Immigration Assimilation

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The nineteenth and twentieth centuries brought forth new attitudes regarding race which paved the way for new laws. Due to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, discrimination based on race was outlawed. In 1965, the Immigration Act resulted in the influx of immigrants which brought about the New Wave immigration. The new immigrants were composed of professionals, workers who accepted small unskilled jobs, and refugees torn apart by the war, translocation, and trauma at the end of Vietnam War.
Erika Lee states, "Once here, Asian immigrants have ‘become American’ by becoming U.S. citizens when they could and by participating in American life. Most recently, the ‘rise of Asian-Americans’ as the ‘highest-income, best-educated and fasted-growing racial …show more content…
immigrants face tremendous challenges as they attempt to assimilate into the American society while struggling to maintain their ethnic and cultural identity. They have been victims of police brutality, riots, and looting of businesses by locals only because of their race. The American society has several biases that make it hard for immigrants to be accepted into the political, economic, and social structure. However, innovations in technology like e-mail and telephone have improved the process of keeping their ethnic identity while they adjust to the …show more content…
Asian-Americans usually get cast into background or minor roles more often than other minorities. The characters that appear in American media affect how outsiders regard Asian­Americans and how Asian-Americans regard themselves. Historically, Asian-Americans were portrayed using stereotypes like the perpetual foreigner (unassimilated immigrants), the yellow peril (vicious criminals), and the exotic geisha (submissive sexual objects). Modern-day television shows continue to maintain Asian-American stereotypes by casting them in roles as sidekicks of the leading character or as having strict, domineering parents. They are also often seen as evil villains, servants, submissive individuals, unfriendly people, undesirable partners, and masters of Kung Fu. White people, on the other hand, are considered superior and more attractive, and other races are considered ugly. The presence of Asian-Americans in the plot is hardly addressed as it focuses mainly on the dominant white culture. Places and cultures related to the Asian culture are most often used just as a backdrop for white-centered plots. Also, the tokenized role of Asian-Americans only means that the media includes this minority group to represent diversity but their presence does not have any significance. This may result in Asian-Americans feeling irrelevant with the role given to them. They are glorified in work environments
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