Many dimensions of Asian American pan‐ethnicity

Abstract

Asian Americans as a group consist of over 20 national origin groups with distinctive ethnicity, language, religion, cultural practices, immigration history, and perceptions of life in the United States. While “Asian American” has been interchangeably used to refer to both racial and pan‐ethnic grouping of individuals of Asian heritage, the exact meaning of the term varies contextually by one's ethnicity, experiences, and other social, structural, and cultural characteristics. In this article, I investigate three distinctive ways in which Asian Americans understand and enact upon their pan‐ethnicity: (a) as a political instrument, (b) as a social group identity, and (c) as a path of integration into the mainstream society. Then, I briefly discuss implications of pan‐ethnicity for Asian Americans, before turning to the discussion of ways in which future research could further investigate the complexities of pan‐ethnicity. I conclude by attempting to provide a nuanced definition of Asian American pan‐ethnicity based on the literature reviewed in this article.

Asian American Candidate Preferences: Evidence from California

“…U.S. born Asian Americans are also born and raised in a context where the label "Asian American" is salient and shared experiences of discrimination and marginalization can increase racial turnout (Wong et al 2011;Okamoto and Ebert 2010). Furthermore, extended length of time in the U.S., also leads individuals to be more accepting of the pan-ethnic/racial identifier (Lee 2019). Therefore, pan-ethnicity might still matter for Asian American candidates and serve as a cue for Asian American voters.…”

Asian Americans’ Ethnic Identity Exploration and the Role of Ethnic Community in a Southern City in the United States

“…Lastly, this study found that ethnically based gatherings were more spontaneous, and racially based gatherings were more likely to be organized for a particular purpose. Thus, it adds nuance to Lee and Yoo's suggestion that Asian Americans may place a greater emphasis on ethnic identity than racial identity [4]. Studies have shown that networks of only in-group members are more cohesive and function more efficiently [9].…”

“…In general, Asian Americans tend to align with an Eastern ideal of collectivism with emphasis on the family, obedience to elders, traditional gender roles, and group interdependence that affirms racial or ethnic identity. Those who emphasize ethnic identity point out each subgroup's differences [4,28].…”

“…Asian American is a pan-ethnic identification, bringing together subgroups that represent small percentages of the entire United States population [3]. It encompasses a wide range of religious beliefs, social classes, legal statuses, ethnic identifications, and migration histories but increases potential power through bigger numbers [4].…”

“I Just Couldn’t Relate to That Asian American Narrative”: How Southeast Asian Americans Reconsider Panethnicity

“…However, many have interrogated the meaning of “Asian American,” noting that it has become synonymous with “East Asian” (Jennifer Lee and Ramakrishnan 2019; Jess Lee 2019). This is owed to our associations of Asian Americans with the fair-skinned features attributed to Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans (Jess Lee 2019), the significant presence of East Asian American leaders in panethnic coalitions (Nakano 2013), and the panethnic movement’s roots with middle-class, college-educated East Asians (Mora and Okamoto 2020).…”