Asian American families churn out doctors, engineers and graduate students, but their
Asian American families churn out doctors, engineers and graduate students, but their high-achieving image hides a “bamboo ceiling” that marginalizes the fastest growing US minority, experts say.
Jonathan Saw, Asia Society’s senior advisor for Asian Pacific American Research, said Monday that a new survey demonstrates an odd mixture of success and disenchantment, with 83 percent of Asian Americans feeling loyal to their company but only 49 percent feeling they belong.
“Asian Americans don’t really see themselves as belonging to corporate America, even though they are very successful,” he told AFP.
The reason is that while Asian Americans tend to start strongly, graduating from prestigious schools and quickly winning good jobs, they later hit the so-called “bamboo ceiling.”
“You don’t see a lot of Asian Americans in senior leadership positions,” Saw said.
The problem, according to Saw and others at an Asia Society conference in New York, is deeply ingrained bias within wider US society against treating Asians like other Americans.
“There’s this notion of Asian Americans as the perpetual ‘other,'” Saw said.
“Asian Americans are always seen as great doers, which is great, but it only gets you to middle management. At that critical juncture between middle manager and senior management, where relationships matter more than what you do, those perceptions matter.”
But what makes Asian Americans’ problem unique is that they are trapped in the cliche of having to be clever — clever to the point of being nerdy, out of touch, and unable to represent mainstream American life.