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The First Waves of Asian Immigration Labor, Class, & Racial Formations

Racial Formations ideas of racial difference are not biologically determined; they are social constructions these ideas of racial difference strengthen and are strengthened by social, economic and political forces  the feedback loop race is an unstable formation that is constantly challenged but still has serious consequences on the lives of people who are racialized  racial formations Racial meanings Social, political, economic forces

What does it mean to be Asian American? Externally imposed categorization vs self- identification constant negotiation with dominant racial formations “it might properly be viewed as a means of achieving political integration. For some, this may simply be situational political mobilization” (Hing 32) To identify with others who have been grouped with you in order to respond to specific situations and fight for political recognition “Situational political mobilization” recognizes that not all Asians are naturally the same but they will identify with each other and act together to resist marginalization

Early Asian Racial Formations Peoples of Asia-Pacific perceived as less civilized as US expands beyond North American continent Parallels perception of Native Americans during westward expansion Asian immigrants necessary as cheap labor for 19 th century US economy Parallels use of slave labor during plantation era Result according to Takaki  Asian immigrants racialized as perpetual strangers Asian = pure labor (Takaki 25) Asian = incapable of claim to land & proper self-rule

Manifest Destiny ideology motivating US westward expansion and processes of racialization US = novus ordo seclorum Best of Europe meant to transform the New World US = new stage of Anglo-Saxon civilization “God has not been preparing the English-speaking and Teutonic peoples for a thousand years for nothing… He has made us master organizers of the world... He has given us the spirit of progress… He has made us adept in government that we may administer government among savage and senile peoples… He has marked the American people as his chosen nation to finally lead in the regeneration of the world. This is the divine mission of America, and it holds for us all the profit, all the glory, all the happiness possible to man.” (Sen. Albert Beveridge, 1900)

Imperial Expansion Manifest Destiny’s racial meanings justify imperial expansion Ex: Annexation of HI Success at imperial expansion proves Manifest Destiny Being able to defeat native peoples proves their racial inferiority Imperial expansion enables capitalist economic development Access more raw materials Open new markets Create cheap labor Racial Meanings Social, Economic, Political Forces

Center & Periphery “Constituting the center of commerce and manufacturing production, ‘core’ nations like the United States, England, France, Spain, and Portugal penetrated politically and economically the less-developed, ‘semi-peripheral’ areas of Asia, Africa, and Latin America in their search for new markets, raw materials, and sources of labor. European and American colonialism disrupted economies there and also increased problems of poverty. The ‘necessities’ of the ‘modern world- system’ powered international labor migrations, ‘pushing’ workers from Africa and Asia and ‘pulling’ them to Latin America, the West Indies, and the United States” (Takaki 31)

Capitalist World System

Ethnic Antagonism Recruiting & importing multiple waves of immigrant workers = using racial difference to divide labor “’By employing different nationalities, there is less danger of collusion among laborers and the employers [are able to] secure better discipline’” (Takaki 25) Foreign labor is used “to weigh down white workers during periods of economic expansion and to hold white labor in check during periods of overproduction” (29) “Asian immigrants constituted a unique laboring army of ‘strangers’... nonwhites allowed to enter as ‘cheap’ migratory laborers and members of a racially subordinated group, not future citizens of American society” (31)

Racialized workers are blamed rather than thesystem of keeping wages low in order to increaseprofit = economic forces creating racial meanings

Major First Waves of Asian Immigration Chinese – 1849 to ,000 to HI; 380,000 to mainland US Japanese – 1885 to ,000 to HI; 180,000 to mainland US Korean – 1903 to ,000 total to US Filipino – 1900 to ,000 to HI; 40,000 to mainland US South Asian – 1907 to ,400 total to US