Asian American Research Journal

The term “Asian American” is a phrase with an ever-changing definition. One thing is for certain; the Asian American identity is not formed by shared culture, language, or national origin. Instead, it is formed by migration histories and racialization that groups Asian ethnicities together in the United States. With various waves of immigration to America and a general categorization of Asians, there are many people with diverse experiences that fall under this term. Through the memoir A Man of Two Faces by Vietnamese refugee and author Viet Than Nguyen and the interview I conducted with naturalized Chinese-French immigrant Nikole Hong, I examine the various factors that shaped migration and assimilation into America. The assimilation trajectories of both Hong and Nguyen diverge sharply due to the global forces that shaped their migration, the racialization they experienced before and after arrival, and the autonomy involved in their migration. Hong navigated a layered, transnational identity shaped by racialization and voluntary mobility, while Nguyen forged an identity through displacement, trauma, and a deliberation of being both “the killer and killed”. Being both the killer and killed, as Nguyen mentions in his memoir, is the effect of being both American and Vietnamese on his identity. Together, their stories reveal how childhood migration, racial hierarchy, and geopolitical history intersect to produce profoundly different Asian American identities. Although Asians are frequently racialized as a monolithic “Oriental” group, the migration histories and lived experiences of Asian subgroups define how they navigate and respond to this flattening.

South Asians represent a large portion of the world's population, around 1.9 billion. This accounts for nearly 24% of the world’s population.¹ The South Asian population is affected by a disproportionately high rate of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D). In New York City alone, foreign-born South Asians are nearly twice as likely to have diabetes compared to other foreign-born Asians.² Additionally, despite having lower Body Mass Index (BMI) levels, South Asians face an early onset and higher prevalence of metabolic disease compared to their international Western counterparts. While recent work has brought forward information on the South Asian
community, little work exists to discuss the multifactorial contributions to the high prevalence of T2D in South Asians and effective solution mechanisms for this group. Existing studies focus on isolated factors like BMI or migration, but not integrated frameworks.^3,4 In this paper, I will explore how the South Asian T2D crisis is driven by unique biological, genetic, and environmental factors that may render standard clinical interventions ineffective, suggesting a need for ethnic-specific diagnostic guidelines and culturally tailored interventions.

Sexual and reproductive health is often framed as a matter of individual knowledge and choice, but contraceptive decision-making is also shaped by family communication, cultural expectations, stigma, health-system knowledge, and access to trusted information. Asian American young adults remain understudied in reproductive health research, despite evidence that sexuality may be discussed infrequently in some families and communities. This exploratory mixed-methods survey examined contraceptive knowledge, sexual-health communication, stigma, information seeking, and contraceptive experiences among 13 Asian American respondents affiliated with UC Berkeley. The 13-question online survey included multiple-choice, rating-scale, check-all-that-apply, and open-ended items. Although recruitment primarily targeted current students assigned female at birth who self-identified as Asian American, the final sample also included one visiting scholar and two recent graduates.

Participants showed high awareness of common contraceptive methods, with all 13 recognizing birth-control pills and condoms, 12 recognizing the arm implant, and nine recognizing both hormonal and copper IUDs. However, broader reproductive-health literacy was less consistent. Ten respondents (76.9%) were unaware of Affordable Care Act contraceptive coverage, nine (69.2%) were unsure whether their insurance covered contraception or believed it did not, and ten (76.9%) reported stigma around discussing sex or contraception in their cultural communities. All respondents selected online sources as a place they would seek abortion information. Open-ended responses highlighted reproductive autonomy, pregnancy prevention, accessibility, side effects, and misinformation. Overall, the findings suggest a gap between recognizing contraceptive methods and having the knowledge, confidence, and support needed to navigate reproductive health care in the Asian American community.

Existing research frameworks about Asian American panethnicity fall short in examining the contemporary university campus as a generative or negotiatory site for the ongoing development of Asian American panethnic identity. In this study, the author investigates via in-depth interviews how student organizers of Asian descent at the University of California, Berkeley, understand and employ Asian American panethnic identity as a potential tool for organizing today. 

