Haowen Wong
New member
Asian immigrants are famous for being overachievers, the model minority. Historically, this is due to America's success in allowing even the poorest of immigrants, from China and Japan to work hard and achieve success.
But nowadays, as Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc. rival the U.S. in standards of living, the Asian immigrants are foreign-born "yuppies," or "expatriates." The question is: were the Taiwanese software engineer or the Korean executive at Kia in Irvine "yuppies" to begin with, even in their homeland?
I think so. Not everyone in Korea or Taiwan is worth outsourcing to one of the wealthiest cities in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. And these expats, who moved to the U.S. in the 2000s-present, have children who are also first-generation immigrants.
These children may already be the elite in their countries. So why are Irvine's schools so competetive in an otherwise infamously mediocre national school system? We may think it is simply because of the high Asian student population, but the competetiveness is perhaps exacerbated by the fact that the Asians here are already elite.
Look at San Gabriel High School. The Asians (mostly lower-income Chinese) their have a API of 851. But at Irvine High, the Asians (largely higher-income Chinese) have an API of 918.
How come? And why, though 22% of IUSD students are foreign born, there are only 11% who are in ESL programs? Because the Asian immigrants to Irvine are yuppies who can afford extensive tutoring? So extensive that their children score better in English SATs, CSTs etc. than white, native-born students?
But nowadays, as Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc. rival the U.S. in standards of living, the Asian immigrants are foreign-born "yuppies," or "expatriates." The question is: were the Taiwanese software engineer or the Korean executive at Kia in Irvine "yuppies" to begin with, even in their homeland?
I think so. Not everyone in Korea or Taiwan is worth outsourcing to one of the wealthiest cities in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. And these expats, who moved to the U.S. in the 2000s-present, have children who are also first-generation immigrants.
These children may already be the elite in their countries. So why are Irvine's schools so competetive in an otherwise infamously mediocre national school system? We may think it is simply because of the high Asian student population, but the competetiveness is perhaps exacerbated by the fact that the Asians here are already elite.
Look at San Gabriel High School. The Asians (mostly lower-income Chinese) their have a API of 851. But at Irvine High, the Asians (largely higher-income Chinese) have an API of 918.
How come? And why, though 22% of IUSD students are foreign born, there are only 11% who are in ESL programs? Because the Asian immigrants to Irvine are yuppies who can afford extensive tutoring? So extensive that their children score better in English SATs, CSTs etc. than white, native-born students?