The Paradox of Ethnicization and Assimilation: The Development of Ethnic Organizations in the Chinese Immigrant Community in the United States1

The Chinese immigrant community has gone through several significant historical periods since the late 1840s: unrestricted immigration (1848–81), Chinese exclusion (1882–1943), immigration on restricted quotas (1944–67), and immigration on equal basis (1968–present). During each historical period, unique patterns of socio-economic adaptation and community development have affected the preservation of Chineseness and the construction of Chinese-American ethnicity. This chapter aims to illuminate the processes of ethnicization and assimilation through the story of immigrant community development in the United States. We specifically examine (1) how broad structural forces shape the formation and development of ethnic organizations in each historical period of Chinese immigration, (2) what new ethnic organizations are like and how they align with traditional organizations to influence immigrant adaptation, and (3) how ethnic organizations affect identity and assimilation. Drawing on past studies and our own research of the contemporary Chinese immigrant community in the United States,2 we focus on how internal community dynamics, intermixed with macro-structural factors, influence the mobility and identity of Chinese immigrants and their offspring. In so doing, we seek to offer a fresh approach to the classic sociological inquiry of ethnicity and assimilation in American life.