"The Climbers": An Exploratory Study of Asian American Students and Parents in American Suburbs

Abstract

Asian Americans are the fastest-growing of the four major racial groups in the United States, with an estimated population of 46 million by 2060. Yet scholarly and policy analyses of race have not caught up to this demographic trend, effectively closing the door on an entire group of people from being substantively analyzed or understanding their various needs. Several factors create a scholarly distancing of Asian Americans from other minorities–high aggregate socioeconomic outcomes, concentration in suburban neighborhoods, and cultural perceptions of the model minority–which mask the issues that Asian Americans face on a community and individual level. The research on Asian Americans that does exist typically rests on theoretical, historical, or quantitative claims that do not convey the experiential, interior lives of the populations they study. Further, scholarly attention toward schools and neighborhoods not only minimizes Asian Americans but also suburban areas due to perceptions of urban locales as being the main battleground where inequality manifests. This thesis attempts to address these gaps through in-depth interviews with nine Asian Americans in suburban communities, supplemented by interviews with two students from urban neighborhoods. Through their insights, I explore possible avenues with which to interpret a twofold research question: What does it mean to be an Asian American student or parent in an American suburb? What are the various issues and needs of this understudied population? I organize findings into three areas of focus: academic motivations and behaviors, social identity, and sense of place. Three main findings centered on these themes are posited and analyzed. Firstly, I find that social and personal influences were consistently associated with interviewees’ motivations for academic success, adding a previously unexplored factor beyond the prevalent view of Asian Americans’ emphasis on education for its functional value in the labor market or due to a cultural orientation toward achievement. Secondly, I find vast differences in how interviewees interpreted race and gender in shaping their social identities, challenging the monolithic treatment of Asian Americans even in similar demographics and emphasizing the need for more intersectional analyses. Finally, I find that, while suburban communities may be underrepresented in the broader literature on schools and neighborhoods, the suburbanization and privileged demographics of Asian Americans effectively displace the voices of their urban peers, which have implications for broader AAPI activism and political representation. Overall, the various experiences and tensions that interviewees posed highlight that while the vast heterogeneity of Asian Americans–even in advantaged, suburban contexts–cannot be succinctly categorized, this variation should motivate rather than deter future research and policy action. As they grow both in number and in the diversity of their experiences, equally expansive and updated research must be conducted to understand the needs of Asian Americans and what their rising presence means for their and other communities.