The Model Minority in the US - Essay Example

The publicity that has been given to the Asian minorities and brought forth the term “model minority” is due to factors like low crime rates among young people in these communities and their higher socio-economic status as compared to other minorities. Media publicity that propagated this view described how Asian Americans had been able to achieve a higher social class and standing through cultural mechanisms like hard work, their frugal lifestyles, their sacrifices for children, and their family ties (Pyong 2006:80).
The criticism leveled against the model minority program contends that the publicity hype does not take into account all the relevant factors. For instance, the claims about Asian Americans achieving a higher economic status than white Americans in some cases do not take into account the fact that in most Asian American families, more than one person in the family was earning and contributing, which helped to account for the higher family income. (Chan 168). Furthermore, while it was true that Asian Americans such as Chinese and Japanese had significantly higher levels of schools than non-Hispanic whites, their median incomes, in the long run, were no higher because the returns that should have come to them due to their higher levels of schooling were lower than the whites. According to the Human capital theory, the skills and knowledge gained by a worker through education and experience comprise human capital, hence the greater the capital, the greater should be the wages. Where Asian Americans are concerned, however, this does not appear to hold good, since they receive lower wages in general despite higher education.

The model minority thesis has also been criticized because it does not take into consideration the fact that most Asian Americans live in cities where wages in general are higher, as are also expenses. Comparing them on par with whites across the country who live in areas where incomes may be low on an overall basis, may therefore not offer an even platform for a fair comparison. When examining areas where the Asian American population is high, it may be noticed that there is a much higher percentage of Asian Americans who are working in low-status, lower-income occupations, as compared to whites who may not have such a large proportion of their comparable population engaged in low status, low-income occupations (Chan 169). As Chan argues, Asian Americans are concentrated in certain professions and are not well represented in the heavy machine, paper, or construction industries. Hence, their concentration is more on low-paying jobs.

Chan has also argued that the low rates of unemployment among Asian Americans may suggest that they would rather be in underpaid jobs than remain unemployed. The high percentage of Asian American women in the workforce is also cited as one of the reasons for the model minority thesis, which may be simply because the men earn so little the women are forced to work. Many Asian Americans are entrepreneurs and this is again touted as a reason for their model minority status; however, as Chan argues, most of them are owners of small Mom-and-Pop stores with low gross earnings. Based on all these factors, the model minority thesis does not appear to be founded substantially on facts. Read More