The discussion of Asian American immigration is huge in America, as a large population has immigrated for years. In the readings “A New Gold Mountain” and “A Quality Education for Whom?” we discussed the effects of Asian immigration to America. In class, we talked about how capitalists encouraged migration because of the expendable labor force from Asia. Back in the 1900s, Asians were thought as more skilled and needed minimal supervision to complete jobs; therefore, they were considered better workers than Blacks. With a massive influx of Asians entering America, the government started regulating and denying a chance of naturalization. America did not want Asian children; therefore, they banned all prostitutes and women from entering the United States. Which easily backfired as Asian men started having inter-racial babies. In 1917, the government banned all Asians from entering the United States. The government revoked that act in 1965. The reading actively discussed the segregation of Asian Americans in the 1950s and 1960s, my question for the class was, why did the negative view on Asian American’s suddenly change in 1970?

Asian American’s slowly infiltrated America as simple workers to community shareholders in Silicon Valley. The shift between being an immigrant to being a regular middle-class neighbor happened quickly, and before anyone could control it, Fremont became a community-driven by Asian Americans. The schools became one of the top and most competitive in the country. Some stereotypes from the early 1900s fall within the Asian American “persona” and continue today. The stereotypes that Asians are smarter, faster, and cleaner, have dragged on for decades. Fremont is a type of ethnic community discussed in class. Dan and Elaine talked about their adoration for the Asian community built around them. They talked about how people moved into Fremont, specifically for the living environment and market resources. It reminded people of their hometowns.

For my second question, I wanted to dive into the idea of good and bad segregation. It is a tough question, and people seemed to fall into the idea that Asian Americans enjoy their segregation. A lot of times, immigrants have language barriers they do not want to overcome. Living in an all Asian community like Chinatown allows people that do not speak English to live their lives normally. Everyone around them speaks and does the same things as them. A classmate talked about how his grandmother refused to move from her segregated Haitian neighborhood because she knew the people around her and felt the most at home. The one point brought up against this type of segregation was the lack of public transportation to and from these minority communities. For example, in San Francisco’s Chinatown, there is no transportation access to Union Square, blocking a lot of Asians from going in and out of their communities. This lack of transportation is an example of bad segregation because the government is purposely excluding a group of people from the rest of the city. I think there needs to be a balance in segregation and integration.