Compare and Contrast Korean and Filipino Americans

According to the class reading by Eui-Young Yu, "Korean American Communities and their Institutions: A Summary" she specifies Korean Americans have developed 3 broad kinds of neighborhoods: territorial neighborhood, associational community and psycho-cultural neighborhood. One may ask, are these different communities needed to constitute a cohesive Korean American community? This concern can be addressed accordingly, each neighborhood interacts and actively takes part with one another to enhance the likelihood of keeping a strong ethno-cultural identity of the Korean Americans. This essay will attend to these kinds of communities defined by Teacher Kashima in contrast to the Filipino American community.

Professor Kashima uses the meaning of neighborhood as "a socially recognizable group of people who might or may not live in a particular geographical area however who purposely share a common culture and lifestyle and can act in a collective manner to pursue preferred ends" (Kashima, Trust). In specific a territorial neighborhood is a forced segregated area where people reside and work. Korean Americans produced a geographical location in New york city and Los Angeles called Koreatown (Chang).

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Southern California has the highest Korean American population of over 150,000 members in which this community provides ethnic networking for the Korean immigrants and the later 1.5 generation. Koreatown has tea spaces, cafes and clubs that allow Korean Americans to make organisation offers and make good friends. On the other hand, the Filipino Americans don't live in an identifiable territorial neighborhood; rather, their neighborhood has a symbolic method which they do not always live in a particular geographical area however who purposely share a common manner to pursue preferred ends (Kashima, Neighborhood).

As follows, Filipino Americans have established a community in a symbolic perspective, or in other words, an associational community. Professor Kashima asserts that this type of community consists of organizational and institutional activities which provides a sense of belonging and a high level of participation within these associations. Filipino Americans have established approximately 2,685 Filipino and Filipino American organizations (Yu), such as the Filipino Community of Seattle who promote diversity and ethnic pride through the active participants donating and volunteering to preserve the Filipino American identity.

In contrast, Korean Americans have established an associational community by the example of first and 1.5 generations actively attending Korean churches. This type of community allows Korean individuals to “reinforce traditional norms and values of the immigrants, and thus strengthening ethnic solidarity and isolation from the mainstream” (Yu). The difference between the Filipino American and Korean American associational communities is Korean churches preserve the Korean language more effectively, and becomes self-serving to the Korean American community by simultaneously embracing the mainstream American society and incorporating Korean culture—the 1.5 generation.

However, many Korean and Filipino Americans do not participate in ethnic associations, but psychologically and culturally identify themselves as Koreans or Filipinos, thus forming a psycho-cultural community. In other words, this type of community is a conscious group of individuals that retain the ethnic cultural values and some cultural heritage without much involvement in the associational community. Korean Americans display this community through “their practice of petite bourgeois values” (Kashima, Korean Americans). Korean Americans are able to gain trust and share their ethnic cultural values with the establishment of restaurants to provide an education for their children; in other words, Korean Americans can continue to value the importance of an education without participating in a Korean organization.