The Skew of Pathways: The Structural Explanation for the Asian American Academic Achievements

• In Event: 4367 - Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: 11. Sociology of Education

Abstract

In this paper, I develop a structural explanation for why 1.5 and second generation Asian Americans have higher academic achievement than white Americans in the United States. In the American job mobility structure, there are two pathways to upward mobility: developing interpersonal skills to obtain managerial occupations and developing technical skills to obtain technical occupations. Asian immigrant parents find that the former pathway is inaccessible because they experience structural disadvantages in the white American social environment due to their foreign cultural background and non-native English skills. Meanwhile, they find the latter pathway accessible because they experience positive treatment and insignificant disadvantages in the white American academic environment (especially in the STEM fields). To maximize their children’s likelihood of obtaining upward mobility, Asian immigrant parents encourage their children to develop technical skills and discourage them from developing interpersonal skills. Consequently, 1.5 and 2nd generation Asian Americans have higher academic achievements but lower likelihood to obtain upper-managerial occupations than white Americans. This paper suggests that to eliminate the Asian-white academic achievement gap, we should create “culture-neutral environments” in the upper-middle class education and work institutions in the United States.

Author

• Wei Zhu, Haverford College