Why is there a huge divide between Asian international students and second generation Asian Americans in American universities?

13 comments

1. Because the second generation students were born and raised in the United States. They don’t have much more in common with the international students besides heritage.

2. What you’re essentially asking is why is there a huge divide between Americans and Asians.

   Asian international students are from Asia. They grew up in Asia. Second generation Asian Americans are American. They grew up in America.

3. There are definitely cultural differences at play here which cause this divide. Sometimes, American-born Asians may feel “embarrassed” by who they see as “FOBs” (fresh off the boat) from Asia. But over time, they learn to overcome their differences and accept those from Asia.

4. I think it depends a lot on area?

   I feel very at home with second generation Asians in California, went to UCLA. We had a lot of mixed Asian and second generation Americans in our social circle. Most from California, but some from New York, Boston, Vegas, Seattle as well.

   On the other hand, I feel like I had nothing in common with Asian-Americans in the Midwest and Southeast USA.

   I think it has a lot to do with how people grow up rather than just being Asian-American, and it’s not really an universal experience.

   An Indian guy growing up in Louisiana probably has a very difference experience from a Japanese guy growing up in Torrance

5. 4th-gen Asian American here – there’s a lot of complexity in the Asian American experience. Some of us go through phases where we don’t want to be seen as Asian, some of us go through phases where we really lean into it, and some of us go through variations of both.

6. I am a FOB, but most people barely notice apart from how I dress (sometimes). Lots of international students have pretty cliquey friendship circles that only involve other international students. I think intls being so insular is what alienates us, but to be honest I never had an issue with it. Americans are very friendly and I made lots of friends here.

   Some asian americans not being super friendly with asian asians though. Maybe the above stereotype applies, or perhaps they look down on asian asian due to economic/cultural differences (interestingly, as a Korean male in SoCal, I didn’t felt too much of cultural differences between me and Korean Americans, other than language use and aesthetics). But I wouldn’t call it a “huge” divide.

   I think the key is being genuine and open – you are not going to befriend many people here if you come across as a spoiled kid with a BMW who only hang out with other ppl like you.

7. Because Americans of Asian descent are Americans and relate more to other Americans regardless of their ethnicity? My best friend is Korean American. The dude grew up in the upper Midwest and loves football, hockey, buffalo wings, etc. He’s as American as any of us and when we were at college where I met him he hung out with other Americans of any ethnicity and not the International students. Why? Because he had more in common with us. He doesn’t even speak Korean beyond very basic stuff.

8. The international students keep to themselves and seem to have nothing in common with everyday Americans. Second generation anything is going to be more American in outlook, interests, and lifestyle than Asian (or any other ethnicity)

9. Because they’re from different countries and also have different cultures.

   Adding to this, Asian students come from a place where they’re the dominant race, culture and identity.

   Comparatively, Asian Americans in the US aren’t part of the dominant culture, they don’t have the same representation and may have identity issues. Furthermore, you can also view them as having one foot in either culture, which can get them rejected from ‘traditional’ cultural spaces.

   International students find themselves in a new country with new people and a new culture. Unless someone is extroverted, I don’t see why they’d go out of their way and be friendly to everyone. Being away from home can also make people more insular, causing them to stick more closely together (which can be a good thing). Some international students may also be hesitant to approach new people because they’re worried about how they can be perceived, making cultural faux-pas and people having stereotypes about them

10. ELI5

    2nd Generation Asian Americans will predominantly speak English within their social circles. This includes other Asian Americans of their ethnic background.

    Asian International Students will predominantly speak their ethnic language within their social circles.

    Obviously there are exceptions but this was my experience in college.

11. The only divide I’ve experienced is when an international student or first gen speaks to me in their native language and refuses to accept I can’t speak it. It’s only happened twice, but it’s a weird experience

12. I’m 4th Gen Asian American.

    There inherently is a huge divide. We have totally different cultures.

