Week 7: Lesser - "From Japanese to Nikkei and Back: Integration Strategies of Japanese Immigrants and Their Descendants in Brazil" (Ang, Adrian)

In Jeffrey Lesser's "From Japanese to Nikkei and Back", Lesser talks about how Nikkei have been able to assimilate into the upper echelons of Brazilian society but have also been subject to discrimination and racist sentiments in Brazil as well. While reading this article, I thought about how in the United States, Asian Americans are always subject to being somewhere on the spectrum of Yellow Peril and Model Minority. Based on what the text says about third-generation Japanese Brazilians are typically just referred to as "Japanese" when they identify as Brazilian, this supports the notion that Asians are forever foreign away from the homeland; on the other hand, regarding the idea of the Nikkei being more "Brazilian" than ethnically European Brazilians, this shows that upper- and middle-class Brazilians see the Nikkei as a model minority. Furthermore, while reading about the Shindo Renmei, the Brazilian politicians' decision to handle the situation as a Brazilian matter also shows that the government recognizes the Nikkei as Brazilian citizens. I think that this article relates to this week's theme of Asian as Home(land) because it shows how Asians, generations removed, lose connection to their "homeland" and demand for a space in their host country, which they see as home. While I am not by any means an expert on racial relations in Brazil, I hear that racial divisions are less overt and more institutional there than here in the United States. After reading about the Nikkei in Brazil, I pose the questions: what are the differences in how Nikkei are perceived in Brazil in comparison to the Nikkei in the United States? In what ways do Nikkei in Brazil maintain a stronger connection to their home country than Nikkei in the United States and how is this fostered? What the United States learn from Brazil in racial relations?

Liberdade, the historically Japanese neighborhood in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Sources:
Jeffrey Lesser. "From Japanese to Nikkei and Back: Integration Strategies of Japanese Immigrants and Their Descendants in Brazil"
http://www.tofugu.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/liberdade.jpg