{"id":180,"date":"2013-04-22T12:15:51","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T12:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/?p=180"},"modified":"2013-08-12T19:42:50","modified_gmt":"2013-08-12T19:42:50","slug":"from-hong-kong-to-new-york-what-it-means-to-be-an-american","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/from-hong-kong-to-new-york-what-it-means-to-be-an-american\/","title":{"rendered":"From Hong Kong to New York: What it means to be an American"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>From Hong Kong to New York: What it means to be an American and the Struggles Immigrants face<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">By: Julianne Tszuska, Wagner College&#8217;14<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_203\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/files\/2013\/04\/Panorama-of-the-Hong-Kong-Skyline.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-203\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-203 \" alt=\"Panorama of the Hong Kong Skyline\" src=\"http:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/files\/2013\/04\/Panorama-of-the-Hong-Kong-Skyline-300x49.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"49\" srcset=\"https:\/\/faculty.wpenginepowered.com\/lori-weintrob\/files\/2013\/04\/Panorama-of-the-Hong-Kong-Skyline-300x49.jpg 300w, https:\/\/faculty.wpenginepowered.com\/lori-weintrob\/files\/2013\/04\/Panorama-of-the-Hong-Kong-Skyline-500x82.jpg 500w, https:\/\/faculty.wpenginepowered.com\/lori-weintrob\/files\/2013\/04\/Panorama-of-the-Hong-Kong-Skyline.jpg 799w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-203\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A panorama of the Hong Kong Skyline<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">&#8220;To be an American to me isn&#8217;t anything special. Because I don&#8217;t have to change much&#8230;But I think to be an American my children it has a special meaning to them because they have a higher chance to get a better education here and more freedom for them to do whatever they want. It&#8217;s not like in China, they have a very restricted life.&#8221; &#8211; Joseph Lam<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Interview<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">For my paper I interviewed Joseph Lam, an immigrant from Hong Kong. Mr. Lam came to the United States in the late 1988 to\u00a0be reunited with\u00a0his family. As soon as he came over with his parents, he applied for his wife and daughter to immigrate as well. There has been much social mobility within his family. When his parents came\u00a0here they were blue collar workers\u00a0working difficult jobs for long hours. Mr. Lam took the NYC\u00a0civil servants exam and is\u00a0currently working as an Information\u00a0Technology programmer for the city of New York and has been working for the city for over 20 years.\u00a0His daughter is currently in her third year of medical school in Westchester. His son is\u00a0a junior at Baruch college also contemplating going to medical school.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3tjnvUJMTvk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Thesis <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Like many immigrants who have come to the United States, Joseph Lam left everything he knew behind in Hong Kong to be reunited with his family and to create a better life for them. It is often hard for immigrants to move to an unfamiliar country where people speak an unfamiliar language but many do it every year. Immigrants like Mr. Lam have ways to maintain their culture and pass it on to their children while adapting to every day American life. An example of this is through food and the support of a Chinese community found in the many Chinatowns in the boroughs of New York.\u00a0 There are also many differences that immigrants and children of immigrants have to face such as the education system in the United States. Unfortunately, immigrants also face discrimination, hardship and prejudice as well. But many immigrants are resilient and are able to create successful lives in the United States rich with culture from their homes and new culture from the United States. With support from their communities, they have the confidence to face the many challenges, such as the differences in the education systems that may come their way.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Chinatown<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Chinatown plays a major role in maintaining Chinese culture and helping immigrants adjust to life in the United States. The man I interviewed lived in Chinatown for<br \/>\nthree to four years until he brought his family over and moved to Flushing<br \/>\nQueens, another Chinatown in New York.\u00a0In his interview, Mr. Lam stated that the Chinatown in Manhattan is very crowded and mostly the new immigrants live there until they earn enough money to move out. It is basically a stepping stone for new immigrants. They are surrounded by familiar Chinese culture while\u00a0they are getting used to life in the United States.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Chinatown in Manhattan was established in the 1830s when Chinese sailors began settling in lower Manhattan originally around Mott, Park and Doyer Streets. By 1898<br \/>\nChinatown grew to include Pell, Bayard and Baxter Streets and Chatham Square.