The Second Wave: The Recent Asian Immigration

1. The Second Wave:The Recent Asian Immigration

2. The Immigration Act of 1965 • Abolished the national-origins quotas and provided for the annual admission of 170,000 immigrants from the Eastern Hemisphere and 120,000 from the Western Hemisphere. • 20,000 immigrants per country would be allowed to enter from the Eastern Hemisphere; exempted from the quota would be immediate family members (spouses, minor children, and parents of US citizens)

3. Ramifications of the new law • Represented a sharp ideological departure from the traditional view of America as a homogeneous white society • Basis for the law in the Civil Rights Movement which offered a counter-vision: the time had come for revising America’s immigration policy and the old notions of who could become an American

4. Shift from Necessity to Extravagance • Immigrants not pushed from their homelands in Asia by “necessity” but rather pulled to America by “extravagance”

5. How did the second wave newcomers differ from the earlier immigrants? • Professionals and people from the urban centers • Fewer Japanese due to Japan’s post WWII economic expansion and its greater demand for labor.

6. What were the motives of these second wave newcomers for coming to the US? • Refuge from political conflict and instability (ie. China’s Cultural Revolution and Mao, Vietnam War) • Economic Opportunities

7. Chinese Immigrants • Settled in two states, California & New York where they revitalized Chinatowns • Originated from urban areas in China and included Mandarin as well as Cantonese speakers • Created a bi-polar Chinese-American community: colonized working class & entrepreneurial, professional middle class

8. Chinatown-San Francisco

9. Chinatown-Manhattan

10. Special Difficulties • Women employed largely in garment industry, men in restaurants • Children of Second Wave Chinese feel the confinement and boundaries surrounding their parents and their own lives.

11. FilipinoImmigrants • Not concentrated in Manila towns • Originated from cities rather than rural areas • Mostly professionals: engineers, scientist, accountants, teachers, lawyers, nurses and doctors • Motivated to immigrate by the repressive regime of President Ferdinand Marcos

13. A Filipina health care professional

14. Korean Immigrants • Recent Korean immigrants are rooted in the college-educated middle class • Many medical professionals – but many doctors often found themselves confined to inner-city hospitals and shunned by white doctors.

15. Korean Green Groceries • “In fruits and vegetables, traditionally an immigrants business, first it was Jews, when it entered in the Washington market area, then Italians. And now up in the Bronx, it’s the Koreans.” (Takaki, Strangers, 440) • Kae – Credit rotating system brought from Korea to help finance grocery stores

16. Ethnic Solidarity for Economic Survival

17. Korean Greengrocer at night in NYC

18. A Greengrocer in the 1980’s

19. A Decline in Greengrocers • Rising rents and competition from larger grocery chains • Prosperity of South Korea translates into a decline of Korean immigrants at the turn of the 21st century • South Koreans move out of the industry either into upscale business like organic grocery stores or become professionals

20. Asian Indian Immigrants • Many Pakistani newcomers • Highly educated, from the major cities in India and Pakistan • Arrival to the US is economically motivated

21. Asian Indian Americans in Politics: Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana

22. Nikki RandhawaHaley, Governor of South Carolina

23. Refugees from Southeast Asia:Vietnamese, Laotians, Hmong, and Mien • Many Vietnamese refugees came to the US after the Vietnam War. • Lao was colonized by the French in 893. After WWII, Laotian nationalists led by the Pathet Lao (Communists) began their struggle to overthrow French colonialism. As soon as Lao was established as independent in 1954, civil strife broke out between the Royal Lao and the Pathet Lao. The US supported the Royal Lao. In 1975, when the Pathet Lao took power, many ethnic Lao, Mien, and Hmong People fled to the US.

24. Plight of the Lao, Mien and Hmong People • Americans generally do not know who they are or why they are here • Unskilled except in farming

25. Hmong in Kansas City

26. Hmong in Kansas City • Kansas City was among the first cities to take in Hmong refugees. The Kansas Historical Society documented the history of the immigrant community as part of its Kansas Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program. This story cloth was purchased from a refugee center in Kansas City in 1989. The Society's Kansas Museum of History has several other items from Kansas City's Hmong settlement in its collection.

27. Issues faced by Second WaveAsian Americans • The Myth of the Model Minority • Racial Intolerance and Violence • Interethnic Conflict • Assimilation yet maintenance of one’s cultural identity (ie. Banana or Twinkie) • Gaining political voice in mainstream society

28. The Myth of the Model Minority • In 1986, NBC Nightly News and the McNeil/Lehrer Report aired a special news segment on Asian Americans and their success. • 1987, 60 Minutes presented a glowing report on their stunning achievements in the academy. • Newsweek titled a cover story of its college campus magazine, “Asian Americans: A Model Minority.”

