Generation
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“Generation” is often defined as the time span between birth cohorts. Correspondingly, generational divisions may be spaced according to age differences between grandparents, their children, and their grandchildren. In this sense, the length of a “generation” is determined by the age mothers give birth to their children. However, “generation” also invokes shared experiences and identities that define birth cohorts. In the context of immigration, “generation” encompasses differences between the experiences and relationships of immigrants born abroad and those born in the country of settlement. Economic, political, and legal factors shape immigration patterns and the experiences of various generations. These factors are necessarily the products of different historical contexts. In the case of minority immigrants and their children, racism, discrimination, and exclusion—along with other forms of adjustment and incorporation—shape generational identities. Limited economic and social niches circumscribed options for early generations of Asian immigrants in the United States. In addition, laws such as the Page Act (1875) restricted the entry of Chinese women and therefore the ability of the Chinese to form families in the United States. On the one hand, Chinese exclusion laws and the extension of these restrictions to other Asian immigrants (e.g., the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act) reflect the...
This essay may be found on page 110 of the printed volume.