Chinese in American States

Chinese overseas Chinese in the United States

Mei Ren Xian

abstract:

Apart from Southeast Asia, the United States is the country with the earliest overseas Chinese and the largest number of settlers. The first China to immigrate to the United States was in 1820. Today, the population of China in the United States is estimated to have exceeded 2 million. Chinese Americans have higher education, higher economic income and stronger awareness of participating in politics. They have made pioneering and historic contributions to the prosperity of the United States, won national dignity and honor recognized by the United States for themselves, and have been praised as "model minorities" by successive American governments.

Apart from Southeast Asia, the United States is the country with the earliest overseas Chinese and the largest number of settlers. According to the records of the US Immigration Committee, the first person from China immigrated to the United States in 1820. 1950, the number of overseas Chinese in the United States reached 1 17629. With the increase in the number of immigrants, the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, and the influx of Indo-Chinese refugees, the number of overseas Chinese in the United States rose sharply, reaching 806,027 in 1980 and 1990 in1645,472. Today, the population of China in the United States is estimated to have exceeded 2 million. According to the US Census Bureau, more than 97% of Chinese immigrants in the United States live in American cities, mainly in California in the west, accounting for about 40% of the total number of Chinese in the United States. Followed by new york in the east, accounting for about18.4%; Then Illinois in the middle, Texas in the south and Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.

Most of the early immigrants from China to the United States were contract Chinese workers from the southeast coastal provinces of China, and their educational level was not high. Due to the importance overseas Chinese attach to their children's education and the arrival of new immigrants with high academic qualifications, the average number of years of Chinese education in American Chinese society has reached 13.4, which is higher than that in the United States. High school graduates account for 765,438+0.3% of the total Chinese population, 36.6% of Chinese Americans hold college diplomas or above, and Chinese doctors account for 7% of all American doctors. The education level of Chinese is among the best among all ethnic groups in the United States. This does not include tens of thousands of students from Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao who hold F- 1 visas. The improvement of the quality of Chinese Americans has fundamentally changed and expanded their employment fields. Many China people have entered science and technology, engineering, commerce and trade, law, culture, education, medicine, finance, economy, politics, military and other industries, engaged in technical or management work, and obtained enviable social positions such as teachers, lawyers, engineers, accountants, doctors, architects, parliamentarians, judges, administrative officials and military generals. According to the data of the U.S. Census Bureau, Chinese Americans engaged in professional and technical work account for about 26.5% of its population. Among the 6,543,800+2,000 first-class scientists in the United States, China people account for a quarter. In Silicon Valley, the high-tech center of the United States, one in every two engineers is from China. Among Chinese-Americans, there are many world-renowned first-class scientists, such as Nobel Prize winners,,,, Chu Wenqian,,, I.M. Pei, Zhu Jingwu and so on. While stepping into the mainstream society, the economic income of Chinese Americans has also increased accordingly. The average annual income of Chinese American families in 1982 reached $22,259, which was higher than the national average of19,917. 1992, there were more than160,000 China enterprises in the United States, including financial enterprises and high-tech enterprises, with turnover of hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars. The assets of Chinese in the United States far exceed10 billion dollars, which shows that a huge middle class with considerable economic strength has emerged in American Chinese society.

Compared with overseas Chinese all over the world, overseas Chinese in the United States have a remarkable feature, that is, they have a strong sense of participating in politics. In 1950s and 1960s, overseas Chinese in the United States actively participated in the civil rights movement against racial discrimination and for equal rights, and won. In today's American political arena, there are many Chinese organizations active with the purpose of rallying the strength of overseas Chinese living in the United States, supporting Chinese participation in politics, safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of ethnic groups, helping new and old immigrants integrate into the mainstream society, and promoting the friendship between the American and Chinese people, such as the American Chinese Association, the San Francisco Chinese Progress Association, the Chinese Rights Promotion Association, the new york Asian Equality Association, the American Chinese Political Committee, and a large number of famous political stars representing the interests of American Chinese, such as Wu Enbiao, Chen Xiangmei and Chia Wei Woo.

With the unique intelligence and perseverance of the Chinese nation, Chinese immigrants in the United States have worked hard and constantly strived for self-improvement, defeated foreign racial discrimination and exclusion, made pioneering and historic contributions to the prosperity of the United States, won national dignity and honor recognized by the United States for themselves, and were praised as "model minorities" by successive American governments. Former US President Ronald Reagan once said: "They overcame countless hardships and realized the American dream. Their success has brought hope and encouragement not only to American compatriots, but also to Asian-Pacific ethnic groups who are still joining the American national family. They set an example for us. " However, after all, the United States is not a paradise on earth, and Chinese society in the United States also has some dark sides that cannot be ignored, such as partisan disputes, gang disputes, crowded housing, and many problems such as language, culture, employment, health, and old-age care. A considerable number of Chinese Americans are still engaged in low-income manual labor and service labor, living below the poverty line. China immigrants to the United States, even if they have professional knowledge, cannot find satisfactory workers because their professional knowledge does not meet the needs of American society.