“I Just Couldn’t Relate to That Asian American Narrative”: How Southeast Asian Americans Reconsider Panethnicity

Abstract

Asian American panethnicity was conceptualized to unify ethnic groups and represent their sociopolitical interests. Increasingly however, scholars have questioned whether panethnicity accurately reflects the diversity of different ethnic groups’ experiences and identities. In mainstream culture, “Asian American” has become synonymous with East Asian Americans and stereotypes—albeit biased ones—of their affluence, thus erasing the realities of working-class, South, and Southeast Asian Americans (SEAAs). I focus on the last group and join other scholars in emphasizing how ethnic groups’ unique historical relationships with the United States differentially impact their racial identities and attachments to panethnicity. Using 62 interviews with Southeast Asian refugees and service providers in North Carolina, I explore how a term I call “quiet neglect”—the U.S. institutionalized silence around the Vietnam and Secret Wars that has led to an erasure of SEAAs’ needs—shape their connections to Asian American panethnicity and decision to align with alternative identities. At stake in this study is our capacity to recognize individuals’ agency to challenge racial boundaries and assert identities that they find meaningful. In addition, I examine how SEAAs situate themselves within our broader racial structure and harness their identities to connect with other people of color.

One and Many Asian America: Intra-Asian Ethnic Boundaries and Intermarriage

“…Not only are refugee-origin groups more disadvantaged socioeconomically, but they are also perceived differently from other Asians in general. Their refugee-specific socioeconomic vulnerabilities, downward mobility patterns, and physical distance from other Asians (Kelly 1986; Ngo and Lee 2007; Yamashita 2022), coupled with a distinctive preference for their national-origin identities over hyphenated and Asian American identities (Zhou and Xiong 2005), may have contributed to more pronounced symbolic and socioeconomic boundaries between Southeast Asians and others. Interestingly, refugee-origin Southeast Asians themselves may be aware of their differently situated positions from other Asians, as their own symbolic boundary patterns mirror those of other Asian groups.…”

“…As refugees, these groups were geographically dispersed into areas with little to no established Asian population and funneled into low-skill, minimum-wage labor sectors, despite the generous resettlement support and resources they received from the U.S. government upon arrival (Gordon 1987;Kelly 1986;Ngo and Lee 2007). Furthermore, the waning governmental support for refugees over time contributes to continuous downward mobility or lagged achievement of upward mobility in the 1.5 and second generation, relative to other Asian ethnic groups (Yamashita 2022;Zhou and Bankston 2020). Due to such socioeconomic disadvantages, many Southeast Asian Americans exhibit low pan-ethnic salience and ideologically align more closely with their urban African American peers than other Asian Americans (S. J.…”

“…In conceptualizing Asian Americans as a unified social group, scholars have mostly focused on their shared structural characteristics and sociocultural experiences (Espiritu 1992;Okamoto 2007). More recently, researchers began to question this homogenizing approach and show that Asian Americans categorically distinguish one another as they occupy different structural locations by ethnicity and in relation to other ethnoracial groups (Ocampo 2013(Ocampo , 2014Schachter 2014;Yamashita 2022). Still, how Asian Americans make sense of ethnic heterogeneity and sustain the larger collectivity remains unclear.…”

Predicting group consciousness among Asian Americans: Considering commonalities, shared interests, panethnic group identification, and linked fate

“…This is especially concerning as many Asian Americans, despite the ongoing racialization and discrimination they face as a panethnic group, still do not sense commonalities with other Asian people on issues such as race, politics, and identity (Lee & Ramakrishnan, 2021). Such disunification is often because of the tremendous diversity within the Asian American population and the marginalization of some Asian ethnicities in converstations about Asian America (Lee & Ramakrishnan, 2021; Yamashita, 2022).…”

“…Generating group consciousness may then prove to be quite challenging. Some Asian ethnic groups, such as South Asians and Southeast Asians, are often left out of the Asian American narrative due to the common conflation of “Asian‐ness” with East Asians (Lee & Ramakrishnan, 2020; Yamashita, 2022). As well, ethnic groups such as Japanese who have longstanding connections to the United States, higher rates of interracial marriage, and relatively higher social mobility often sense less connection with other Asian Americans and their Asian American identity more broadly (Tsuda, 2021).…”