From marginality to bimodality: Immigration, education, and occupational change of Chinese-Americans, 1940-1980

This dissertation is a case-study of Chinese Americans as a small minority which has experienced rapid community change during the post-World War Two period. It provides a new understanding of Chinese American socioeconomic status in the face of growing evidence of both affluence and poverty. The thesis is that the Chinese American community changed from having a very marginal socioeconomic position to having one most appropriately described as "bimodal" between 1940 and 1980. This conception of socioeconomic bimodality is based on the finding that Chinese Americans were clustered at both ends--as professionals and low-skilled workers--on an occupation-based socioeconomic scale. This study's interpretive framework emphasizes both changes in immigration policy and in labor market conditions for minorities, and provides a more in-depth understanding of the development of a bimodal socioeconomic pattern, the actual magnitude of community advancement, and education as a vehicle for socioeconomic mobility. Based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Census and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, this study shows that socioeconomic bimodality was a post-World War Two phenomenon caused by improved opportunities for Chinese Americans in some high status professional occupations, while employment difficulties persisted in other occupations. It also finds that the rapid growth of a Chinese American middle class was closely related to post-war immigration policies. Highly educated Chinese immigrants were a major factor in the rapid improvement of the Chinese American educational profile; and Chinese immigrants in general were the most significant segment of the population in the development of socioeconomic bimodality. Given their unprecedented level of socioeconomic advancement among minorities of color and their unique experiences in community change, this study suggests that it would be useful to consider contemporary Asian American communities as a distinct minority type in race relations theories.