Asian American Family Midterm

Front 1

Functionalism

Back 1

* views society as a system of INTERRELATED PARTS
* family, education, economics, religion, politics
* work for the well-being of the whole (like the human body)
* 2 questions: what does it do? what consequences does it have?
* manifest (obvious) functions vs. latent (less obvious) functions

Front 2

Conflict Theory

Back 2

* sees the existence of inequalities: those with power vs. those without power
* Marxian terminology
* powerful exploit the labor of powerless
* other areas (i.e. family) mirror the inequalities of society
* family is one of the most violent social institutions (abuse between siblings, partners, spouses)

Front 3

Symbolic Interactionism

Back 3

Cooley: "the looking glass self"
society is a mirror in which we observe how others react to us; we form who we are from reactions and form positive/negative self image

Mead: taking the role of the other: looking at yourself through another's perspective
much drawn from social psychology
how to explain divorce
* sociologists more concerned with global than individual reasons
* increased divorce rate due to reduction of stigma of divorce, not that people were happier with lover divorce rate; also, meaning of divorce changed

Front 4

Nuclear family of orientation

Back 4

the family we're born into

Front 5

Nuclear family of procreation

Back 5

the family we create as adults

Front 6

Primary group

Back 6

small groups with intense intimate interactions and relationships
examples: family, small group of friends

Front 7

Secondary groups

Back 7

larger, less intimate groups where members do not have personal knowledge of each other
example: this class

Front 8

Kitano and Daniels

Back 8

Historical Circumstances
* Goals and expectations hinder or enable adaptation
example: if an immigrant does not plan to stay permanently, will not bother to learn the language
Demographic Factors
* young people will pick up the language more so than older generations
* level of education, social class
Cultural Factors
* what are the cultural values you bring with you
o Barriers within society
 Prejudice/discrimination
• Attitude/acts
o Relationship between host country and home country
 Do they trade
 Treaties
o National and international economy
 In global recession increased hostility toward immigrant workers

Front 9

Split household families

Back 9

1848 - 1920
not economically feasible for the rest of the family to come
Gold Rush = America is Gold Mountain

Front 10

Production

Back 10

income generation
economic aspects of the family

Front 11

Reproduction of Family

Back 11

Having children
Maintaining family, home, social relationships
Socialization of children
* how we acquire our sense of self
* lifelong learning process through which a child learns and internalizes the values, goals, and expectations of society
* taking care of the elder

Front 12

Confucianism and the Family

Back 12

o 5 Cardinal relationships
 Husband-wife
 Parent-child
 Older sibling – younger sibling
 Emperor/king – subject
 Friend – friend
o Three of the five relationships are within the family
o All but friend-friend are hierarchical
 By gender and age
o Filial piety
 Incorporates reciprocity of duty
 Children must care for parents in senior years
o While all children were desired, male children were favored
 Economics
• Male children took care of parents
 Patrilineal society
• Family name, property, etc taken by sons
 Sons viewed as permanent members of family
• Daughters were temporary visitors
o After marriage, they left
 Confucianism does not just focus on living family
• Current family is doing well because of contributions of ancestors
• Ancestral graves
o Rites performed by sons of the family

Front 13

Small Producer Family

Back 13

1920 - 1965
INTERDEPENDENCE of family as an economic unit
o Before the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act
o Small businesses, register themselves as merchants, bring their wife and family
o Extremely low divorce rate
o Women to some degree could exert their own selfhood
 In-laws were not present
o Women were the emotional centers of their families
 Children often did not know their fathers very well
o Role reversal in families
 Once children had lives outside of their homes, they often became the navigators of American culture for their parents