    Honestly, my impression is that it’s the Asian international students who mainly keep to themselves. Although, it varies by country. For example, the native English-speaking students from the Philippines or Singapore or Malaysia integrate more. But the students from Japan, China, or Korea, for example, tend to form very insular bubbles and only associate with each other. It’s not like they join our clubs or organizations to try to meet people (I only encountered one or two) and it’s not like any of them mingle their groups with each other either. You don’t feel a sense that reaching out would be welcome.

    Second, even when you do make contact, there’s a big cultural divide coupled with mismatched expectations.

    My great-grandparents came over from Japan in 1902. My parents and grandparents were all born and raised in the US speaking English as their first language. I view Japan as a foreign country. To (most) Americans, this makes perfect sense and is no big deal.

    In American culture, ethnicity, nationality, and cultural identity are all separate things. People from Asia are used to conflating all of those things. So, sometimes Asians from Asia expect us to feel more of a connection than we do, or view our lack of connection as a loss, deficiency, or even some form of betrayal. To us, that’s weird and uncomfortable.

    But mainly, we just don’t have much in common. We don’t speak each other’s first languages. We tend to have different values, interests, lifestyles, senses of humor, cultural references, and life outlooks. It makes it hard to connect.

    I feel like white people may actually seek that out for the cultural exoticism factor (the way they get drawn to Buddhism and stuff like that), but for us it’s just different enough to be alienating while familiar enough to not be exciting or exotic.

13. First-gen Asian American here, specifically Indian-American. Just going to throw in some things I haven’t seen mentioned in other answers, yet:

    * Different gender norms

    I grew up not thinking twice about having friends of genders other than my own. But for a lot of Indians, friendships with people the opposite sex was either still viewed with tremendous suspicion or flat out unthinkable.

    So I might invite an Indian or other Asian student to a social outing with my other American friends – but if that group is mixed-sex, then they might not feel comfortable. I also, unfortunately, stopped trying to be friendly to male Indian students, because they *always* interpreted that as me hitting on them; while some male Americans do this, too, they are generally in minority or at least take a *while* of a specific woman treating them particularly nicely to jump to the same conclusion.

    * “Imported baggage”/social and class divisions

    For Indians in particular, I’m thinking of caste. While caste is somewhat specific to India, other social and class divisions exist both in India and in other countries, and often times international students bring that baggage here. i.e. not wanting to hang out with people who are very poor, or feeling unable to hang out with people who are very rich.

    I wouldn’t have a problem agreeing to go to a bar or restaurant with a wealthier social circle but only eating an appetizer or drinking a water because that was all I could afford. My friends would be understanding; if they had cash to spare they might spot me so I could pay back in some other way later (typically free tutoring), and if not then no one bugged me about “only” eating an appetizer or having a water. However, lots of people wouldn’t feel comfortable even admitting they couldn’t afford that, and Asians especially would look down so vehemently on someone based on their economic class that others who were *in* a lower economic class would never feel comfortable admitting it out loud.

    * Political disagreements

    A lot of Indians are shocked to leave India, come to America, and find out most Indian-Americans are deeply embarrassed by Hindu nationalism and Islamaphobia in our parents’ homeland. Setting aside the obvious ethnic racism bullshit – I’m an Atheist but apparently I would still make a good wife for a Hindu man? lmao fuck that – Americans typically have strong opinions on international politics because so many of us are only a generation or two removed from a specific other nation’s politics. My opinion on the direction of India’s sociopolitical culture tend to not always jive very well with the opinions of Indians whose families were wealthy enough to be sent to America for a college education.

    Chinese students have it even worse. Americans, including Chinese-Americans, tend to not think twice about referring to Taiwan as a country, discussing widespread famines a few decades ago, or talking about the Tienanmen Square massacre – but Chinese national students will often lose their shit. (And while I mostly blame them/their indoctrination, I can’t entirely blame them given the increasing evidence that the CCP monitors its students abroad and will threaten or hold hostage their families back home.) Understandably, a lot of Chinese students will not want to place themselves in social situations where they will either have to *constantly* push back against everyone else’s perceptions of their nation’s history, or risk their families’ safety by keeping the peace.