This study centers U.C. Berkeley as a site of particular historical significance as the birthplace of the term "Asian American”, where student organizers first deployed a pan-Asian identity to unite disparate communities under a coalitional revolutionary politic during the civil-rights era. In light of the massive shifts in the demographic, socioeconomic, and political makeup of the Asian population in the U.S. since the political upheavals of the 1960s, this study aims to provide a longitudinal look at how student organizers at U.C. Berkeley today use panethnicity in ways that draw on, reimagine, or depart from this legacy on campus. 

The findings of this study will demonstrate how participants understand Asian American panethnicity in complex ways that mutually inform their work as organizers in various spaces on campus. Interviewees to date have expressed understandings of Asian American panethnicity as an externally imposed identity, normative cultural identity, or demographic identity, but also as a strategic political tool or a radically coalitional identity that they aspire to. Findings thus far have indicated a sophisticated awareness among participants of the internal tensions within an Asian American panethnic identity, noting how the broad net it casts often masks significant disparities in class, immigration history, and proximity to systems of power. For participants, panethnicity has proven to be a site of friction that informs how and when they choose to identify with singular ethnic identities, in smaller panethnic identities such as Southeast Asian or South Asian, or under the banner of Asian American. 

By examining the tensions between institutionalized definitions of Asian American identity, the heterogeneous realities of students, and of aspirations toward a truly coalitional Asian American identity, the author argues that the salience of panethnicity for student organizers is largely informed by reconciliation of internal hierarchy and contradictions that begins in their work on campus. Participants identify disaggregated approaches to student advocacy as an effective mechanism within panethnic projects. Furthermore, identification with deeply rooted systems of oppression, such as settler colonialism and racial capitalism, stand to reground panethnic identity in shared political struggle rather than a superficial or hegemonic cultural commonality. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

 Following the Vietnam War over 140,000 Vietnamese refugees sought safety in the United States, carrying with them the invisible scars of war. However, survival did not mark the end of their struggles; rather, it introduced new challenges of assimilation, financial instability, and fractured family relationships. Through a comparative analysis of Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do and the oral history of Duong Truong, this paper explores how the trauma of war is inherited and reshaped across generations, influencing identity formation in first-generation Vietnamese Americans. Furthermore, it examines how the tension between cultural preservation and adaptation creates a complex, ongoing negotiation of selfhood, a pinnacle aspect of the Vietnamese refugee experience in America.

The term “Asian-American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific-Islander (AANHPI)” encompasses an incredibly broad range of communities, individuals, and intersecting cultural and linguistic identities. Despite this diversity, this group of many is often simplified and reduced to one. A large percentage of this group fall into the category of those with Limited English Proficiency/Non-English Language Preference, experiencing yet an additional layer of discrimination. In the landmark Supreme Court case, Lau v. Nichols (1974), the precedent was set that language status is a part of national origin, and therefore cannot be used to discriminate against a group of people. Executive Order (EO) 13166 was put in place in 2000 by the Clinton administration, establishing guidelines and resources for federal agencies to provide language services to LEP/NELP individuals. LEP/NELP individuals experience disparate access to legal, socioeconomic, and medical resources as a result of their language status in the United States, and it is an understatement that this issue has been neglected by American government and society. On March 1st, 2025, Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14224 (Designating English as the Official Language of the United States) which revoked Executive Order 13166 (Improving Access to Services for Persons With Limited English Proficiency) and falsely claimed the overturning of Lau v. Nichols. EO 13166 provided, though limited in scope and coverage, necessary support to those with LEP/NELP status for federally funded activities and programs (such as language support in participating in elections). The purpose of this legal analysis is to highlight the importance of having LEP/NELP status in the AANHPI community, and the adverse impacts it has on accessing the vote and legal resources, socioeconomic health and equity in education, and navigating a complicated and often underfunded medical system, leading to significant hurdles and potentially fatal outcomes. More specifically, the objective of this analysis is to show how Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14224 exacerbates these hurdles for AANHPI LEP/NELP individuals. Using data from various legal documents and academic research papers from several fields to show the statistical significance of the disparate impacts experienced by AANHPI LEP/NELP individuals, this legal analysis supports the argument that EO 14224 causes damage to the already limited framework of federal language resources. I argue that the revocation of EO 13166 1) Damages years of progress and countless language resources for AANHPI people with LEP, 2) Increases socioeconomic disparities for AANHPI LEP individuals, and 3) Leads to the increase in adverse mental and physical health outcomes for LEP AANHPI individuals.