Front 14

Diverse Chinese American Family

Back 14

1965 and after

o Working class immigrant families
 Usually bring fewer skills in terms of job specialization
 Some come with very little capital, economic resources
 Tend to settle in and around Chinatown
• Ethnic enclave
o Advantages
 Familiar food (spices, groceries), language, cheaper housing, services available (legal, medical, social) to help navigate new environment
o Disadvantages
 Exploitation by co-ethnics
• Low wages
• Threats, intimidation
• Almost no benefits
• Long hours at work
• Few breaks
• Poor working conditions
 No upward mobility
 Separate existence
• Isolation from the rest of society
• Obstacle to acculturation
 Family life suffers
• Both husband and wife have to work long hours at low-paying jobs
• Little time for each other
• Older siblings become like surrogate parents
o Or, latch key kids
 The key is left for the children
 They come home to an empty house
 Do chores/watch tv/do homework by themselves
• Reproductive aspects suffer
• Enclave economy at first seems to have advantages for newly-arrived working class families
o Jobs available catering to ethnic clientele
o If you came with some capital, you may not take this job
 But it helps you survive for the time being
 May instead exhaust almost all of your capital on learning language and/or a job skill, then getting a better job
• Poorer immigrants did not have this option
o Professional immigrant families
 Come with knowledge, education, social capital
• Job skills, specialization, may have western-style education
• Familiar with western ideas, food, culture, values
 Both husbands and wives usually educated
 May, soon after arrival, sponsor arrival of children
 May be egalitarian lifestyle within family
• In husband-wife relationships
o Equality in decision-making, childcare, domestic work, labor
o Make time for family

Front 15

Chinese Exclusion Act

Back 15

o 1882
o Intended to suspend the entry of Chinese laborers for ten years
o Extended in 1892 and 1902 and again indefinitely in 1904
o Chinese population declined from 105,465 in 1880 to 61,639 in 1920

Front 16

Immigration Reform Act 1965

Back 16

o Civil Rights Movement inspired change
 Were all-encompassing for humanity
 Asian immigrants benefited
o Economic inequality
 False concept that foreigners hurt economy
 A certain amount of foreigners improve the economy
 The U.S. needed labor

Front 17

One-step-up Enclave

Back 17

o While they maintain close ties with Chinatown, they have frequent communication with other ethnic groups
o May one day replace other ethnic enclaves
o Mostly made up of immigrants who already have resided in the U.S. for several years
o Most households are complete family units, rather than single persons or non-traditional families
o Asian Americans moving into a one-step-up enclave intend to settle down despite the lack of ample resources
o Even if their financial situation improves, many residents may decide to stay rather than leave for a suburban enclave

Front 18

New Immigrant Enclave

Back 18

o Situated in places with the lowest median household income
o More single persons or incomplete
o Cost is a determinant factor in residents’ choices of residence
 Poor housing facilities
 High crime rate
 Noise pollution
 Poor school systems
o New immigrants hindered by informational, cultural, and language barriers

Front 19

Suburban Enclave

Back 19

o May have higher median income than the rest of the city
o Residents still share concerns with other enclaves
 More likely to think that the police did not treat them with respect
o Residents are mostly professionals and entrepreneurs

Front 20

Differences between Japanese and Chinese Immigration

Back 20

Southern China vs. all of Japan
China not cohesive vs. Japan was a world power
More Japanese women than Chinese women
Japanese women better educated, "more adventurous"
Japanese government saw the ills of the bachelor society, attempted to even the odds
Japanese patrilineal, but only the eldest son inherited

Front 21

Issei

Back 21

a. Traditional Japanese values
b. Patriarchal families
c. Mostly arranged marriages
d. Limited communication between husband and wife
e. Focus on children (all for the sake of the children)
f. Traditional marriages
g. Father authoritarian
h. Children sent to Japanese school to learn Japanese culture and language

Front 22

Nisei

Back 22

i. Were the translators for the Issei
ii. Were taught by their parents
a. Duty, mutual obligation, strength, endurance
b. Importance of education
i. To overcome handicap of being visible minority
iii. View of the world
a. Limited knowledge of Japanese
b. Language was a barrier between parents and children
c. Felt their “two-ness” with the world
i. Lives of their identities bifocated
iv. American born children of Issei
v. Bi-cultural identity
vi. Marriages based on choice
vii. Marriages mostly within the Japanese-American community
viii. Many had college education

Front 23

Sansei

Back 23

i. Post-WWII era
a. Issei = pre-WWII
ii. Issei finally had a chance to become American citizens
iii. Discriminatory land laws repealed
iv. Housing policies were no longer discriminatory
v. Nisei did not have their children go to Japanese schools
vi. Became much more acculturated
a. Extremely limited knowledge of the Japanese culture
b. Rather than strong ethnic identity, focus more on symbolic ethnicity
c. Focus on American culture
d. Married outside their group in record numbers
i. Endogamy  exogamy
vii. Sansei low in ethnic identity, high in acculturation
a. Issei high in ethnic identity, low in acculturation