U.S.‐born Arabs had non‐Arab spouses, implying a diminishing ethnic identification. Logistic regressions show that for both sexes, those with part Arab ancestry, the U.S. born, those with strong English‐language ability, and the highly educated were significantly more likely to out‐marry, as were Arabs of Lebanese ancestry. The cultural and structural assimilation of Arab Americans is facilitating intermarriage, with indicators of acculturation being the strongest predictors, especially for women. The article further discusses ethnic options for children of intermarried couples.     

The Current State of Mental Health Research on Asian Americans

Summary

A review of research reveals that the prevalence rates of depression, somatization, and posttraumatic stress disorder among Asian Americans are at least as high as those for White Americans, and, in many cases, higher rates are exhibited. Findings with respect to anxiety have been equivocal. The conclusion that is best supported by research at this time is that Asian Americans are not extraordinarily well adjusted, in contrast to their stereotype as a model ethnic minority group. What has hindered researchers in determining the rates and distributions of mental disorders among Asian Americans has been methodological and conceptual problems. These problems involve (a) making cross-cultural comparisons using assessment instruments that have been standardized on one group and applied to another and (b) phenomena unique to Asian Americans, including their population size, heterogeneity, and rapid demographic changes. Suggestions for research directions are given.     

Consuming Orientalism: Images of Asian/American Women in Multicultural Advertising

Past research has analyzed the gendered constructs of American consumption practices that underlie marketed images in the print media. This article re-considers the cultural constructs of multicultural advertisement strategies in the new global era. Based on an analysis of three advertisement campaigns, our contention is that the normalcy and positionality of White males in the U.S. society rely on the racialized and gendered representations of Asian/American women as the Other. It is argued that the emerging global culture has been packaged, commodified and marketed by multi-national corporations in a manner that widens their range of cultural repertoires but resurrects traditional hierarchies of American Orientalism.     

Ethnic Language Retention and East Asian Endogamy in the United States

This study examines the influence of ethnic language on the endogamy of three East Asian groups, which have been previously omitted within intermarriage research. The study findings present important indications of ethnic language playing a key role in endogamy amongst East Asian groups. Providing for this key component, the groups were divided into U.S. born vs. foreign-born East Asians. Amongst foreign-born East Asians, the effect of English ability provided significance over U.S. born East Asians. Separate examinations of Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans presented diverse patterns of endogamy, migration, and ethnic language retention. Specifically, findings provided insight to high levels of endogamy amongst U.S. born Japanese due to ethnic concentration, despite their loss of ethnic language.     

Substance abuse among Asian American youth: An ecological review of the literature

The purpose of this review is to understand the risk and protective factors that are associated with substance use among Asian American youth. Using the Bronfenbrenner's (1994) ecological systems theory, we examine how individual characteristics (age, gender, psychopathology, genetics, and ethnic differences), micro- (family and peers), meso-/exo- (relations between family and peers, cultural norms, and economic stress), macro- (academic achievement and cultural influences), and chrono-systems (acculturation) level factors influence or inhibit substance use among Asian American youth. In addition, this review highlights major implications for practice and policy to prevent substance misuse and to improve outcomes for substance abusing Asian American youth.     

Filipinos and the Myth of Model Minority in Hawai'i

Abstract

Despite tremendous heterogeneity in culture, native language, values, socioeconomic status and a steadily growing presence in the United States, Asian Americans are viewed as a monolithic group under the model minority stereotype. Using the focus group approach with youth, young professionals, key/community leaders, and parent participants, the authors determined that in reference to Filipino Americans living in the diverse ethnic and cultural landscape of Hawai'i, the model minority label does not apply. Implications for policy, practice, and further research are discussed.     

Style and Language Use among Youth of the New Immigration: Formations of Race,Ethnicity, Gender,and Class in Everyday Practice

In this article I consider “style” as a linguistic and cultural concept that can demonstrate how identities performed through language use are linked to topics of central concern in studies of immigrant youth, including racial and ethnic formation, generational cohorts, acculturation, assimilation, and gender. I draw on anthropological and sociolinguistic approaches to style not generally considered in migration studies and present ethnographic data of two cliques of Desi (South Asian American) teens in a Northern California high school. I argue that analyses of youth style can substantially complicate assimilation frameworks by highlighting the ways in which young peoples' linguistic practices may not fit neatly into commonly used analytical categories of “immigrant” and “American.” Focusing on how political economy and local histories inform power and difference that shape migration experiences for youth, the article moves beyond routinely examined areas of heritage language retention and loss to analyze the significance of youth performances of heritage languages as well as English.     

