Asian-Americans are better educated than whites, African-Americans, or Latinos. Asian-American women earn more than their white and black counterparts. And, anecdotally, in regions like Boston and Silicon Valley, Asian-Americans are prominent among the high-tech community's successful entrepreneurs and scientific innovators.

Facts such as these only feed stereotypes the white world holds of Asian-Americans as industrious, smart, assimilated. According to Jane Hyun in ''Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Career Strategies for Asians," pressure to be the ''model" minority is where the difficulties often begin for Asian immigrants and Asian-Americans trying to advance in today's more diverse, yet still-evolving, workplaces.

Chinese Children Shift Families' Culture

When Kathleen Santora adopted a baby from a Shanghai orphanage, she worried about maintaining her daughter's cultural identity. She bought books and toys reflecting Emily's Chinese heritage. She made sure the little girl was enrolled in schools with diverse student bodies.

Eleven years later, though, Santora and her husband, Hugh, find it is their own cultural identity that is in question.

Santora, who is white, says she feels more connected to Asian friends and to such holidays as the Lunar New Year, celebrated this week. Sometimes, when referring to Chinese mothers, she accidentally lumps herself in -- and sometimes, they do, too.

Facing the possibility of discrimination and lacking necessary political resources and social capital, Asian Americans who strive to achieve high status look for paths that present few barriers. In the market economy, where fair competition is at least held as a norm, upward mobility through channels of higher education, independent business, and science and engineering is preferred to that through, say, politics and management of large corporations, where subjective criteria predominate. It is in this context that some cultural symbols shared by Asian Americans, such as the honorific significance of children’s educational achievement to the family, facilitate the mobility of Asian Americans.

Researchers have hypothesized that stereotypes of Asian Americans may negatively influence the perception of their ability and likelihood of success in managerial and leadership positions (Cheng & Thatchenkery, 1997; Wong & Nagasawa, 1991). Stereotypes of Asian Americans as hard workers, technical nerds, uncomplaining, docile, and quiet have lead to the perception of Asian Americans as a good labor source. It also leads to the expectation that Asian Americans lack the ability to successfully manage. In a society that prizes individuality, where leaders are exemplified by the traditionally WASP prototype, stereotypes of Asian Americans are highly disconcordant with these ideals. This stereotype has at times lead to exploitation of Asian American employees and also the lower likelihood that Asian American professionals would be considered by decision makers for management positions (Park, 1996). The psychological effects of stereotypes on the career choices and decisions of Asian Americans, such as stereotype threat (Steele, 1997), and stigma consciousness (Pinel, 1999) will be discussed in further detail [below].

While U.S. corporations are creating and touting their diversity programs, professional women of Asian descent say their needs in the workplace are often overlooked and that these initiatives do not always include them as much as other women of color.

The results, Asian women say, is that they are often locked out of top jobs in the workplace. Compared to other minority groups, Asian women make up a particularly minuscule portion of Fortune 500 corporate officers.

To combat this, female executives of Asian origin who have moved into high ranks within their companies say that it is up to them to shatter the stereotypes of being mild-mannered and submissive and promote themselves vigorously within the corporate setting.

The rhetoric surrounding the current debate over outsourcing has reached a fever pitch. On a daily basis, we have been inundated with commentators decrying or defending this economic trend or a new study that purports to show the effects on the US economy.

'Outsourcing' or 'offshoring' broadly refers to the movement of service-related jobs overseas, usually in response to lower labour costs. The responses to outsourcing have been swift; anti-outsourcing legislation has been introduced in a multitude of states. Outsourcing has even become fodder for late-night talk shows and editorial page cartoons.

Missing from the national debate, however, is the possible effects of the anti-outsourcing backlash on the South Asian community in the US. Indeed, incidents of racial and ethnic backlash against individuals of South Asian origin are approaching disquieting levels.

Worries about technical-job losses, discrimination

By Amy Yee
©2004 The Financial Times Ltd.
March 3, 2004

Ron Hira, a public policy professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology and who represents the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA, is worried about the future of his occupation in the U.S.

"A lot of people aren't recommending this profession to the next generation," says Prof. Hira. He points to the debate about the outsourcing of U.S. jobs overseas — offshoring — which he says has had "a chilling effect on the technology workforce".

