ETHN 14:
Introduction to Asian American Studies
Department of
Ethnic Studies &
Asian American
Studies Program
California State
University,
Sacramento
Week 8 Session 2
The Effect of the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization
Act on the API Experience / Korean American and
South Asian American Experiences
Housekeeping Items
• Midterm Exam has been pushed back to Monday, 11/2 and
Wednesday, 11/4
– 11/2: Persuasive, analytical essays
– 11/4: Identification terms (short essay)
• Clarification of OBD posting order:
– A, B, C, D, E
– Person A is forgetful. If person B initiates the conversation because A
forgot, it’s B’s turn to post the following week. If person D initiates the
conversation because A forgot, it’s B’s turn to post the following week.
• Lightened reading schedule to allow for midterm preparation
Last Time
• Revisit discussion on the documentary, Who Killed Vincent
Chin?
• Discuss emerging themes in the Bulosan novel.
Today
• Impact of the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 on the
API community
• Discuss the South Asian American and Korean American
Experiences in the United States
Immigration Laws Pre- and Post-1965
Immigration and Naturalization Act
• Pre 1965:
– National origins quotas
– Favored European immigration, particularly Western
European countries
– Heavily restricted immigration from Asia and Africa
• Post 1965:
– Moved to a preference system based on labor shortages and
educational status
– Included family reunification provisions
– Led to Asian “chain migration”
Mid-Term Format
Monday, 11/2
• Three to four analytical essay topics will be developed from our
class’s cross-group analysis work. You will write on two of them
but will need to be prepared for all four.
Wednesday, 11/4
• Four identification terms. Short essay explanation of their
significance to the API experience and the class.
Key “Take-Aways” from our Analysis Work:
•
Social structures such as institutions and organizations and power distribution are closely
linked. Institutions function to reinforce existing power relations between ethnic groups.
Differential power relations between ethnic groups shape how institutions function.
•
Immigrant communities are often structured around institutions and organizations that were
brought from the home country and adapted in the United States. These organizations took
on different functions with the second generation. Segregation discouraged assimilation.
•
The dominant culture values material wealth and uses its control over local, state, and federal
government to limit labor competition and access to opportunity.
•
Cultural representations of API groups promote or reinforce U.S. national interest and
European American materialism. Stereotypes and depictions of Asian Americans are linked to
a history of West-East dualism (Edward Said’s Orientalism) often linked to the enduring image
of “the perpetual foreigner.”
•
Despite structural differences among API immigrants, groups were relegated to similar forms
of labor and housing and experienced multiple forms of discrimination.
•
The relationship between Asian country’s governments varies greatly. The relationship
between countries affected the experiences of Immigrants.
Crosscutting
Themes
Chinese Americans
Japanese Americans
Filipino Americans
Pacific Islander Americans
Immigrant
Populations
Sojourner immigrants, Chinese
Women
Poor from rural areas and
Ryokyu Islands
First, second, and third waves.
