Pauline Chapman

Immigrant Insights from China, India, and the Netherlands

In my previous posting, I interviewed immigrants from three countries who had come to America as adults, raised children who are now successful young adults, and achieved material success; in short, they realized the American Dream.  The next three couples are, for the most part, more recent immigrants.  They are about twenty years younger, all have college degrees, some more than one, and are multilingual. Working East to West, Li is from China, Jyoti and Tushar come from India, and Julia is Dutch.  I know this group better than the last, especially Julia, who was my matron of honor.  My husband met Li through work and they have been friends for several years.  Jyoti was in my book club, which neither of us has time for these days!  I asked them similar questions to the last group, why they came to the U.S. and why they stayed, what challenges they faced, and what were the advantages of being in America.  Once again, I was looking to see how their stories would compare to the immigrant narrative we've explored in class. I got more information about the home countries than last time, and took the opportunity to learn some history and politics as well.

Li came to the U.S. in 1990 as a graduate student.  He had a medical degree in China and spoke English because he had been part of a new program in which medical students were taught all their classes in English.  (He cites President Nixon's visit to China and how it opened the door to outside influence.  I reflected on how differently Nixon must be remembered in China.)  Li's main struggle was obtaining and keeping a scholarship to enable him to go to school, maintain his visa, and stay in the country.  He claims that professors intimidated the foreign students with the threat of losing scholarships. (This reminded me of Yezierska's "Soap and Water" story.)  At this time, his wife Lan was still in China, so he was going through this anxiety alone.  He is a Protestant and his difficulties brought him closer to God, as he sought comfort and help in prayer.  He had not planned to stay in the U.S., but once his wife came and started going to school, he had to get a job here after graduation. Little by little they became more established: Lan got an accounting job with a large corporation, they had two children, and Lan's mother came to live with them to babysit.  Established doesn't necessarily mean making many American social connections.  They attend a Chinese church, he plays on a Chinese soccer team, and most of their friends are Chinese, which reflects the model immigrant pattern. They still visit China regularly, and after 9/11 became citizens mainly to insure they could get back into the U.S.  The bureaucracy of immigration and naturalization he called a nightmare.  Currently, Li is working in the computer field and starting an MBA.  He is similar to other Americans in their mid thirties who continue to search their options, and he admits he wouldn't have this opportunity in China.  Worshipping without government control is one of the things he most appreciates about being in the U.S.  Today, Li's friends in China are doing very well, working for large hospitals.  He says Chinese students coming today have it much easier because they have money for school and living expenses.

From my first contact with Jyoti, I could tell she was a blend of two cultures.  On the phone her accent sounded American, but her name was clearly Indian.  Meeting her in person, there were still mixed signals.  Her skin and hair were dark, but her clothes and body language were all American.  The photos in her home showed her and her sisters in bright saris. Her husband Tushar is more reserved, with just a slight accent, so I assumed he was a more recent immigrant. It turned out Jyoti was two years old in 1970 when her father obtained a position as a math professor and brought the family to Louisiana. Tushar was just short of his eighteenth birthday in 1989 when his family received their visa after eight years of waiting.  After age 18 he would have had to apply on his own, as an adult.  When I arrived at their home for the interview I was glad they maintained some of their ethnic customs, namely feeding visitors!  I fully appreciated the tea with tandoori fish, samosas and assorted vegetables with mint chutney. 

Much of the discussion focused on Tushar's experiences since he was older when he arrived.  His family provides a glimpse of the Old World as the extended family owned and ran their business until there was a falling out.  After the split, his father's business declined because he refused to give bribes necessary to win contracts.  Coming to America meant not just opportunity, but the opportunity to succeed honestly.  Tushar echoed others saying that you could come to America with virtually nothing and build a comfortable life.  Because of English Medium schools, Tushar was fluent in English when he arrived.  Speaking English and reciting Christian prayers at school while practicing Hinduism and other customs at home prepared them to balance their public and private lives here.  But what was difficult were all the daily things people take for granted, even something as simple as using a self-serve soda machine when you've never seen one before.   Later his college buddies got him drunk because he didn't know he could refuse drinks without offending them.  I was surprised that more of my interviewees hadn't talked about these types of experiences when I'd asked about adjusting.  Maybe they'd forgotten them or didn't think they were important enough.  Indian friends and family are very helpful to new arrivals, in fact Jyoti stresses family support as most important.  But they also confirmed that ethnic groups exploit their own, which Tushar encountered on his first job.  (It was comparatively minor, but reminded me of Bulosan's "America is in the Heart.)  They also said some have a "five year plan" of making money here and then returning to India.  Others have returning as their "back up plan" if they don't do as well as expected or don't want to stay.  I asked what people wanting to immigrate were doing now when Tushar said the waiting time for visas could be fifty years:  They come over on a student or tourist visa and then just disappear.  In yet another blend of traditional and modern cultures, Jyoti and Tushar met and got acquainted online, and shortly after they met in person and she met his family, he asked her to marry him.  Currently, they are awaiting the arrival of their first child, a little girl they are adopting from India. I marvel at the turn of luck this child has had. 

