ABSTRACT
The analysis emphasizes the need to examine structural and cultural factors in the sending and receiving countries over a historical process to understand how immigrants are incorporated in American society. The article argues that Chinese were slower to make the transition from sojourner to immigrant due to structural characteristics of Chinese village society; whereas Japanese immigrants were not tied by strong family bonds to Japan and made a more rapid transition. The differential timing of family formation and family-run businesses in America account for the more rapid assimilation of Japanese Americans. Changing labor markets after World War II provided new opportunity structures favorable to the socioeconomic mobility of native-born Chinese and Japanese Americans.