Labor Market Disparities Between African Americans and Afro Caribbeans: Reexamining the Role of Immigrant Selectivity

Black immigrants from the Caribbean have long attained greater labor market success than African Americans. The most recent studies show that Afro Caribbeans have earnings that are approximately 16% greater than African Americans and that Afro Caribbeans are as much as 21% more likely to be employed than African Americans. The most prominent explanation for greater Afro Caribbean success is that, because they have chosen to migrate, Afro Caribbeans are positively self‐selected on characteristics that are key for success in the U.S. labor market. Proponents of immigrant selectivity argue that migrants have greater levels of both hard and soft skills than nonmigrants. Using data from the National Survey of American Life—the first social survey to provide a nationally representative sample of both African Americans and Afro Caribbeans—this study finds that Afro Caribbeans have greater hard skills than African Americans but split the difference on two measures of soft skills: African Americans and Afro Caribbeans are matched on John Henryism, but African Americans have greater personal mastery than Afro Caribbeans. Contrary to expectations, controlling for differences in hard and soft skills does not provide for a meaningful reduction in labor market disparities between African Americans and Afro Caribbeans.     

Critique on the notion of model minority: an alternative racism to Asian American?

This research note attempts to probe how contemporary racism has evolved to replace physical characteristics with cultural traits by examining the notion of model minority in America. The analysis begins by positing that this notion manifests a problematic deployment of cultural differences. A short historical review justifies that model minority is generated and maintained by a stereotyped understanding of Asian tradition, especially Confucianism. Racial antagonism and class consciousness are then invoked by fostering essentialist ideas of cultural traditions. While America advocates its democratic system of inclusion, the logic of ‘model minority’ suggests an ‘internal exclusion’. The implications of model minority are thus that: (1) ‘race’ is replaced by ‘cultural difference’ – when cultural racism replaces biological racism, race is subsumed into a pure realm of cultural difference and race as a sociohistorical category becomes obscured; (2) the deployment of cultural differences creates an illusion that US society has already reached ‘color-blind’, and therefore neglects the social oppression and inequality along racial lines; (3) in the transforming process from a biologistic conception of race to a culturalist one, cultural differences are deployed to differentiate Asia(n) from American(n). Cultural differences are by all means essentialized, and race is furthermore reduced to essentialized cultural differences.     

A Comparison of Household Budget Allocation Patterns Between Hispanic Americans and Non-Hispanic White Americans

The budget allocation patterns of Hispanic versus non-Hispanic White households are examined. Annual household expenditure data from 1980 to 1992 are constructed from the interview component of the Consumer Expenditure Survey (1980–1992), the Consumer Price Index (1980–1992), and the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association (ACCRA) Cost of Living Index (1990). The sample includes 588 Hispanic and 8,444 non-Hispanic White households. A Linear Approximation of the Almost Ideal Demand System with 23 demographic variables is estimated. Findings show that holding other things equal, compared to non-Hispanic White households, Hispanic households allocate significantly more of their budget to food at home, shelter, and apparel and significantly less to food away from home, entertainment, education, health care, and tobacco.     

Intergenerational Experiences of Discrimination in Chinese American Families: Influences of Socialization and Stress

In this longitudinal study, we investigated the mechanisms by which Chinese American parents' experiences of discrimination influenced their adolescents' ethnicity‐related stressors (i.e., cultural misfit, discrimination, attitudes toward education). We focused on whether parents' ethnic‐racial socialization practices and perpetual foreigner stress moderated or mediated this relationship. Participants were 444 Chinese American families. Results indicated no evidence of moderation, but we observed support for mediation. Parental experiences of discrimination were associated with more ethnic‐racial socialization practices and greater parental perpetual foreigner stress. More ethnic‐racial socialization was related to greater cultural misfit in adolescents, whereas more perpetual foreigner stress was related to adolescents' poorer attitudes toward education and more reported discrimination. Relationships between mediators and outcomes were stronger for fathers than for mothers.     

Occupational Stereotyping of Asian Americans

This study investigated the presence of occupational stereotypes in the ratings by 194 White college students of 16 occupations identified in the literature as representative of Asian-White group differences. Three dimensions of stereotypes were measured (probability of success, qualifications for training, and acceptance by others). Questionnaires were varied by race (Oriental versus White) and gender (male versus female). Significant race and gender differences were noted on two dimensions (qualifications for training and probability of success). Both positive and negative stereotypes were found across race and gender groupings. Asians were rated as less likely to succeed as insurance salespersons but more likely to succeed as engineers, computer scientists, and mathematicians. Women were viewed as less qualified to seek training as engineers, police officers, and economists but more qualified to seek training as secretaries.