Is academic achievement commonly associated with Asian students really based on immigration?
Asian Americans have a high percentage of immigrants (about 66% in 2010) and first generation kids of immigrants compared to other racial and ethnic groups in the US. Since immigration across oceans often tends to have a strong selection effect in terms of both self-selection (it takes a high level of motivation to move to a distant country) and selection by destination country (often in favor of skilled workers or graduate students), that likely creates a tendency of the immigrants to be high academic achievers and have high achieving kids (whether you see it as nature, nurture, or both) relative to the non-immigrant population.
So are people in general attaching the image of high academic achievement to a visible characteristic (Asian race or ethnicity) while ignoring the possibly more relevant associated characteristic (generation since immigration)? Would comparisons across racial and ethnic groups stratified by generation since immigration and educational attainment of the immigrant ancestors reveal something different from what is commonly assumed?
Well, if it was entirely a result of immigration, then we might expect the focus on academic achievement to “wear off” after a few generations.
Has it worn off in another group of immigrant high achievers – Jewish Americans? My anecdotal impression is that it has not (in fact it has expanded to include girls as well as boys), but I have no statistics to back this up because statistics aren’t collected for Jewish students separately.
California has had significant Asian immigration for more than a century. That would be a good place to look at Gen 2, 3, and beyond, to see whether the current emphasis on medicine/pharmacy/engineering is a Gen 1 issue, or possibly a late 20th/early 21st century phenomenon.
One of the theories I’ve heard about Asian success in America is that a lot of the people who immigrate to the US from China/Japan/Korea have certain traits in common. Some of them come from wealthy families to begin with, some of them benefit from the “hereditary work ethic” Malcolm Gladwell describes in Outliers, and some of it might just be the immigrant mentality.
I think some of their work ethic will evaporate over time as they become more complacent. I think this happened in colonial America, where each subsequent generation slowly forgot the struggles of those that came before them. Based on what I’ve read/experienced, Asians aren’t inherently smarter. They just work much harder than most other students and there is an expectation that they will succeed. I think Gladwell stated that the average Japenese student spent ~40% more time on a math problem before giving up as compared to the average American student.
Is this so? I get that the self-selection of immigrants extremely favor highly-educated and highly-motivated Asians – and thus the American experience with many Asians shows higher than normal academic achievement – but I hesitate to state categorically that this is so. For example, look at some sub-groups and their immigant journey to the US: the Hmong, other SE Asians, Polynesians & Fillipinos. Their kids’ overall academic achievement isn’t nearly on par as 1st generation Chinese or Indian or Pakistani or Korean. If you examine their immigration routes/patterns/demographics, I think you’ll find them extremely different than the grad students or tech employees from India or China who come to pursue their “American Dream”
I fail plenty of Asian kids where I teach. And there are plenty of lazy Asian kids. There are plenty of not bright Asian kids. If they are smart, they hide it well. The brightest kids I’ve known have been all over the spectrum in terms of race and ethnicity.
The way to find out if Asians are inherently smarter is to look at the many Asian kids adopted by non-Asian parents.
The adoptive parents are also likely to have above-average home environments (parental interest, economic resources, etc.) compared to the general population.
I would reply no, based on my own observation of Gen 2 (possibly Gen 3) Asian Americans. I think the cultural emphasis on hard work and valuing education leads to academic achievement.
However, I think it will be interesting to see how the collective group makes different choices from their elders based on an evolving economy. Like @micmatt513 I believe the cultural “work ethic” may erode some…not because they’re becoming “Americanized,” but because it’s a “human nature” thing.
Personally, I don’t solely attribute their work ethic to being an immigrant. I attribute it to a cultural difference when it comes to expectations.
As a naturalized Japanese-American with very academically oriented parents, I would question some of the assumptions I’m hearing/reading.
First, it’s a mistake to assume that Japanese, Korean and Chinese families can be lumped together into one “Asian” group, with the same cultural and social driving forces. I know we all look the same but, really, we’re not…
Don’t underestimate religious influences even within the Asian groups. There are fundamental differences about self-determination and self-reliance between Buddhism, Shintoism, Christianity. I was brought up with the concept of “forgiveness of sins by confessing” as being complete hogwash.
I would think not but this theory keeps floating around. But they do have to do what they need to survive.
Wsj had an article recently that the Asian from the non China, India, Korea ended up better the second generation vs their parents who were first generation.
But of course you hear more about Chinese and Indian because there are more of them. 1.4 billion Chinese and 1.2 billion Indian, so of course a tiniest percentage of these two Asians is a lot of people.
I think it’s mostly about culture. I think there are some cultural traits that immigrants tend to share, but also cultural ideas related to religion, national background, etc.
General immigration in some ethnic groups, not always Asian.
Very good representation of it is one well known test-in HS in NYC, where 72% are in fact Asians, but out of non-Asians in another 28%, one ethnic group is also over-represented. This group is not as “visible” so to speak as Asians (most of Asians are Chinese). This Caucasian group just blends more with general American Caucasian population.
“My guess is no. Asians really are inherently smarter,”
As a parent of an adopted child from Korea - I have to disagree with this. Not that he isn’t bright - but he is no brighter than most of the CC parents kids and definitely less bright then the ones who are getting into HYSPM blah, blah, blah. When I get together with other parents of adopted children from Korea we always laugh about where are kids would be if they had Asian parents.
"“My guess is no. Asians really are inherently smarter,”
From my observation, “” Asians really are much much harder working", not sure if “inherently” is appropriate here, but I heard first hand stories (you will never find it on internet) that many Asian parents prohibit the non-Asian friendships because they believe that most American kids are lazy and they do not want to “rub” it onto their kids. They may allow such friendships in in well known case of a highly achieving non-Asian kid. Sorry for all non-politically correct statements, I just know these from couple of un-related examples of students surrounded by huge number of Asians at certain very selective places.
I have seen this. Even if the Asian parents don’t prohibit the friendship, they may limit the amount of time that the Asian and non-Asian friends spend together.
“Has it worn off in another group of immigrant high achievers…?”
In my casual, unscientific observation I’d say it has largely worn off in Japanese Americans who are 3rd generation or longer in the US. There still is college entrance exam craziness rampant back in Japan, but the Americanized kids of Japanese ancestry that I know mostly all seem more or less much like their Caucasian classmates when it comes to the level of academic achievement pressures coming from their parents.
