Author: Garey

One explanation I heard from my boyfriend was an example of migration initiated by a kinship network and driven by educational disparity. His grandfather’s sister sponsored his grandfather’s family to migrate to the U.S. from Hong Kong so that the children would be more likely to attain higher education. This occurred after 1965, so the change in policy lifting restrictions on Asian immigration was also necessary for their immigration to be possible.  An example I can think of from my own family was when my grandfather, a Trinidadian of Indian descent, ran away from home in part because of a lower quality of life, the intercountry economic disparity motivating the immigration. A connection that allowed this migration to even be possible was that as Trinidad was a British colony, he could speak English, which facilitated his opportunities in the U.S.

I feel that Yang’s “multilevel causation theory,” his universal theory encompassing past, present, micro, and macro level connections, corresponds well to these explanations. In fact, his theory helps us explore our families’ journeys. Factors that were explicit, such as disparities or kinship sponsoring, and those that were implicit, like the changes in the law or language-based connections, come together to make these narratives clearer and coherent. However, I think it would be good to expand on religious factors, such as churches being an institution based social network, which can act to both sustain immigration and initiate it. For example, the Mormon church, which I was a member of, sends missionaries to Asian countries for converts. Often, these new converts feel the need to move to Utah, to adopt Mormon customs and traditions more closely, or otherwise to avoid being the only Mormons in the social circle of their hometown. Yang might describe Mormonism’s impact on these converts as strengthening their ideological linkages with American society or reducing their social distance with Americans, meanwhile social distance between themselves and people of their homeland can simultaneously increase because of their conversion.

 

I learned that the first Asians to come to America were Filipino, which I found surprising. I was also surprised by the Mexican saint Mirrha-Catarina de San Juan who has Asian origins, and that the first recorded Asian mayor in the Americas, Juan de Paez, was a Japanese man in Zapopan, Mexico during the 1630s. Another thing I learned from the video was that it was Hou Kwa who gave a half a million silver Mexican pesos to Forbes and advised him to invest in the railroad. I already knew that the Chinese had their own exploration period during the Ming dynasty, but they did not settle colonies because the emperor decided to close off the country to the world. This in part motivated expeditions to China. A structural reason for Asians to go to the Americas was that Spanish ships relied on Filipino sailors’ expertise. They were praised as masters of the sea, but individually they were treated horribly, so they deserted the ships, staying in New Spain hoping to find a better life in Acapulco and other cities along the Pacific coast of Mexico. The Portuguese brought slaves from India and Malaysia because of stereotypes that they would sell for high prices as concubines, cooks, seamstresses, and servants. The structural reason for this treatment was because of Portugal’s early influence and colonies in India. As slaves they were not given the opportunity to have an individual reason to be in the Americas. The model minority stereotype of Asian Americans being hard working, obedient and “industrious” is uncomfortably similar to the Portuguese slaver’s description. In some ways the reasons for migration have stayed the same, Western imperialism and economic interests create conditions that have motivated Asians to immigrate to the Americas seeking a better life. Back then they were freezing to death on the decks of European ships, today they’re slaving away in sweatshops dreaming of escaping their harsh conditions, perhaps looking for that “American dream.”

When Bahadur began to research her great-grandmother’s emigration pass  she found that there was great lack of information as to who she was, it was also void of any personal accounts of her journey to the colony and even why she became an indentured servant. The racist and sexist records often kept by captains are also obscured, only mentioning scandals or tragedies. Because of this Bahadur had to employ various methods in order to continue her research. She searched British documents, the logs of captains, she went back to Guiana to look for various cultural clues and visited her great-grandmothers hometown in India. To uncover the whole story, she must track down the official documents as well as other sources of information, all through the eyes of an emigrant child and a journalist.

 

One thing I learned from Bahadur’s research was that, by piecing together information from local cultural traditions you can get to know an ancestor. This is something I never considered while researching my own grandparents in Trinidad. Her research showed me that I can gain information about them I thought was forever lost to me. I have not been searching in the right places or asking the right questions. The answers to the questions Bahadur ask not only reveals the lives and voices of her great-grandmother but also those of many other indentured women. Some of the types of information I plan to look for now are records from the parliament and I might have an opportunity to speak to one my grandfather’s old friend with whom he traveled to America. If I ever get the chance, I would also like to visit his hometown in Trinidad.

 

The oral history I studied was about Anthony Hom, an American Chinese from Palo Alto California. He went to high school in San Mateo California and went on to study at the University of California for a year and then spent the rest of his undergraduate at UC Davis. He has some background in architecture but has been working at Stanford university for 18 years. One thing I learned was how American Chinese were treated, I knew that they were mistreated, but I was a little surprised that they were confined to one part of the city. Hom did not talk much about his father, it would have been nice to hear some the stories he heard growing up. One thing I think I am missing is more information on his ancestors who worked on the tracks.  I’m wondering what life was like for them, and how they got to where they were.

 

Response to Kamala Harris article.

 

When I read the phrase “model minority” I was reminded how many Americans see people of Japanese, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Chinese etc. descent, not only do they often lump them all together as being the same, but they also assigned stereotypes to them, like being really smart and good at math. This is what I understood “model minority” means to certain Americans. It almost sounds like they use Asian Americans to set some standard for what other Americans should look and behave like. Yang perpetuates a stereotype when he wears a math pin and makes jokes about how he knows a lot of doctors because he is Asian. What the author meant by “model minority” was that Asian Americans are portrayed as being more prosperous because they are somehow better than other minorities. The “anti-model minority” is an example of someone who challenges the stereotype, is involved in civil rights movements, and has progressive politics. It is not only due to economic and educational achievements but more that they have been respected and treated better because of the civil rights movement.