UC Irvine UC Irvine Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Construction of the Success Frame by Second-Generation Chinese Parents; a Cross- National Comparison Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/01b0677w Author Noam, Krista R. Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE The Construction of the Success Frame by Second-Generation Chinese Parents; a Cross-National Comparison DISSERTATION Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Sociology by Krista Regina Noam-Zuidervaart Thesis Committee: Professor Frank D. Bean, Chair Professor Jennifer Lee, Chair Associate professor Susan K. Brown Associate professor Ann Hironaka 2014 Chapter 4 © 2014 Krista R. Noam, adapted from publication in New Diversities (16) 1: 41-55 All other materials © 2014 Krista Regina Noam-Zuidervaart TABLE ON CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES IV LIST OF TABLES V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS VI CURRICULUM VITAE VIII CHAPTER 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Terminology 6 1.3 Focus of this dissertation: second-generation Chinese 7 1.4 Theoretical framework 11 1.5 Methods 21 1.6 Findings 29 1.7 Overview of the chapters 30 CHAPTER 2 UNITED STATES VS. NETHERLANDS 2.1 The stage: two countries 34 2.2 Chinese immigration history and current communities 49 2.3 Comparing the second-generation Chinese in the United States and the Netherlands 55 CHAPTER 3 QUASI-EXPERIMENTS IN CROSS-NATIONAL IMMIGRATION RESEARCH 3.1 Introduction 60 3.2 Background of the experimental designs 61 3.3 Cross-national immigration research 63 3.4 Cross-national research and quasi-experimental designs 65 3.5 Conclusion 72 CHAPTER 4 HOW NATIONAL CONTEXT INFLUENCES THE CHILDREARING PRACTICES OF SECOND-GENERATION CHINESE ‘TIGER’ PARENTS 4.1 Introduction 74 4.2 Theoretical background: Childrearing of first-generation Chinese and the adaptation of second-generation Chinese 76 4.3 Data & methods 81 4.4 Findings: Diverting expectations and different motivations 83 ii 4.5 Discussion and conclusion 95 CHAPTER 5 A CROSS-NATIONAL COMPARISON OF SECOND-GENERATION CHINESE ‘TIGER’ PARENTS 5.1 Introduction 100 5.2 Theoretical background: constructing the success frame and incorporation of the second-generation 101 5.3 Hypotheses 105 5.4 Data & Methods 108 5.5 Findings: Quantitative and Qualitative evidence for recreating the success frame 112 5.6 Discussion & conclusion 129 CHAPTER 6 FOLK BILINGUALS VS. ELITE BILINGUALISM; SECOND-GENERATION PARENTS RAISING BILINGUAL CHILDREN 6.1 Introduction 135 6.2 Theoretical background: language assimilation, shift, and different types of bilingualism 136 6.3 Data & methods 146 6.4 Findings: folk and elite bilingualism and Asian parents’ motivations for bilingualism 148 6.5 Discussion & conclusion 164 CHAPTER 7 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 7.1 Context of the study 169 7.2 Answering the research questions 171 7.3 Limitations and future research 178 7.4 Future directions 181 7.5 Contributions & implications 184 7.6 Conclusion 188 NOTES 190 REFERENCES 195 APPENDIX A QUESTIONNAIRE 213 APPENDIX B SEMI STRUCTURED INTERVIEW GUIDE 218 APPENDIX C TABLES AND FIGURES ACCOMPANYING CHAPTER 6 223 iii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1.1: Interactions between theories (circles) and chapters (overlapping areas) ...................12 Figure 2.1: Race in the U.S. and immigrant status in the Netherlands ..........................................40 Figure 2.2: World region of birth of the U.S foreign-born population, changes over time ...........41 Figure 2.3: Regions of origin for migration to the Netherlands ....................................................43 Figure 2.4: First-and second-generation population in the Netherlands, through time .................45 Figure 2.5: Level of education second-generation Chinese; the United States (inner circle) and the Netherlands (outer circle) .................................................................................................57 Figure 3.1: Control groups in cross-national quasi-experiments ...................................................71 Figure 5.1: Between and within country differences ...................................................................106 Figure 5.2: Findings between and within countries .....................................................................112 Figure 5.3: Placing of 'achievement' when 5 a items were ranked ..............................................113 Figure 5.4: Parents' aspirations for their children's future ...........................................................114 Figure 6.1: Extent of bilingualism in the household, by country/region of origin ......................152 Figure 6.2: Logistic regression lines of speaking language other than English at home .............157 iv LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1.1: Comparing samples in the United States and the Netherlands .....................................26 Table 2.1: Second and 1.5 generation Chinese ..............................................................................56 Table 4.1: Characteristics of the sample, by country .....................................................................84 Table 5.1: Comparing samples in the United States and the Netherlands ...................................110 Table 6.1: Descriptive for person 1 variables ..............................................................................150 Table 6.2: Logistic regressions for bilingual neither parent vs. both parents ..............................154 Table 6.3: Logistic regressions for bilingual neither parent vs. both parents, grouped countries................................................................................................................................156 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work would not have been possible without the participants of this study, whether they were interviewed or helped me find additional resources. I thank you all so much for welcoming me in your house, sharing your life, and introducing me to the wonderfully rich Chinese culture. Chapter 4 is the first to be published of this dissertation and although I hold the copyright of this article (see Noam 2014), which was granted to me by the journal’s editor, I want to acknowledge my interviewees for making this article possible. But where to begin to acknowledge those who guided my overall academic career, which started, in fact, not academic at all? I would like to thank two ghosts from the past: Cees Jan Ruinemans, my civics teacher, who taught me there is life beyond school and my hometown that is worth exploring. And Gerben, who bought me beer while helping me with my math lessons, and was among the first to believe in my potential academic abilities. Fast forward, and here I am; about to complete my Ph.D. studies. I had several wonderful mentors and role models along the way: During my bachelor studies at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Dr. Flip Lindo introduced me to field of immigration and at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, where I completed my research master degree, Prof. Harry Ganzeboom was ever patient in teaching concepts, models, and equations. During my internship at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institutes Prof. Helga de Valk demonstrated how to connect migration theories and research to real-life demography. At the University of California, Irvine, I was lucky to have Prof. Jennifer Lee as my adviser from the start; her support, understanding, and insight helped me grow and develop ever since. I am also grateful for the support of Prof. Susan Brown and Prof. Ann Hironaka, who provided academic challenge and guidance whenever I felt lost. I feel lucky to have them as part of my committee. My solid rock was Prof. Frank Bean. Frank provided inspiration, motivation, and insight; all at 6 o’clock AM. Frank is the reason I might even miss graduate school. But this section of gratitude would not be complete without acknowledging the wonderful supporting staff of UCI, in particular John Sommerhauser and Carolynn Bramlett. While mental and motivational encouragement is important, so is practical and financial backing. Practical support came during my time at the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP), where I collaborated with great people on a report on the Chinese immigrants in the Netherlands. It was due to Jaco Dagevos that I had this opportunity and obtained temporary access to the unique SING data. This study benefitted from several financial resources. In addition to UCI summer and research grants, I received funding from: VSB Scholarship, HSP Huygens Scholarship, UCI’s Social Science Merit Fellowship, SSRC’s Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship, and the Prince Berhard Culture Fellowship. The main motivation to keep moving forward came from family and friends. Some friends who saw me climb further than any of us could have ever imagined when sharing toys 30 years ago: Annelies, Caroline, Alien, Ria and especially Irma, were as surprised as I was when I decided my MBO diploma did not provide me the satisfaction I sought from life. I have no words for their loyalty. They prove that true friendship surpasses time and space. Moving around implied that many new friends came and went, few remained Saskia, Jaelah, Joanna, provided me confidence when my doubts grew big. And later, Kelly, Anne, Jessica, and also Leah, provided insight into the American culture and helped me understand that some American things really