Southeast Asian American College Degree Attainment and Racial Stereotypes

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 12:40 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Educational Leadership, Higher Education, and Career Trajectories With AANHPI Communities (Table 3)

Abstract

Southeast Asian Americans (SEAA) are often overlooked by researchers due to assumptions that they are high-achieving and overrepresented in higher education. Data aggregation lumps Asian Americans into a monolithic category, obscuring differences between East Asians and SEAA. I use the framework of the model minority and perpetual foreigner stereotypes to explore how SEAA’s education attainment mediate the experience of racial stereotypes. The 2016 National Asian American survey is used to examine the effects of education attainment on racial stereotypes. The dataset includes respondents who identify with East Asian and SEAA roots, allowing disaggregation for inter-group ethnic comparisons. Results ironically show that SEAA with college degrees experience higher levels of discrimination, challenging assumptions of monolithic outcomes among Asian American groups.

Author

• Olivia Kusuma, University of Wisconsin - Madison