Community Forces, Social Capital, and Educational Achievement: The Case of Supplementary Education in the Chinese and Korean Immigrant Communities

TLDR

Asian American educational success is often attributed to Confucian values emphasizing education, family honor, discipline, and respect for authority. The authors contend that immigration selectivity, high premigration and postmigration socioeconomic status, and ethnic social structures jointly foster environments that promote academic achievement. They examine this ethnic effect by comparing the supplementary education systems that have emerged in Chinese and Korean immigrant communities in the United States. The results show that cultural traits interact strongly with structural factors, and that culture is dynamic, needing ongoing structural support to adapt to new contexts.

Abstract

Extraordinary Asian American educational achievement has often been credited to a common cultural influence of Confucianism that emphasizes education, family honor, discipline, and respect for authority. In this article, Min Zhou and Susan Kim argue that immigration selectivity, higher than average levels of premigration and postmigration socioeconomic status, and ethnic social structures interact to create unique patterns of adaptation and social environments conducive to educational achievement. This article seeks to unpack the ethnic effect through a comparative analysis of the ethnic system of supplementary education that has developed in two immigrant communities — Chinese and Korean — in the United States. The study suggests that the cultural attributes of a group interact substantially with structural factors, particularly tangible ethnic social structures on which community forces are sustained and social capital is formed. The authors conclude that "culture" is not static and requires structural support to constantly adapt to new situations.