Asian Americans Then and Now

Linking Past to Present

There are important parallels between European and Asian immigration history, especially in terms of how individuals responded to the "pushes" and "pulls" in their homelands and then faced contadictory experiences of discrimination and opportunity the U.S. However, the "push-pull" model commonly used to explain European immigration, like the melting pot paradigm of immigrant assimilation, does not explain the fundamental differences in patterns of Asian immigration and exclusion.
These differences can only be understood by recognizing critical features of the historical period, including:

the reality of western colonialism and unequal power relations in Asia;
the insatiable need for cheap labor that accompanied manifest destiny westward expansion and economic development in the United States; and
the influence on social policy and public attitudes that resulted from lack of knowledge about Asian peoples, and racist notions of white superiority.

Though many are familiar with Ellis Island as a symbol of America's immigration history, few realize that Angel Island—a comparable immigration detention center for the West Coast—was the site where immigration policy was enforced during the Asian exclusion years. Angel Island represents an important counterpoint to Ellis Island and the saga of American immigration history.

Between 1910 and 1940, hopeful Chinese immigrants were detained at Angel Island where they were required to undergo humiliating medical examinations and detailed interrogations. Questions ranged from "What are the birthdates of each member of your family?" to "Who lived in the third house of the second row of your village?" Failed answers were grounds for continued detainment and eventual deportation back to China.

In 1970, a park ranger discovered sets of Chinese characters carved into the wooden walls of the barracks. Now recognized as an historic Iandmark, the Angel Island detention center bears witness to the bitterness and frustration of excluded Chinese immigrants who carved more than one hundred poems into the walls.

Although minor reforms in immigration law, due to changing international relations, allowed for limited numbers of Asians to enter the United States following the World War II era, United States immigration laws remained discriminatory toward Asians until 1965 when, in response to the civil rights movement, non-restrictive annual quotas of 20,000 immigrants per country were established. For the first time in United States history, large numbers of Asians were able to come to the United States as families. In addition, due to the United States' eagerness for technology during the Cold War, foreign engineers and scientists were also encouraged to emigrate to the United States. The dramatic changes in the Asian Pacific American landscape during the past twenty years, particularly with the explosive growth of new Filipino, Korean, South Asian Indian, and Chinese populations have resulted from the liberalization of immigration laws in 1965.

Beginning in 1975, Southeast Asian refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos have entered the United States after escaping from war, social chaos, discrimination, and economic hardship. Roughly one million Southeast Asians, including about 30,000 Amerasian children of American servicemen and their families, have entered the United States since then through a variety of refugee resettlement and immigration programs.

Refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos each have distinct cultures, languages, and contexts of historical development. Although each country shares certain influences from their common history as a French colonial territory for nearly a century until 1954, Vietnam is much more culturally influenced by China while Cambodia and Laos have been more influenced by India. Within each country, there are Chinese and other ethnic minority populations such as the Hmong, Mien, and Khmer from Laos.

Many cases also link the present to the past. The experiences of personal struggle, economic contribution, racial harassment, and discriminatory legislation targeting Vietnamese fishermen in California's Monterey Bay during the 1980s, for example, are almost identical to those of earlier generations of Japanese and Chinese fishermen who successively fished in Monterey Bay during the late 1800s and early 1900s.