29. Helen Zia

30. Helen Zia • American journalist and scholar who has covered Asian-American issues • Born in 1952, in New Jersey, to 1st generation immigrants from Shanghai, China • One of the 1st women to graduate from Princeton • Worked as a construction worker, autoworkers, and community organizer • Became a journalist and writers • Publicly acknowledged she is a lesbian, advocate of same-sex marriage

31. Vincent Chin (1955-1982)

32. Who is Vincent Chin? • A young draftsman from Detroit, who moonlighted as a waiter at night • Recent graduate of Control Data Institute, a computer trade school • 2nd generation Chinese-American: Father David Bing Hing Chin worked in laundries all his life until he died in 1981, and served in the Army during WWII • His mother, Lily, worked in laundries alongside her husband

34. Vincent Chin • In 1961, Chins adopted a six year old Vincent from Guangdong Province in China • Friendly young man • Ran track in high school, but also wrote poetry

35. The murder of Vincent Chin • June 19, 1982: Vincent attends his bachelor party at Fancy Pants, a strip joint in Highland Park, a tattered enclave of Detroit • Ronald Ebens, a plant superintendent for Chrysler and his stepson, Michael Nitz, a laid-off autoworkers were at the bar and made it clear that they found Vincent’s presence distasteful.

36. Ronald Ebens

37. Michael Nitz

38. The Murder of Vincent Chin • “It’s because of motherfuckers like you that we’re out of work.” • Ebens and Nitz hunted for Chin. • In front a McDonalds, Nitz held Chin down while his stepfather swung his Louisville Slugger baseball bat into Vincent’s skull four times, “as if he was going for a home run.”

39. Timeline • June 23, 1982 – Vincent Chin dies as a result of his injuries. • March 16, 1983, Wayne County Judge Charles Kaufman finds Ebens and Nitz guilty of manslaughter after a plea bargain and sentences each of them to three years probation, a $3,000 fine, and $780 in court fees. The prosecuting attorney is not present and neither Chin's mother nor any witnesses is called to testify.

40. Judge Charles Kaufman

41. Kaufman quote: • “These aren’t the kind of men you send to jail. You fit the punishment to the criminal, not the crime.” • “You have raised the ugly ghost of racism, suggesting in your explanation that the lives of the killers are of great and continuing value to society, implying they are of greater value than the life of the slain victim” (Nikki McWhirter, Detroit Free Press)

42. Timeline (con’t) • November 1983 - The U.S. Justice Department, following an FBI investigation, files charges and a federal grand jury indicts Ebens and Nitz on two counts - one for violating Chin's civil rights, the other for conspiracy. • June 1984 - Ebens is found guilty of violating Chin's civil rights but not of conspiracy. He is sentenced to 25 years in prison, but is released on a $20,000 bond. Nitz is cleared of both charges. • September 1986 - Ebens' conviction is overturned by a federal appeals court on a legal technicality; an American Citizens for Justice attorney is accused of improperly coaching prosecution witnesses. • April 1987 - Under intense public pressure, the Justice Department orders a retrial, but this time in a new venue: Cincinnati.

43. Timeline (con’t) • May 1987 - The Cincinnati jury clears Ebens of all charges. • July 1987 - A civil suit orders Ebens to pay $1.5 million to Chin's estate as part of a court-approved settlement. However, Ebens disposes of his assets and flees the state. He has not paid any of the settlement. • September 1987 - Disgusted with the country's legal system, Lily Chin, Vincent Chin's mother, leaves the U.S. and moves back to her native village in Guangzhou province in China.

44. Lily Chin

45. Discussion • What type of atmosphere allowed for this violent a hate crime to occur? • What it racially motivated? Why are there questions about whether or not the murder was racially motivated? • Economics or race?

46. Detroit: The Atmosphere • A city in crisis as the “new poor” develops • “Men and women lost homes, cars, recreational vehicles, summer cottages, and possessions accumulated from a lifetime of hard work in a once-thriving industry.” • In 1978, a new oil crisis and price hikes at the gas pumps killed the market for heavy, eight-cylinder vehicles made in Detroit. • This precipitated massive layoffs and economic crisis in the Midwest.

47. Japan becomes the target • The Japanese auto imports were everything the gas-guzzlers were not – cheap to buy, cheap to run, well made and dependable. They were easy to hate. • Union sponsored sledge-hammer events. • Japanese cars vandalized and owners shot on the freeway • Politicians and local media took part in the Japan bashing.

48. What significance did the murder of Vincent Chin have on the Asian-American Community? • Formation of the ACJ, American Citizens for Justice • Pan-Asian unity – different ethnic groups come together to voice their outrage at the injustice of the crime and the trial outcome • Set precedent for Asian Americans taking legal action against racial violence. Galvanized the Asian American community to speak out and organized against racial injustice.

49. Reaching out to the African-American Community • Mixed reaction: solidarity and support, accusations of riding the coattails of African Americans, accusations of prejudice against blacks • A nagging doubt that Asian Americans had no legitimate place in discussions of racism because we hadn’t really suffered any.”

50. Who Killed Vincent Chin? (1987)- nominated for Academy AwardBy Christine Choy & Renee Tajima