Resurgent Ethnicity and Residential Choice Among Second-generation Asian Americans in a Los Angeles Panethnic Suburb

Abstract

We draw on forty-six in-depth interviews with residents of Cerritos, California, a middle-class majority Asian suburb in Los Angeles County to explore the meaning of resurgent ethnicity and the ways in which a racialized identity informs residential preferences and choice among second-generation Asian Americans. Findings suggest that second-generation Asian Americans are choosing to reside in a place that offers cultural and class-based amenities that reflects a multiethnic sensibility. They also make residential choices based on family ties to strengthen and maintain intergenerational relations and share mutual social and economic resources. For second-generation Asian Americans, this racially dominant but ethnically diverse spatial settlement also provides a sense of belonging, signifying the continuing significance of race among middle-class, acculturated racial minority groups. As U.S. ethnic populations continue to grow and continue the trend of suburbanization and segregation, understanding such places and their implications will become increasingly important.

Family-centered decision making: A culturally responsive collaborative approach among Asians living in the United States.

“…This association may exhibit as linear or curvilinear relationships with individuals’ immigration history. The previous research has suggested that first-generation immigrants have higher adherence to their heritage culture compared to their later generations (Salant & Lauderdale, 2003; Ward, 2000), but recent studies have shown that cultural adherence can be strengthened out of a fear of losing cultural roots, leading to intentional adherence to traditional cultural norms for the purpose of maintaining cultural identity (Bhugra & Becker, 2005; Dizon et al, 2021; Patraporn & Kim, 2022).…”