The Transnational Politics of Asian Americans

Christian Collet, Pei-Te Lien, Christian Collet, Pei-Te Lien

• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781592138623
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

As America's most ethnically diverse foreign-born population, Asian Americans can puzzle political observers. This volume's multidisciplinary team of contributors employ a variety of methodologies— including quantitative, ethnographic, and historical—to illustrate how transnational ties between the U.S. and Asia have shaped, and are increasingly defining, Asian American politics in our multicultural society.

Original essays by U.S.- and Asian-based scholars discuss Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese communities from Boston to Honolulu. The volume also shows how the grassroots activism of America's "newest minority" both reflects and is instrumental in broader processes of political change throughout the Pacific. Addressing the call for more global approaches to racial and ethnic politics, contributors describe how Asian immigrants strategically navigate the hurdles to domestic incorporation and equality by turning their political sights and energies toward Asia. These essays convincingly demonstrate that Asian American political participation in the U.S. does not consist simply of domestic actions with domestic ends.

Contributors include: Eiichiro Azuma, Augusto Espiritu, Hiroko Furuya, Peter Kiang, Ikumi Koakutsu, Michel Laguerre, Sangay Mishra, Hiromi Monobe, Shirley Tang, Tritia Toyota, Janelle Wong, and the editors.

Table of contents

• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• 1. The Transnational Politics of Asian Americans: Controversies, Questions, Convergence / Christian Collet and Pei-te Lien
• I. Asian States and Nationalisms in Asian American Politics: Then and Now
• II. The Practices and Sites of Asian American Transnational Politics
• III. Transnational Political Behavior and Asian American Identities
• Notes
• References
• About the Contributors
• Index