The accent now is on accents. India’s much touted, English-speaking, back office soldiers who man the 24-hour call centers of multinationals around the world have been getting some flak lately — the problem is that the Indians do not speak their English the way the Americans or the British pronounce their words.

This can be more than just an irritant, as shown by Dell Inc., the world’s largest computer seller that decided to shift its customer support service for corporate clients back to the United States. Earlier, Lehman Brothers also decided to take back its internal computer help desk, outsourced to Indian IT major Wipro, due to the dissatisfaction with the skills offered in India. One of the dissatisfied customers widely quoted in news reports is Ronald Kronk, a Presbyterian minister from Pennsylvania, who said that he spent the last four months trying to solve a problem that resulted in his being billed for two computers.

Two years ago, I lost my credit card on a business trip. Dialing American Express' 800 number, I asked the polite customer rep to read the list of recent charges. As she went through each charge, I noticed the familiar accent in which she enunciated "Duane Reade" and "Blockbuster."

"Excuse me," I interrupted. "Where are you?"

"Oh, we're American Express' Call Centre in Bangalore, India."

"Oh really? How interesting."

That was it, we went back to the task at hand and she efficiently finished the job in a few minutes. As I hung up, I thought to myself, "Good for India!"

Going through daily life, I started noticing this more often. When I called AOL to try to cancel my account for the fifth time, the helpful lady giving instructions was in India. Palm Pilot's "Level 1" help desk seemed to be in America, but when they were stymied and bumped me to "Level 2", an unmistakably Indian voice came on. Recently, I even started getting sales calls from India for credit cards.

The tech-savvy comic strip User Friendly (October 8-11, 2003) is to be commended for its acknowledgment of the everyday racism and ignorance faced by Asian Americans.  Even so, there is a disturbing artificiality about the series. 

By portraying the presence of an Asian American employee as an atypical occurrence in a high-tech workplace, the strip trivializes the major contributions of Asian Americans to the industry.

The series also positions the character of Ting Kuan out of the range of any possible collisions with the glass ceiling, as the "new intern" who is only too happy to be earning $6.15/hour under the patronage and management of the established white characters. In so doing, the series largely ensures that racial discrimination will continue to be understood as the blatant behavior of a socially isolated individual (Stef), rather than as a subtle and pervasive social practice, and that no difficult questions of status and pay inequality will be raised during his future employment at Columbia Internet.

For an Indian American appointed to a top US medical body, making foreign trained doctors equal in status and achievement to their American counterparts is a priority.

S "Jay" Jayasankar was last month made head of the International Medical Graduates (IMG) section of the powerful American Medical Association (AMA), vowing to break the glass ceiling for IMGs.

"Indian physicians are generally well liked by patients," Jayasankar said in an interview. "Yet there is not a general recognition that we are equal to local graduates and there are many glass ceilings.

The growth of white-collar jobs in developing nations is essential to global peace and prosperity

One of the biggest challenges facing the globe is the gap that exists in the wealth and standards of living enjoyed by the world's nations. Foreign trade and communication are the best tools for addressing this, when combined with trade agreements that limit exploitation by setting minimum wages, work environment standards, environmental standards, and so on. Foreign trade is not a replacement for foreign aid, of course, but foreign aid to a country that doesn't also engage in significant amounts of foreign trade is more likely to end up in the pockets of dictators and cronies.

Angered and emboldened by the Wen Ho Lee case, many Asian-American researchers at national labs are decrying their status as "high-tech coolies"--and demanding change

When physicist Shao-Ping Chen sifted through his e-mails one Monday morning in August, he came across an unsettling message. "Wen Ho Lee should be supported (by the neck), cut down, drawn, and quartered," read part of a diatribe from a colleague at New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory that had been forwarded to Chen. At that point, the federal government, after conducting a massive investigation of Lee for possible espionage and keeping him in solitary confinement for 9 months, was preparing to put the former Los Alamos physicist on trial for mishandling classified data. For Chen, the e-mail, with its allusions to a lynching, was a frightening reminder of the racial overtones that he believes tainted this case from the start. "It had a very chilling effect on me," he recalls.

Abstract

Interview
(To protect respondents' identities, surnames are not disclosed.)

