Week 8-Venice Santos

Tsuda’s article really stresses the idea that we brought up during discussions in class about how regardless of where an Asian immigrant is (in their country of ethnic origin or elsewhere that they reside) they will always be seen as a foreigner. In the case of Japanese Brazilians, they face an even greater sense of minority than Japanese Americans because in Brazil there is such a minimal population of Asians with non-Asian descent. Tsuda explains the socio-economic success of Japanese Brazilians to be of middle class standards as well as being educated with higher learning, but yet their continue to be seen as the minority amongst the greater population. Also as the generations integrate more into Brazilian culture, despite the older generations embracing their Japanese culture, the second and third generations have lost Japanese customs. Assimilation tends to drive the upbringing of the generations after migration. The need to blend into new societies has caused a replacement in claiming a homeland to further embrace this newer and “better” lifestyle. I mean isn’t that the whole reason immigrants leave their countries…to seek a better life?

What will it take for immigrants to embrace both cultures as oppose to simple just assimilate? How can society be shaped to better achieve this cultural harmony?

Takeyuki (Gaku) Tsuda. “When Minorities Migrate: The Racialization of the Japanese Brazilians in

Brazil and Japan.” Asian Diasporas.

Image from: https://tokyoholic.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/p10703671.jpg