IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsoctx/v11y2021i3p109-d630917.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Asian Americans’ Ethnic Identity Exploration and the Role of Ethnic Community in a Southern City in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Suzie S. Weng

    (School of Social Work, California State University, Long Beach, CA 90032, USA)

  • Shinwoo Choi

    (School of Social Work, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA)

Abstract

This qualitative study explores Asian Americans’ ethnic identity concerning their process of exploring their own identity belonging and the impact of an ethnic community in a southern city in the United States. The South has mainly consisted of European Americans and African Americans. However, it has diversified to include an increasing number of Latinx and Asian Americans over the last several decades. Yet, the growing Asian American community remains disparate in its ethnic identity and nationality. Therefore, this study uses the phenomenological method to provide a more in-depth understanding of ethnic identity in an Asian American community within a southern region of the United States. Themes emerging from interviews included the need to bridge two worlds, the desire to be part of a community, and the existence of a two-layer community involving both ethnic and racial identity. This study contributes to a greater understanding of Asian Americans’ experiences in and adaptation to the Southern region within the United States. Implications for practice are provided for social workers when working alongside Asian American clients.

Suggested Citation

  • Suzie S. Weng & Shinwoo Choi, 2021. "Asian Americans’ Ethnic Identity Exploration and the Role of Ethnic Community in a Southern City in the United States," Societies, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-15, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:11:y:2021:i:3:p:109-:d:630917
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/11/3/109/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/11/3/109/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Grillo & Miguel Teixeira & David Wilson, 2010. "Residential Satisfaction and Civic Engagement: Understanding the Causes of Community Participation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 97(3), pages 451-466, July.
    2. Beiser, Morton & Turner, R.Jay & Ganesan, Soma, 1989. "Catastrophic stress and factors affecting its consequences among Southeast Asian refugees," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 183-195, January.
    3. Fan Lu, 2020. "The Dual Identity of Asian Americans," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 101(5), pages 1869-1884, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jennifer Creese, 2022. "“How Do I See Myself? It’s Complicated”: Qualitatively Eliciting, Analyzing and Understanding Individuals’ Self-Attitudes towards Identity in an Australian Jewish Community," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-16, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Morton Beiser & Feng Hou, 2000. "Gender Differences in Language Acquisition and Employment Consequences among Southeast Asian Refugees in Canada," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 26(3), pages 311-330, September.
    2. Hongyun Fu & Mark VanLandingham, 2012. "Mental Health Consequences of International Migration for Vietnamese Americans and the Mediating Effects of Physical Health and Social Networks: Results From a Natural Experiment Approach," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(2), pages 393-424, May.
    3. Jacques Tremblay & Duncan Pedersen & Consuelo Errazuriz, 2009. "Assessing Mental Health Outcomes of Political Violence and Civil Unrest in Peru," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 55(5), pages 449-463, September.
    4. Taimaz Larimian & Arash Sadeghi, 2021. "Measuring urban social sustainability: Scale development and validation," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 48(4), pages 621-637, May.
    5. Kienzler, Hanna, 2008. "Debating war-trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in an interdisciplinary arena," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 218-227, July.
    6. Eiji Yamamura, 2017. "Identity, nostalgia and happiness among migrants: The case of the KÅ shien High School Baseball Tournament in Japan," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 792-813, December.
    7. Carmelina Bevilacqua & Poya Sohrabi & Nourhan Hamdy & Federica Mangiulli, 2023. "Mapping Connections between Neighborhoods in Response to Community-Based Social Needs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-22, March.
    8. Hoogstra, Marjanke A. & Schanz, Heiner, 2008. "The future orientation of foresters: An exploratory research among Dutch foresters into the prerequisite for strategic planning in forestry," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 220-229, February.
    9. Oliver Schmidtke, 2018. "The Civil Society Dynamic of Including and Empowering Refugees in Canada’s Urban Centres," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(1), pages 147-156.
    10. Mitra Ghafourian & Elham Hesari, 2018. "Evaluating the Model of Causal Relations Between Sense of Place and Residential Satisfaction in Iranian Public Housing (The Case of Mehr Housing in Pardis, Tehran)," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 139(2), pages 695-721, September.
    11. Jacquelyn H. Flaskerud & P.Y. Liu, 1990. "Influence of Therapist Ethnicity and Language On Therapy Outcomes of Southeast Asian Clients," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 36(1), pages 18-29, March.
    12. Zraly, Maggie & Nyirazinyoye, Laetitia, 2010. "Don't let the suffering make you fade away: An ethnographic study of resilience among survivors of genocide-rape in southern Rwanda," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(10), pages 1656-1664, May.
    13. Matthew Manning & Christopher M. Fleming & Hien-Thuc Pham & Gabriel T. W. Wong, 2022. "What Matters More, Perceived or Real Crime?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(3), pages 1221-1248, October.
    14. Hamersma, Marije & Heinen, Eva & Tillema, Taede & Arts, Jos, 2016. "Residents’ responses to proposed highway projects: Exploring the role of governmental information provision," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 56-67.
    15. Yoanna Seong & Subin Park, 2021. "Factors Affecting Changes in the Mental Health of North Korean Refugee Youths: A Three-Year Follow-Up Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-10, February.
    16. Ksenia Gatskova & Maxim Gatskov, 2012. "The Weakness of Civil Society in Ukraine: A Mechanism-Based Explanation," Working Papers 323, Leibniz Institut für Ost- und Südosteuropaforschung (Institute for East and Southeast European Studies).
    17. Regina Pernice & Judith Brook, 1996. "The Mental Health Pattern of Migrants: Is There a Euphoric Period Followed By a Mental Health Crisis?," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 42(1), pages 18-27, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:11:y:2021:i:3:p:109-:d:630917. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.