A. Magazine
December 1997

The Numbers Game and the White Boy Shuffle

GENEVIEVE: No one really takes an official poll at my film company. Of 250-300 employees, there are 2 African-Americans, 3 Asian Americans, and everyone else is white. In the creative group -- the group that decides what movies to purchase or produce -- I am the only Asian American. There are two African American women brought on primarily to serve on urban films. A lot of times the three of us feel like we have to be the voice of "equality." There are times when you'd be arguing with colleagues and say" don't you find it inherently offensive and racist?" And they'd look at you like you're from Mars! So it's a balancing act walking that fine line between understanding what will sell, making that business decision, and trying to feel comfortable with yourself at the end of the day.

Corky Lee has a day job. He works in sales and customer service at Expedi Printing in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the company that prints India Abroad, News Tibet, Dog News, Dan's Paper, The New York Sun, The New York Law Journal and Bamboo Girl zine. When he gets off work, though, he straps on a camera and becomes, in his words, "the Undisputed Unofficial Asian-American Photographer Laureate."

Busting the Myth of the Meritocracy

By Gary Rivlin
The Industry Standard
February 28, 2000

Like a great many people eager to plug in to Silicon Valley, Paul Igasaki has made more than his share of trips to San Francisco International Airport in the past 12 months. Igasaki, however, has not been coming to peddle a business plan on Sand Hill Road or talk dot-com deals South of Market. He's vice chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and he's been scouring the Valley for evidence to prove what he deeply suspects: That despite the torrent of self-congratulation spewed about the color-blind, brave new world built in the tolerant, racially diverse environs of Northern California, the area's tech companies are no different than the other industries the EEOC keeps an eye on. "From what I've seen thus far," Igasaki says, "I wouldn't necessarily say racial discrimination is more problematic in the high-tech area than elsewhere. But I wouldn't say it's any less of a problem, either."

By Kim Singh
Asian American Times
August 2001

It is an opinion often expressed that Asian Americans must be very entrepreneurial or open to taking risks since a large percentage of the startups in the Valley are launched by Asian Americans. These tend to be largely Indo Americans or Chinese Americans.

Asian Americans often take this observation in stride and pat themselves on their backs for being on the bleeding edge of startups. This opinion has helped foster the model minority concept even further. There is nothing an Asian American can do that is wrong is the popular opinion. Their kids are so smart. They are so smart. They are all high-tech engineers and all own Porches and BMWs.

By Winifred Yu
The Wall Street Journal
©1985 Dow Jones & Co., Inc.
September 11, 1985

They've been tagged "the model minority." They often rise to the top of their college classes and then earn recognition on the job as diligent and dependable workers. Employers scramble to offer them technical positions.

By Ji Hyun Lim
AsianWeek
October 12, 2001

Since William Peterson first coined the term “model minority” in his article, “Success Story: Japanese American Style,” in The New York Times Magazine in 1966 — Asian Pacific Islander Americans have carried the stereotype of a hard working, education-hungry, social ladder-climbing group. Notions that APIAs study harder, do better in weed-out courses like physics and biology, and achieve better scores on standardized testing all fit into the model minority myth. These expectations put a relatively high percentage of APIAs on the path to one of the toughest and most respected fields — medicine.

Yet 30 some years after APIAs were dubbed the model minority, many are still suffocating under its pressure.

Matt Grace, author of “Asians Suffer Under Model-Minority Myth” says, “The monolithic perception of Asian Americans, fostered by the model minority myth, fails to recognize the extraordinary diversity of income levels, education and assimilation within the community.”

By Deborah Woo
From The Glass Ceiling and Asian Americans: A Research Monograph
July 1994

Despite dramatic inroads made by Asian and Pacific Islanders into institutions of higher education, there has been converging evidence that education for Asian Pacific Americans often brings lower returns than it has for other groups, often increasing with education and age.  Gender differences account for some of the largest income discrepancies.  Foreign-born status also had a significant dampening effect on returns to education.

The Daily Campus, University of Connecticut
November 16, 2000
U-Wire

In the past few decades, the H1B visa has brought an influx of South Asian professionals into the United States. These are the individuals behind the power of our computer software companies. These are the individuals who have taken precedence over American doctors in our hospitals. If South Asians are doing so well, then why is Vijay Prasad complaining?