The immigrant experience in America

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 de

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es mix is seen in the Chinatown where the author lives: "Chinatown in San Francisco teems with haunting memories, for it is wrapped in the atmosphere, customs, and manners of a land across the sea. The same Pacific Ocean laves the shores of both worlds, a tangible link between old and new" (p. 1). There is a region called Chinatown in many major American cities, a region where Chinese immigrants have gathered together and opened businesses in such numbers that they have created a small version of their home in China. Such regions have a strong attraction for tourists because of the exotic nature of the food and goods sold. The best-known Chinatown, a tourist mecca, is probably that in San Francisco, a Chinatown that has been closely identified with the city for decades. The reason for the concentration of Chinese in San Francisco in particular is historical, since many Chinese were brought to California in the nineteenth century to work on the railroads. Once the railroads were built, most stayed on and had to find other ways of making a living, and they came together in this region of San Francisco for that purpose. Many of the Chinatowns in other American cities have been patterned on the one in San Francisco as Chinese

Category: History - T