The Third Wave of Chinese Immigrants

Through history, there are three waves of Chinese immigrants moving from their home country to the United States. The first wave of immigrants were mainly people who worked for construction and the mining industry in 19th century. The second wave of migration began after the enacting of Magnuson Act in 1943. Most immigrants came from Taiwan, since after World War Two, American government treated Mainland China, Taiwan, and HongKong into separate immigration quotas. The third wave of immigrants came to America after the 21st century. Some of them were people who lived in the lower class in China, so they wanted to come to the U.S to earn money. However, the other group of immigrants were people who were well-educated and had better financial background. They immigrated to American for the convenient for their business, better education for their children and so on. The third wave of Chinese immigrants are more closely to us, and we may know some of them in our lives. It's interesting to see that the social status of the third waves of Chinese immigrants are polarization. From different examples and different people's experience, we can find out that these people live in various way in the United States.

Chinatown in Flushing, Queens

Part of the third wave of Chinese immigrants are undocumented immigrants. They come to the U.S with the visiting Visa, and they stay in the country illegally. Most of them lived in the heavily urban areas and work in Chinatown for some low wages as well as less professional jobs. Since these people are mainly from the poor families in Chine, the goal for them to stay in America is to earn money. Even though they receive low wages in the U.S, they still can earn more money than they do in China. Most of them will send money back to their country if they get their salaries, and they go back to China someday when they have enough money. Social capital is deeply influenced these new immigrants. Most of them came the American under the help of some agencies, and these institutions will also help them to find cheap housings as well as jobs after they arrived in the U.S. Also, some of them connected to some of their acquaintances in the States, so they can settle down easier with their assistances. These immigrants use their origins as tie to connect to others for benefits.

Chinese population in the U.S

At the same time, other groups of Chinese also moved to the United States, but their social status are completely different from those illegal immigrants. Most of them affluent and rich elites. They are scientists, successful business, or at least upper-middle level families. Some of them came to the country to do the scientific research or investigate business opportunities. However, there are also a lot of elites in China immigrating to America for their Children's education. Even though the elementary education in China can train children to have a solid knowledge background on Math and natural science, children are less creativity and only can only do well on tests. The workload for students in China is heavy as well. Also, it's harder for students to get into best universities, like Tsinghua University or Peking University, comparing to got to Harvard or Yale in U.S, even though many students work extremely on their studies. At the meanwhile, other universities are far less competitive than colleges in the U.S. The job opportunities for undergraduate students are limited as well. Most students can hardly find jobs after graduate. There is a common saying now that graduating means losing jobs. Many parents are really concerned about their children's further development, so they come to American to make their children to have better opportunities on education. In addition, the cost of living in big cities like Beijing or Shanghai is very high. For instance, the average price for apartments in Beijing is around $4400 per square meters. For many middle class families, they can live in a better condition in the U.S than in metropolitans in China. Most of these immigrants are living the suburban areas, and most of them prefer to settle down in the America with their children for the rest of their lives. Even though they move to America, they are less connected to other Chinese immigrants. They may connect to some of their friends, but their ties to other people are not as close as the working class immigrants.

Employment Fair In Nanjing

Comparing these two groups of Chinese immigrants, we can clearly see that the large variations between them actually will weak the group ties. Theses two groups of Chinese are living in different areas and approaching different life styles. Even though they are all new to American and share same culture, they are not tied to each other closely, since they are facing different conditions.The gap of income and living standard of Chinese immigrants becomes larger and larger through polarization of the status of immigrants, like the chart we saw on class.

Resources:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/third-mass-immigration-wave-37058.html

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/china/121220/chinese-immigrants-america-united-states-schools-education