I've long searched for a book like this since I started graduate school about 5 years ago. It's a wonderfully rich qualitative work examining family relations, including children, parents, and the elderly. This book has served me well in better understanding Korean immigrant families. I was especially impressed with his writing on marital relations among Korean immigrant spouses. I offer my highest recommendation for anyone who wants to get a taste of immigrant family life in Asian America.

This is an excellent book for second generation Brazilians who would like to learn more about the Brazilian expereince in the US. It has a fantastic range of subjects.

The beginning of the book focuses on the context of sudden immigration in 1975 as refugees sought to flee from Vietnam. Then it discusses following waves of immigration and the differences between those who came to America right after the war, and those who came later, the differences in the policies facing them, as well as attitudes towards them. The next three chapters discuss Vietnamese immigrants' experiences and attitudes on employment, education, and families. James Freeman speaks of the immigrant group as a whole, but also tries to illuminate individual idiosyncrasies in these matters through various interviews and accounts.

I was expecting a dry anthropological study, but instead found that CHANGING IDENTITIES was quite interesting and very informative. It deals with Vietnamese in America, how and why many of them came here, and their varied experiences in this country. It is easy for a book like this to make strange generalizations that would, to a Vietnamese American, ring untrue. And this book may make some such claims (I wouldn't know). But James Freeman makes an effort in describing the commonalities within Vietnamese communities to emphasize also the plurality of experiences among the group.

This book is useful, though not brilliant. It provides a comparison between the great wave of Jewish and Italian immigrants to New York at the turn of the last century, and the present wave of immigrants from Asia, Latin America and the former Soviet Union. Foner's account look at where immigrants live, how they work, immigrant women in particular, the sting of prejudice, the matter of ties to the old country and going to school. She seeks to refute the view which uses the success of the first wave and selected members of the second wave as a stick to beat everyone else. By and large she succeeds. She reminds us that one reason why many Asian-American have excellent education and social mobility records in the United States is because they were well educated members of the middle class back in Asia. She points out that it took a couple of generations before Jews experienced middle class status and high school graduation. She reminds us that despite fears of America becoming increasingly balkanized new immigrants are more "american" than previous waves because of the world of mass culture. There are nuanced discussions about the mixed blessings of wage labor and increased independence. There is an interesting chapter on how Jews and Italians were viewed in the past as non-white, and how Asians and Hispanics are becoming increasingly "white." There is much in here that counters the widespread moralistic underclass discourses that have made The New Republic the fashionable magazine of our day's Vanity Fair. There is a nuanced discussion of the effect immigrants have on black employment. Some pundits, shedding crocodile tears for African-Americans suggest they would be better off if immigrants were not taking their jobs. But in fact, as Foner points out, many immigrants are not directly displacing blacks because they work in niches where blacks either were rarely employed or actually excluded. On the other hand, working in sweatshop jobs often makes them less attractive to native workers and helps lower wage rates. Often employers use stereotypes to immigrants' benefits and blacks' detriment. On the other hand by increasing the New York population they encourage African American strength in public employment and stop the decline in business that comes from a falling population. So why does this book only get three stars? Well, many of its insights aren't particularly new, that they may be a revelation to readers does not mean they are to people who study the topic. There is little about politics of immigrants, either electorally or through such measures as unions. There could be more about class in the book, both within immigrant communities and within the problem of New York as a whole. It is not that the subject goes unmentioned but it is noteworthy that there is no entry under the index for "Gulliani." The result is nourishing, but bland; it could use a little more bite.

This book once again made an interesting reading. Several of the scenes narrated in the book reminded me of my own immigrant life here in USA. Clearly, the author has done extensive research to observe the Indian immigrants. Some of the clashes described such as between genders and between different generations were also quite vividly described. ... she compares the categories of "South Asian" versus "Indian". It is true that second generation of immigrants prefers the former category whereas the first generation prefers the latter one. And the reason is not just the political rivalry between India and Pakistan. While India represents a free, democratic and secular country, Pakistan and Bangladesh are autocratic and theocratic countries. Therefore, by packaging the uniqueness of India into "South Asia" is not completely accurate categorization. At the same time, Indians have to take the heat several times due to this category.... the author presents an anti-racism perspective shared by Vijay Prashad. One wonders if this perspective is kind of a new trend of progressive scholars. Do the Marxist scholars always need a target to fight against? In India, it is the "Evil Brahmanical Conspiracy". In USA, it is the "Evil White Conspiracy". Such outdated notions may be the reason that Hindutva folk would call them "Evil Marxist Conspiracy".
On page 32, the author fails to understand a simple Bollywood movie and presents a skewed version of the story which in reality is an epitome of Indian family values. However, on the same page she accurately mentions about the concerns of Indians about the portrayal of India in the popular media. Sadly, for the general American public, India still translates into "caste, curry and cows" despite India being the second fastest growing economy in the world, one of the largest producers of technical professionals and many other achievements. ...she correctly depicts the close family ties among several relatives. This feature is one of the many commonalities among the Indians. ... she narrates various activist groups who are trying to be saviors for South Asians and why some South Asians oppose them. gives the gist of such activists who blame Indian traditions for today's social problems. However, recent scholars have accused the centuries of colonization for some of these problems such as women oppression, Casteism etc. Sadly, most of these organizations are still stuck with the outdated ideologies of colonizers. Few have any idea of the root causes of any social problems and still claim to be the reformers. Hence, some of the intellectuals have gone to the extent of calling these "activists" as sepoys of the neo-colonizers.
Finally, I think that such books seem to severely obsolete. None of the books mention that the NRIs have invested billion[s] in India and therefore the notion of brain-drain needs to be changed. Obviously, Indian techno-professionals do not face the racism the books seem to be so worried about. None of the books have cared to study the movements such as Swadhyay which is NOT based on any sectarian, regional, linguistic, ethnic or national agenda and still appeals to Indians all over the globe. None of the book have discussed about the racism prevalent in academy against South Asians. They have also failed to take into account the modern feminist scholar such as Madhu Kishwar who has challenged the feminist organizations which the Lessinger book seems to be praising about. Also, I would like to debate the categorization of India as a third world country or an undeveloped country. One just needs to take a trip to India to see the massive changes in telecom, IT and other infra-structure now taking place.