Immigration and Naturalization
Act of 1965
Samoans,
Guamanians/Chamorros,
Tongans, Hawaiians
Settlement
Patterns
Pacific Coast: California
San Francisco
Pacific Coast, Hawaii, California
San Francisco
Second wave, Hawaii, Alaska,
and the Pacific coast (Stockton
– Key migratory hub)
Hawaii – Mormons, economics,
Laie (Country came to them,
they didn’t come to the country)
Factors that
influenced
Immigration
(Push-Pull)
Gold Rush, Fall of Saigon
Exclusion of Chinese,
Agriculture, Railroads, and
domestic work
Spanish American War,
Alaskeros, Immigration and
Naturalization Act of 1965,
World War II, Pensionados
Westernization, World War II,
Department of the Interior, 1950
Organic Act, “Land of
Opportunity” Family
reunification
Labor
Agriculture, WWII economy
Railroads
Domestic Services (Laundries)
Agriculture, Railroads, and
domestic work
Alaskeros, The Great
Depression, Carlos Bulosan,
Agriculture, Domestic service
Faasamoa, Modernization,
Unskilled; semi-skilled labor
(e.g. custodians, cooks, clerks)
Country of
Origin’s
Relationship
with US
Government
Immigration Act of 1965, The
Good Earth, Arrival of Chinese
Women, Ping Pong Diplomacy
Gentlemen’s Agreement, Meiji
Revolution, Attack on Pearl
Harbor
Pensionados, Imperialism,
colonization, PhilippineAmerican War, Tydings
McDuffie Act
American Samoa/Western
Samoa
Dole vs. Cleveland
Exclusion,
Surveillance,
and
Discrimination
Foreign Miner’s Tax
Chinese Exclusion Act
Ordinances on Living and Labor
Conditions, Cold War, Hiram
Fong, FOB/ABC, Dr. Wen Ho
Lee
San Francisco School Board
incident, Anti-miscegenation
laws, restrictive covenants,
Alien Land Act (1913 and
1920), CWIRC/Exec Order
9066
Anti-Miscegenation laws, The
Great Depression, Watsonville
Riot, fight for Affirmative Action
Christian Missionaries
Great Mahele
Community
Institutions
Family Associations, Paper
Sons
Six Companies
Native Sons of the Golden
State, levels of educaiton
Japanese Association of
America, Japanese American
Citizens League (JACL)
Catholicism, Visayan, Tagalog,
and Illocano, Lodges—Men’s
women’s and youth and
churces
Matai, Haole society, plantation
life, and Hawaiian traditional
culture, Hawaiian Homes
Commission, Council of
Hawaiian Organizations
Cultural
representations
of the racialized
“other”
Hatchet men, Yellow Peril,
Model Minorities, Tianaman
Square
The second generation
Japanese Problem, Yellow
Peril, Scientific racism/social
darwinism
“Little Brown Brothers”
Allos in America is in the Heart
Meed-Freeman controversy,
colonization, imperialism,
Comparison between Native
Hawaiians and Americans
Generations and
Native Sons of the Golden
Issei, Nisei, Sanseil; redress
Pre- and post-1965; “Bridge
Crosscutting
Themes
South Asian Americans
Korean Americans
Immigrant
Populations
Sojourner immigrants, Punjabi,
Pakistanis, Bangladeshis,
Majority men
Whole families, War Brides,
First, second and third waves
Settlement
Patterns
Mainly Western US, but
dispersed Northern Sacramento
Valley, Imperial Valley, Tech
communities
Hawaii, California
Early Waves: urban; Third
wave: suburban LA county;
South Central LA; Dispersed
settlement
Factors that
influenced
Immigration
(Push-Pull)
1946 Act
Railroads
Immigration Act of 1965
Japanese Occupation of Korea
Korean War
Immigration and Naturalization
Act of 1965
Labor
Gujuarato, Dalip Singh Saund,
Post-1965: skilled, technical,
management, highly educated
Agriculture
Family business model
Country of
Origin’s
Relationship
with US
Government
British colonization 9/11
Treaty at Chamulpo
Korean War
Student refugees
Exclusion,
Surveillance,
and
Discrimination
Thind Case
Alien Land Act (1920)
Hemet Valley Incident
Language Gap
Familiarity with institutions
Riots of 1992
Community
Institutions
Indian League of America,
Gadar Movement
Family
Christian Church
Presbyterianism
Family business model
Cultural
representations
of the racialized
“other”
Terrorists, ”Least Desirable
Race”
M*A*S*H*
Movie, Falling Down
Riots of 1992
Generations and
Acculturation
Immigration Act of 1965
To Prepare for Next Session
• OBD on Bulosan, Part IV (Ch. 37-49)
• Review for Midterm Exam
• Bring Reading Notes on Kitano & Daniels, Ch. 11
(Southeast Asian Americans) to class on Monday