The immigrant experience in America has been varied, and those who are of different ethnic or racial backgrounds have had a more difficult time as immigrants than those who fit into the majority white society more easily. Immigrants from Asian countries are first of all marked as different from the time they arrive. They also are likely to experience language difficulties. They are a true minority population that has tended to settle in given areas. They usually create their own small communities within the larger American communities and so creating a protective shell based on union. The Japanese and the Chinese may seem much the same to whites, but in truth they are from quite different societies and have different attitudes toward their own community and the processes of assimilation that are part of the immigrant experience. They have also experienced racism in different ways and different degrees in the United States. An examination of the Japanese and Chinese experiences as immigrants will show both similarities and differences between the two populations. The analysis will be based on accounts written by immigrants or their children.
Portes and Rumbaut (1990) discuss the general experience of immigration and begin with the fact that immigrants are coming to a world that is foreign to them. As a consequence, they are faced with various forms of cultural shock, and how well they adapt to these differences determines their mental health and the degree of acculturation they can achieve in their new surroundings. Portes and Rumbaut note that immigrants experience a set of engulfing life events in terms of changes, losses, conflicts, and demands, all of which severely test the resilience of the individual: "Migration can produce profound psychological distress, even among the best prepared and most motivated and even under the most receptive of circumstances" (p. 144). Even if the immigrant is well prepared and well mo...