As a young woman, I lived in an area with a large number of exactly this type of immigrant. It was very unpleasant because I was constantly harassed by them. They “assimilate” economically but in numbers of any significance they create an extremely downgraded, unpleasant reality for women.
There’s a common idea even on the more “racist” right that east Asian immigrants assimilate unusually well. They seem to have confused being quiet and law abiding (good things, don’t get me wrong) with assimilation. Even the children of east Asian immigrants seem to have more trouble integrating than the children of Indian immigrants ime.
It’s of course normal and fine to prefer immigrants who are unobtrusive and polite (who’s ever had trouble with the Japanese?), people should just be honest and not bring “assimilation” into the conversation. And also maybe learn that not every Asian country is the same.
LikeLike
The Viet Kieu I have known all my life assimilated remarkably well. 1st gen are obviously not Americans, but tend to be very enthusiastic about their adopted country. Their kids are very American.
One of the big factors in assimilation is simply the possibility/desirability of return.
the VK escaped, mostly with just the clothes on their backs. For 2-3 decades there was no possibility of return, and the ones who left are overall much wealthier now than their relatives back in VN. They like to go back to visit, not to live. That may change as things get more dysfunctional in the US, and as interesting political/economic trends are ongoing in VN: they’re still nominally communist because nobody wants a revolution (the Chinese would invade), but… they’re growing more capitalist in practice, and gradually more prosperous. Effective policing and immigration controls could end up being an inducement for return migration, but culturally it won’t work for the kids who grew up in America. They’re too American, and they’re mostly not marrying each other so their kids are even more American. On average, would wager the Catholics have integrated better than the Buddhists, partly because they had an existing church to plug into as soon as they arrived.
The Korean immigrants (and their kids) I’ve known maintain strong ties to Korea, make return visits, have family there, and are completely aware that they could take a job at the family company in Seoul any time. They’re less invested in being American… but are nonetheless law-abiding normal Americans.
Chinese immigrants… it’s complicated. US customs regards them with suspicion, the CCP thinks it owns them forever. Their situation is permanently tenuous.
Laos: is poor. Nobody wants to go back, and they’re pretty thin on the ground here. Yes, they’re assimilating.
Cambodia: also poor. As late as the early 2000s I still knew Khmer sponsoring family members into the US. But also: assimilating reasonably well. Maintaining ties to Khmer culture through close family, but… the kids do what kids everywhere do: go off to college and become indistinguishable from everybody else’s kids.
Thailand: AFAIK there haven’t been any big waves of immigration from there. Military wives and stuff, sure, but… we haven’t been to war there, and they didn’t have any Pol Pot forcing tons of people to run for it. Ditto for Philippines. We have some. Mostly not dense communities of them.
The muslim countries like Indonesia are, of course, a whole other ballgame.
Arg. CCP=PRC
LikeLike
That matches with my observations growing up around a lot of different Asian immigrants.
I didn’t know a lot of Korean immigrants as a child but I’ve encountered a lot more in the last 15 years. They were all extremely proud of being Korean, touchy about anything they perceive as critical, spend time doing at least short term work there, and speak and teach their kids the language rather than transitioning the household to English. The one exception was a church family who lived somewhat uncomfortably in between cultures.
The local Vietnamese families all had Viet and English names for their kids and worked really hard to be what they considered genuine Americans. Unfortunately that sometime meant that the kids adopted some pathological elements of lower class culture. I’ll never forget being mocked in my late teens by similar aged coworkers for not having any babies or a boyfriend in jail. It boggled my mind that they were proud of that.
-K
LikeLike
There was a hitch with the first generation of VK kids: some parents were SO determined that the kids grow up American that they sometimes tried to speak only English to the kids at home. This did not work out so well, as the parents’ English at the time was pretty awful. The kids learned poor English at home, couldn’t always correct it at school, and also didn’t speak enough Viet to communicate with their own grandparents. It was kind of sad. But it did not happen after that AFAIK. The kids who came along later either learned passable English at home and were fine, or their parents spoke Viet at home, and they learned that as well as standard English once they started school: also worked out fine.
LikeLike
True. People who have assimilated will not prefer to hire from their immigrant group. At an office party, they will not veer towards colleagues from their immigrant group. When they name their five closest friends, these will not be people from their country of origin. These are people who have assimilated.
This is why I like to say that the best thing my parents ever did was move to the New Jersey suburbs and be around normal Americans, mostly third or fourth generation immigrant descendants with some ethnic touches but who were otherwise normal Americans. If I go to south Florida, it feels like the Twilight Zone with virtually nothing in English and Spanish everything, I come from a Hispanic background and I find it off-putting.
My fatter assimilated to the point where his favorite groups were the Beatles and later Led Zeppelin and his favorite sports were baseball and NFL football, he spoke with a New Jersey accent. My siblings are assimilated to the point that we listen to lots of rock, I read loads of fantasy and history books, and my brothers watch loads of anime and my older brother builds Warhammer kits and listens to death metal. So you could say we are the whitest Hispanic people you’ll ever meet
That’s exactly what I’m saying. Assimilation goes against nature and requires specific effort.
Dude, even I need to ask questions about how things work and why. Thirty years in and zero friends in the immigrant community. And I still prefer the food from back home and movies from my Soviet childhood. It’s not bad. It’s human nature. Mass migration is against human nature.
A conservative literary critic and college professor
Leave a comment