Trina Silva

The Journey to Becoming a “Model Minority”: Analyzing Immigrant Narratives

According to a recent article found on ABCNews.com the number of new Asian immigrants now exceeds that of Hispanic immigrants. Since the United States is in such close proximity with the central and South American borders it is not surprising that there are such large numbers of Hispanic immigrants; however, these numbers include a large percentage of illegal immigrants which differs quite greatly from the Asian immigrants who are for the most part immigrating to the United States legally. Why is it that coming to America is continually desired more than five centuries after Columbus arrived in America? Early American immigrants desired to come to America to start a new and better life which still proves to be the aspiration of many modern immigrants and is illustrated in numerous immigrant narratives.

A model minority is defined as a “minority ethnic, racial, or religious group whose members achieve a higher degree of success than the population average. It is most commonly used to label one ethnic minority higher achieving than another ethnic minority. This success is typically measured in income, education, and related factors such as low crime rate and high family stability” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_minority). Many immigrant narratives focus on the journey to achieve the “American Dream,” which includes; being successful, educated and rich. In many immigrant narratives one of the common themes is education. Education and literacy serves as part of the route to assimilating to the dominant culture and becoming a model minority, without education, the “American Dream” seems further out of reach.

In the article from ABC.com it states that American employers are in high demand of “high-skilled workers” which is part of the reason so many Asians are immigrating to America. It is fair to say that many Asian immigrants have an advantage coming into the United States because they are usually coming already knowing the English language and have the money to come to the U.S.  Also, many arrive in America with degrees in higher education or seeking another degree in the U.S. In A “Wife’s Story”, Panna who is from India is living in America seeking her PhD while her husband lives and works in India. Panna is a well-bred, educated woman with manners; she is what Deborah Tannen refers to as “unmarked” in her New York Times article, “Marked Woman, Unmarked Man”.  Being classified as unmarked means she blends in with the dominant culture which makes her a perfect example of a model minority.

The large role education plays in the immigrant narrative is evident as it is repeatedly seen in many of the narratives read in our literature class.  In “The English Lesson” the importance of literacy is emphasized by Ms. Hamma and highly desired by the students in order to become more successful in their new American lives, except for Diego who wishes to move back to his home country after making money in the U.S. so that he could live his own separate dream.  Diego is an example of a “problem minority.” In “Soap and Water” the narrator yearned for the American Dream, she “longed for the larger life, for the stimulus of intellectual associations”, so she attended college in hopes of fitting in with the dominant culture and being accepted.  While education can be a way to assimilate into the dominant culture it is not always as successful as one presumes, being literate and educated is only one piece of the puzzle of being a model minority. In the “Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie” he emphasizes the role literacy played in him achieving success in America. Carnegie makes the “American Dream” seem attainable to anyone as he describes his journey in an almost formulaic way. The importance of literacy and higher education as part of the “American Dream” started with the Puritans and is also mentioned by Crevecoeur in “What is American?,” where he speaks of his respect toward the early settlers and “…their early love of letters; their ancient college, the first in the hemisphere…”

Unifying the old world with the new is inevitable as an immigrant assimilates to a new culture.  “In the Elementary School Choir”, the narrator unifies his old world with the new as he sings patriotic songs he learned in school. The confusion of the unification of two cultures is evident as he reflects upon his old life and back to the new. It is almost as if the narrator is physically being pulled two different way, an immigrant must learn how to accept cultural differences and in many cases give up a part of their  old world culture in order to be accepted by the dominant culture.  In “A Wife’s Story” Panna, who has been living in America for some time, has adjusted to her new life and assimilated in many ways, for example,  she has a close friendship with a man and she wears pants in public. However, when Panna’s husband comes to visit from India, he is taken aback by the attention she gets from men and blames it on her wearing pants. While her husband seems to not understand some of cultural differences he attempts to immerse himself in the culture by eating different foods such as pizza and McDonald’s, taking tours so he can learn about “American” places and using American toiletries.

Mary Brooks explains the “American Dream” perfectly in her 2010 Midterm post, Minority and Immigrant Narratives: Purgatory or Paradise, “Narrative is a story written by those who wish to dramatize the conditions they find themselves in or the condition in which they perceive others to have been in. The American Dream is a narrative written to give people hope for greatness that many of us will never obtain.”  While the American Dream is attainable to some it is merely just a dream. One common theme immigrant narratives seem to have is the sense of hope. Hope for a better life is shown in all of the narratives. Many of the ideas of the American Dream are jaded but there are many model minorities that make the American Dream come true with education and acculturation among other things.