Stereotypes Of Asian Immigrants

In America, we put labels on practically anything. Many people would label each other based on their abilities, personality, or occupation based on their race, gender, or sexual orientation. For example, people associate women with being nurses and men being firefighters or police officers. Especially with the matters of race do people put labels and base assumptions. Since their migration to the United States, Asian Americans have dealt with discrimination and praise from being a ‘model minority’. The model minority, although it is subjective, defines a minority group in America that are able achieve socio-economic success higher than the average. It highlights the American Dream, a notion that any American resident can obtain financial

According to Jeff Guo and Daron Taylor from Washington Post, when Asian immigrants arrived during the mid-1800s, they were met with intolerance as “the popular media often portrayed them as scoundrels, degenerates, and job-stealers.” Additionally, writer Jonathan Freedman pointed out that “the debased and racist attacks on Chinese” had led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was one of the early methods to limit immigration, or specifically Asian immigration. Also, fear of Asian immigrants taking control was a prevalent factor for the Exclusion Act. For example, a literature titled “The Rise of Fu Manchu” depicts of “an Asiatic villian” who plans to take over the world. It wasn’t until after the second World War when Americans opened their arms of acceptance and appreciation towards Asian immigrants. Before, Asians were paid very lowly, or “like blacks”, according to Jeff Guo and Daron Taylor. However, during the 1940s-60s, they received higher pay when they were “paid like whites”. The shift in the attitude towards Asian Americans in the socio-economy can be contributed to the Immigration Act of 1965. This act had allowed skilled and education immigrants to America. According to CNN, most of the Asian immigrants who came under this act “ were high-skilled immigrants such as doctors, nurses, and engineers from countries like India, China, South Korea, and the Philippines.” Although these particular immigrants did contribute positively to the economy and fits well into the model minority, specific Asian ethnic groups like the Southeast Asians(Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian) do not follow the same success and come from completely different