Asian American women study - Essay Example

These racial and gender complexities served to define what became of Asian American women who moved to the united states in the pre-1965 period. It is worth noting that it was not easy for Asian women to move into the United States even when they wanted to. The exclusion and restriction principles saw many women barred from gaining entry into the United States despite their husbands working in America. The application of the restriction law only contributed to the formulation of multiple barriers that served to prohibit Asian women from joining their husbands in the United States (Espiritu 45).

For example, the proportion of Chinese women in comparison to men was very low, placing emphasis on the level on the gender constraint placed on women who expressed interest of immigration into the United States (Chan 117) Evidently, Asian women faced the detrimental effects of the American immigration policy compelling some of them to file lawsuits. In many of these litigation cases, they lost and had to give up the prospect of being able to unite with their husbands and sometimes their children who accessed immigration permits easily.

The restrictive immigration policy had detrimental effects on Asian women who have a primary responsibility in ensuring that the family unit remained closely knit (Chan 119). In Asian culture, the family unit is the fundamental unit defining a society, and women had a major responsibility in making it successful. Moreover, Asian women who successfully immigrated into the United States only managed because of the profiles of their husbands, and not solely on the women as individuals (Scott 1056).

The wives of laborers were not preferred immigration candidates and their immigration requests were usually rejected. Asian American women who fled to the United States during the Vietnamese war faced multiple challenges. Most of them resided in refugee camps and proper resettlement only depended on sheer luck to acquire willing sponsors who would help them resettle into the news culture and environment. Accounts from many of these women reveal that the new cultural set up and language barriers were some of the hardships they faced.

Culture is an important aspect of identity in Asia, and many of the immigrants exhibited the willingness to foster their culture despite the overwhelming mainstream culture. Most of the women faced the challenge of fending for their families in America (Chan 125). The surging compulsion of securing a job in a foreign country was not easy, but most of the women who found themselves the heads of their families stood up for the challenge. Moreover, bring up children with Asian values was not easy since most of the children schooled in highly integrated institutions.

The need for the Asian families to experience a cultural wellbeing and familiarity saw many of the families cluster in California, where the weather was favorable, and many Asian immigrants had settled. Although many Asian American women resettled and focused on rebuilding their lives in the United States, the stereotypes attached to people of Asian descent served as glass and bamboo ceilings, forming a complexity of barriers that served to prevent most of the Asian Americans from complete integration into the American society.

English, as a second language proved difficult for many Asians to learn, and prevented many of the