<br \/>\nToday, Chinatown covers over twenty streets. In Chinatown there are mostly restaurants, garment factories, grocery stores, gift shops and jewelry stores. (Hsiang-shui Chen, &#8220;Chinese in Chinatown and Flushing,&#8221; Asian American Center,)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Education<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0According to Joseph Lam, \u201cBesides family reasons, people come to the United States for education. There are only two universities for 7 million people [in Hong Kong].<br \/>\nNot everyone gets a higher education. In the United States its better, everyone<br \/>\nhas a chance to go to university. There are so many here. You have to be really<br \/>\nsmart to get into University in Hong Kong. My Kids are here and they have a<br \/>\nchance to do what they want. They can get an education and can have any job<br \/>\nthey want in America.\u201d (Author interview with Joseph Lam.) The<br \/>\neducation system is very different in the United States. Immigrants coming over<br \/>\nspecifically for school both primary and secondary school may find it hard to<br \/>\nadjust. According to Joseph Lam from his personal experience with being<br \/>\neducated in Hong Kong and seeing his children educated in the New York City<br \/>\npublic schools he said \u201cschools are very different\u2026In Hong Kong students study<br \/>\nmore. They have books and are in the class most of the day. Here [in America ]they<br \/>\nget breaks and have more play time. They go on visits [field trips] too. I know<br \/>\nmy son goes to libraries and here and there all for school.\u201d (Author Interview with Joseph Lam)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">.<br \/>\nFor immigrant children in the New York City education system, they face many<br \/>\nchallenges. One challenge is a language barrier while another major challenge<br \/>\nis living in a poor area with an overcrowded public school. Schools in these<br \/>\nareas also have low performing students, high dropout rates, and poor<br \/>\nattendance rates. Before educational reforms immigrants were forced to learn<br \/>\nEnglish the hard way and often they were put into the first grade regardless of<br \/>\nhow old they were. Also, immigrants who were placed in the appropriate grade<br \/>\nlevel for their age were often lost due to their limited knowledge of English<br \/>\nand would fall far behind. But according to Nancy Foner, there have been<br \/>\nprograms created to help immigrant students on the elementary and high school<br \/>\nlevels. There are bilingual programs where students receive lessons in their<br \/>\nnative language while they are learning English. As soon as they are<br \/>\ncomfortable with English they will begin regular classes. There is also ESL or<br \/>\nEnglish as a second language programs designed to pull students<br \/>\nout of class for intensive English instruction. These programs are necessary especially<br \/>\ntoday because school is more important and even manual labor jobs require a<br \/>\nhigh school diploma or a GED diploma. (Foner, Nancy. 196-202.)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Bibliography\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Author Interview with Joseph Lam, born August 24, 1960, immigrated to the United States October 1988.<\/p>\n<p>Chen, Hsiang-shui. &#8220;Chinese in Chinatown and Flushing.&#8221;<em>Asian American Center<\/em>. . http:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/ACADEMICS\/CENTERS\/ASIAN\/Pages\/homepage.aspx (accessed March 23, 2013).<\/p>\n<p>Chua, Amy.\u00a0<em>Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother<\/em>. New York: The Penguin Press, 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Cooper, Donna, and Adam Hersh.\u00a0<em>The Competition that Really Matters: Comparing U.S., Chinese and Indian Investments in the Next Generation Workforce<\/em><i>\u00a0<\/i>. The Center for the Next Generation,<\/p>\n<p>Foner, Nancy. <i>From Ellis Island to JFK: New York\u2019s Two Great Waves of Immigration.<\/i> New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.<\/p>\n<p>Lui, Mary Ting Yi. <i>The Chinatown Trunk Mystery: Murder, Miscegenation, and other Dangerous Encounters in Turn of the Century New York City. <\/i>New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2005.<\/p>\n<p>McGlinn, Lawrence A. &#8220;Beyond Chinatown: Dual Immigration and the Chinese Population of Metropolitan New York City, 2000.&#8221;\u00a0<em>Middle States Geographer<\/em>. 35. (2001): 110-119.<\/p>\n<p>Vernez, Georges, and Allan Abrahames.\u00a0<em>How Immigrants Fare in U.S. Education<\/em><i>\u00a0<\/i>. Santa Monica: Rand, 1996.<\/p>\n<p>Zhou, Min.\u00a0<em>Social Capital in Chinatown:The Role of Community-Based Organizations and Families in the Adaptation of the Younger Generation<\/em>. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Hong Kong to New York: What it means to be an American and the Struggles Immigrants face By: Julianne Tszuska, Wagner College&#8217;14 &#8220;To be an American to me isn&#8217;t anything special. Because I don&#8217;t have to change much&#8230;But I think to be an American my children it has a special meaning to them because [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","hentry","category-asian-immigration","post_format-post-format-video","et-bg-layout-dark"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}