Wk 3: Asian American Labor History

Here are the questions to the readings for Week 3. Please choose 1 or 2 to write a short response to.

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Chen's article:

1. Chen describes three forms of language-based discrimination. The
article provides a pretty straightforward definition of each of the
discrimination types, and claims that language discrimination leads to
issues regarding economic, civil, and labor rights of immigrant
workers. Have you ever encountered any experiences or conflicts of
language-based discrimination in your own life, that may or may not
necessarily be related to labor issues? Was the conflict ever
resolved? How so? What do you believe is the first step towards
eliminating this type of discrimination in the work place?

2. Chen describes that language discrimination occurs in many workplaces. Suppose you are an employer of a workplace, would you impose the "English-only" rules to your employees for the convenience of the workplace environment? Why or why not?

3. Do you feel that the employer should encourage and aid in the proficiency of his/her employees' English skills, given that most of his employees are immigrants?

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Shah's article:

1. The idea that the first step towards resolving labor issues is to
provide workers with the basic tools for understanding what they can
do for themselves is common of many organizations dedicated to helping
immigrant workers. However, as Shah describes, workers are often
afraid to fight for their rights for the fear of being terminated, for
the fear of being caught by the INS, or simply because it is not a
custom in their Asian cultures to stand up to authority. Do you
believe the Shah's approach of using attorneys to rally a few Asian
American workers in each case to lead the fight to be a good approach?
Why/why not?

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Espiritu's article:

1. How has Asian American history, immigration laws, and the swapping of
gender roles defined the role of an Asian American woman and defined
the concept of family in terms of labor? Have these definitions
evolved since the 1930s? How so?

2. Based on Espiritu's article, how had the roles of Asian American women
changed during the era of large immigration to the United States? How had
those of the Asian American male migrant workers changed?

Ideas For Next Year's Course

Post possible topics for next year's ASAM 197 course here!!

Blog Check Week 1

Hey All! Can you guys all post a comment to make sure that you have been added as an author correctly?

--jessica