Model Minorities and Forever Foreigners: Chinese Americans’ Attitudes Toward the Police

Abstract

In the twenty-first century, Asian Americans have the fastest growth rate of any major racial or ethnic group in the country, and among Asian groups, Chinese Americans are the largest group. This chapter describes the long, at times very thorny and strenuous path of immigration and acculturation among Chinese Americans in the U.S., and discusses how the stereotypes of forever foreigners and model minorities that Chinese Americans are commonly subject to may complicate their positions in the racial relations in American society, and their relations with the American police. The chapter also overviews the experience of crime and contact with the police among Chinese Americans, and the existing evidence regarding Chinese American evaluations of the police. Evidence suggests that Chinese Americans are more positive about some specific aspects of police performance, such as police officer effectiveness, integrity, and demeanor, than others, such as equal treatment of all persons. Chinese Americans’ assessments of the police are closely connected to experiential and contextual variables, such as police contact, media effects, and neighborhood conditions, and in certain ways, affected by immigrant-specific variables, such as length of residence, perceptions of home country police, and evaluations of immigration officials.