The Making of Asian America: A History

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2015

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction, Part 1, Chapters 1-2

Part 2, Chapters 3-4

Part 2, Chapters 5-6

Part 2, Chapters 7-9

Part 3, Chapters 10-12

Part 4, Chapters 13-14

Part 4, Chapters 15-16

Part 5, Chapter 17-Epilogue

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Part 4, Chapters 15-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 4: “Remaking Asian America in a Globalized World”

Chapter 15 Summary: “Making a New Home: Hmong Refugees and Hmong Americans”

Starting from 1975, over a million Southeast Asians immigrated to the United States and “transformed America’s involvement in refugee issues around the world” (334). Among them was more than 250,000 Hmong fleeing Laos. In the US, they had to adjust to the cold climates of the Midwest and northeastern states, changes in gender roles, and new technology.

The policy of spreading refugees throughout the US “meant that the first arrivals found themselves scattered across the states with few support networks” (335). By 1990, 65% of Hmong in the US were unemployed, while gang activity was on the rise. The media portrayed the Hmong “in stereotypical and demeaning ways” presenting them as “primitive and backward peoples” (337). As a result, some Hmong faced racially-inspired violence, such as having Molotov cocktails thrown at their public housing.

The goal of the 1980 Refugee Act was to solve some of the problems that refugees faced. However, it “restricted the number of refugees admitted into the country and imposed new regulations on where they would be resettled” (341). Despite its professed humanitarianism, such legislation “actually slowed the admission of Southeast Asian refugees” (341). At the same time, the act allowed asylum seekers already in the US to obtain permanent residence.

Minnesota was one of the key states to receive Hmong refugees. Eventually, a Hmong community arose in Minnesota, and Hmong from other states relocated there. Family reunification was another important goal. This area transformed into the largest Hmong community in the US The Hmong established their own institutions, such as the Association for the Advancement of Hmong Women in Minnesota. Mee Moua eventually became the first Hmong American to serve in a state legislature.

In the 21st century, “Hmong Americans represent a diverse community in the midst of great growth and change” (348). The Hmong also became entrepreneurs and engaged in farming. The struggles they face are like those of other Asian American groups, such as a low per capita income per the 2010 census. Media stereotypes and discrimination are another problem. Multiracial organizations, in which the Hmong participate, include Community Action Against Racism (CAAR). Finally, Hmong women continue to challenge the patriarchal gender norms within their community.

Chapter 16 Summary: “Transnational Immigrants and Global Americans”

In the 21st century, many Asian Americans are “simultaneously rooted” in the US and their country of origin. They can pursue education and successful employment in the United States while simultaneously staying engaged with their home country in different ways, such as sending money to support their family there. The socioeconomic success in the United States, combined with strong ethnocultural identities and family ties to their country of origin, allows such Asian Americans to pursue “transnational lives” (357). Anthropologist Aihwa Ong describes them as “flexible citizens” (358).

However, this status depends on the relationship between the United States and the home countries, as well as national security concerns. In some cases, transnationalism is viewed positively, while in others it is seen as a threat. The “return” to Asia shows that “the United States is no longer the only preferred destination for many prospective immigrants” (367). For them, US citizenship translates into higher salaries and greater mobility.

In family units, flexible citizens feature the “astronaut” father concept, who travels back and forth across the Pacific. His wife and children live in the US, in some cases, to earn resident status. Such family relationships challenge gender and family roles. “Parachute kids” may live in the US alone or with caregivers, while their parents stay in Asia or travel back and forth (360). These are not simply international students but ones “whose family is attempting to live concurrently in two societies” (360). “Transnational mothers” living abroad are another category. They leave their children in their home countries “and almost always work in gendered female positions of domestic service, teaching, or healthcare” (360).

Some foreign countries, such as Vietnam and India, invite foreign capital, including their very own diaspora. Others, like the Philippines, form transnational organizations. Asians living in more than one society “are also active in affecting social and political change in their homelands” (364). Some Asian Americans are transnational specifically within the Americas, for instance between the US, Brazil, and China. Finally, intermarriage leads to the establishment of “a growing community of mixed-race Asian Latinos” (367).

Chapters 15-16 Analysis

The first theme in this section is The Impact of Immigration Law on Asian Americans. This theme is related to the historical Empire, Colonialism, and Asian Immigration discussed earlier. The author identifies a relationship between the American containment foreign policy used to invade Vietnam and bomb neighboring Cambodia and Laos and the plight of Laotian Hmong refugees in the US after 1975. As discussed earlier, the CIA used Hmong soldiers to its own advantage in this context, which, in part, led to the reprisals of the Hmong people afterward. Lee argues:

The role of memory and history—including documenting past practices of US imperialism in Southeast Asia and continuing inequalities and human rights abuses for Hmong people—also affects the multiple ways in which Hmong Americans express their identities in local and global contexts (354).

Thus, the flight of Hmong refugees to the US was largely caused by US foreign policy in the region. At the same time, it transformed the US relationship with refugees. However, the resettlement of the Hmong in America not only involved the need to adjust to a completely new environment and even climate, but it also underestimated the war trauma experienced by this group. The author examines the challenges that the Hmong faced as a result. The formation of their immigrant community in Minnesota is an important contribution to understanding how such communities are formed—a sub-theme in this book.

Lee also develops the Asian Immigration in the Framework of Race, Gender, and Class theme in this section. First, she examines the clash between the clannish and patriarchal gender roles practiced by the Hmong in Laos historically and their adjustment to their more egalitarian counterparts in the United States. Second, the author unpacks a new immigrant category: flexible immigrants who lead transnational lives between two or more countries. These immigrants and their intact family units, living separately, “bump up against everyday realities that challenge prior arrangements, expectations, and family and gender roles” (359). For example, “transnational mothers,” the breadwinners, generally live away from their children for long periods of time.

The objective of this lifestyle is to maintain ties with the new home and the ancestral homeland simultaneously and to improve socioeconomic circumstances—a rebranded version of the American Dream. This lifestyle also highlights the fact that, because of globalization, the United States is no longer the only preferred destination.