My next interviewee is the most recent immigrant, but in many ways seems the most assimilated, in large part because she is European and shares similarities with the dominant culture. Julia is from Rotterdam, the Netherlands.  She and her husband worked for a Dutch shipping company that sent them to Houston in 1998 first to evaluate and then fix problems with local operations.  They didn't expect to stay very long.  In the beginning, the American employees didn't want to be told what to do by outsiders.  Later, when operations turned more profitable, executives in Holland thought they must be paid too much primarily because of the cars they were able to afford.  They solved that problem by buying the Houston part of the company.  However, the decision to stay was not just about business. 

The intrusiveness of the Dutch executives in their personal lives is indicative of the Old World culture.  Julia's experience here has been that people are friendly, but not overly intrusive.  They are happy for you if you do well, but don't tell you how to live or spend your money.  She was surprised the first time a stranger spoke to her in a store, and likes how strangers will strike up conversations.  This would not happen in Holland, reinforcing the image of the social coldness of Northern cultures.  They also wouldn't want to return to Holland now because of negative consequences of the European Union and the euro.  Now that travel is possible throughout Europe without passports, Rotterdam has had a huge influx of immigrants.  The traditionally liberal culture is particularly concerned about the large number of conservative Islamic immigrants who resist assimilation.  Crime has also increased, including murder and theft.  Julia's parents no longer both visit her at the same time since the last time they did their house was burglarized.  Also, with the introduction of the euro, their money doesn't go as far.  Her 70 year old father had to go back to work.  The U.S. had better value for money and lower taxes before, now this is even more true.  Even though they are staying permanently and have two American sons, they don't plan to apply for citizenship any time soon because of the bureaucratic nightmare they experienced getting their "green" card. 

One of the commonalities of the immigrants I've interviewed for the two postings is that they came for work or school, and then later decided to stay.  The decision wasn't made sight unseen.  The only one of the six who had planned in advance to stay was Kim, because she had married an American.  They fit the "new immigrant" model because of the connections they maintain with their original country or culture.  Most visit their former homes about once a year, with the exception of Hector, who said there was nothing left for him there.  Most also have connections with local ethnic communities, Korean, Chinese, Iranian, Indian, or Mexican, which reduce both culture shock and assimilation.  Julia is the exception mainly because there isn't a large Dutch community.  Also, ethnic communities are more cohesive the more different they are from the dominant culture, and the Dutch culture is not radically different from ours.  Also, ethnic communities preserve religion, and like many modern Dutch, Julia isn't practicing.  Everyone had just two children, just replacing themselves in the modern way, except for Hector, whose three children were born in Mexico, and Jyoti who is just starting her family. 

When I started this project, I didn't know what to expect.  Some things were predictable, such as coming for opportunity, but some things were not, such as prejudice being more of an issue for one of the "model immigrants" than for the "ambivalent minority."  At first the concepts of opportunity and choice sound alike, but opportunity has to do with economics and choice with rights and freedom.  Azar and Li were more focused on choices than opportunity, which is understandable given the political realities of Iran and China.  What makes me sad and frustrated are the conditions in countries that make coming here so attractive or necessary: overpopulation in India, oppression in China and Iran, poverty in Mexico.  And Holland was not bad before, but ironically enough, because of global immigration, that country is challenged as never before.  It doesn't seem fair that the people who come legally are "treated like criminals" and need to resort to lawyers, and the ones who come illegally said it was, in their situations at least, cheap and easy.  Of course, illegal immigrants' opportunities are limited, but their children's are not.  I realize I didn't want to push people to talk about sensitive subjects unless they brought them up.  For example, the Chinese student protests of 1989 were just a year before Li came to study.  I didn't ask him about them directly since he didn't bring up politics except in relation to his church.  Li had repeated, "you gain something, you lose something." What did he lose?  I wonder if the American respect of privacy made me reluctant to push sensitive issues. Or, is it the knowledge of the isolation and privilege that protects me, the undeserved accident of nature that allowed me to be born in this country?  My lack of experience with harsh realities also makes me a poor confidante. Would they detect more sympathy than empathy?  What I hope they see is my respect and admiration.

Since I've started this class and project, more first and second generation immigrants are telling me their stories.  My pedicurist from Mexico told me her story as I had my toes done.  It's easy to see why she risked crossing the Rio Grande when her choices were either to stay in Mexico where it would take a week's wages to buy scissors for cosmetology school, or come to Texas and work for one year and buy her family a house.  The second generation has been right under my nose without my realizing it.  This has happened more than once when I've told clients about my class.  One of the most interesting involves a Civil War in Costa Rica and the Chinese Boxer Rebellion, some of which can be read on his blog: http://myasiavisits.blogspot.com/. As I indicated in my introduction to the first posting, I've enjoyed meeting people from other countries for some time, and now I have more knowledge to help bring us together.

Wikipedia articles consulted for background information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestantism_in_China

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_house_church

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_Protests_of_1989

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_in_China

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotterdam

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_immigration_legislation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Rica_Civil_War

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Rebellion