Earning the model‐minority image: Diverse strategies of economic adaptation by Asian‐American women

Immigration and Ethnic and Racial Inequality in the United States

“…2. The extra effort and household strategies Asian Americans are forced to use to overcome continuing discrimination, and the costs of that effort (Caplan et a1 1989, Kibria 1994, Rumbaut 1989, Yamanaka & McClelland 1994, Hurh & Kwang 1989, Espenshade & Ye 1994. These researchers stress the fact that many Asians avoid extreme poverty or welfare depen dence through hard work and long hours that take physical and psychic tolls on individuals and families.…”

Household extension and employment among Asian immigrant women in the US

“…For immigrants, duration of residence is an important precursor of knowledge and resources needed to function in the labor market of the host country, including language skills as well as formal credentials and licenses. For those from more traditional societies, longer duration increases women's exposure to social norms regarding dual-earner roles (Schoeni 1998;Yamanaka and McClelland 1994;but see Long 1980). These factors may influence both the ability to get a job and the potential wages offered, which in turn affect immigrant employment rates.…”

“…Heterogeneity in social class, income, and demographic profiles within Asian immigrants partly explain these inequalities (e.g. Allard 2011 ;Espiritu 2008;Espiritu 1999;Cohen and Read 2007;Ishii-Kuntz 2000;Read 2004;Wong and Hirschman 1983;Yamanaka and McClelland 1994), which may be due to immigration policies differentially selecting demographic groups from different nationalities (Chow 1994: 206). While many Filipino women came as nurses, for example (Choy 2003), most Asian immigrant women came for family reunification or as spouse dependents of skilled labor migrants (Raj and Silverman 2002).…”

Labour‐market participation of Asian Indian immigrant women in the greater Kansas City Metropolitan Area, USA

“…It considers gender as a pre-market phenomenon and ignores those immigrant women who are independent and well educated and therefore able to ®nd highly skilled jobs in the primary sector (Humphrey, 1987). Yamanaka and McClelland (1994) indicated that the braindrain phenomenon, especially among Asian Indians and Filipinos, challenges any simplistic dual-economy assumptions that automatically place female immigrants in the peripheral sector.…”

“…Also, refuting concepts of the model minority, Yamanaka and McClelland (1994) commented that highly-educated Asian American women have to work more hours per year and more consistently throughout the life cycle to achieve economic parity with whites. These researchers believe that labourmarket perspectives, like the assimilation theory, the dual economy theory, the ethnic enclave theory, and the model minority theory, have different implications for different groups of immigrant women.…”