Models of Cultural Orientation: Differences Between American-Born and Overseas-Born Asians

The above quotes are the responses of two Hmong college students, one born in Laos and the other born in the United States, to the question, “What does being American mean to you?” (Tsai, Wong, Mortensen, & Hess, in press). The first respondent describes “being American” in relation to “being Hmong,” whereas the second respondent describes “being American” without making any reference to Hmong culture. In this chapter, we argue that these two responses represent the different models of cultural orientation held by overseas and American-born Asians. Although a considerable body of research has focused on models of cultural orientation across groups, few scholars have examined how these models might vary within cultural groups. Uncovering sources of variation within groups is becoming increasingly important, particularly in multicultural societies such as the United States, where differences within cultural groups may be as large as differences between them.