On the Study of Asian-Americans: its Current State and Agenda

Abstract

In order to investigate the extent and scope of the Asian-American's integration into American society the majority of researchers have applied an assimilation perspective. This perspective has generated some useful research documenting various aspects of integration, but it has serious theoretical limitations. This paper addresses three specific weaknesses of current Asian-American assimilation studies and shows that to improve these shortcomings, they should incorporate some of the major ideas, especially the structural and historical variables, of the colonial and class models of racial stratification. The strength and the applicability of these two models to future Asian-American studies are discussed.