A Comparative Study of Management Styles Between Thai-Owned Businesses and Non-Thai Owned Businesses in Term of Cultural Assimilation with Main Stream Culture in the United States
Chapter Two: Literature Review
Thai Migration to Los Angeles
The unprecedented increase in the number of Asians leaving their country to take up residence in the United States over the past decade has widely publicized by the media and intensively studied by social scientists. The simultaneous qualitative shift in the geographical origin of these new residents, however, has attracted less attention. Reinforcing the long-establish and well-documented migration streams from the Philippines, China, and Korea, a new wave of migrant from mainland Southeast Asia is now significantly adding to the ethic and largest Asian immigration group, the twenty fold increase in their numbers during the last ten years was unmatched by any other immigrant group, at least until the American withdrawal from Vietnam in the spring of 1975. Admittedly, the absolute numbers involved can be viewed as negligible by international migration standards, and are modest by American immigration standards. Nonetheless, the recent concern with undocumented aliens and the fear that future political unrest in Southern Asia may produce more immigration give the Thai flow a greater significance than could be inferred from a cursory examination of immigration statistics. As thai immigrants yield to the forces of agglomeration, the newcomers redistribute themselves through out the United States, which gives rise to notable regional concentrations. One-third of all the Thais present in the united States are unofficially estimated to be living in California, which at the same time acts as an attraction pole for half of the new immigrants. (American Geographical Society, Jacqueline Desbarats, 1979, p. 302-318)
Whatever it is, there is undoubtedly a strong connection between Bangkok and
Los Angeles, apparent by the fact that Los Angeles is host to the largest Thai community in the world, outside of Thailand (Benjamin, 2006). Yet, the unprecedented increase in the number of Asians in general leaving
Thai Migration to Los Angeles
The unprecedented increase in the number of Asians leaving their country to take up residence in the United States over the past decade has widely publicized by the media and intensively studied by social scientists. The simultaneous qualitative shift in the geographical origin of these new residents, however, has attracted less attention. Reinforcing the long-establish and well-documented migration streams from the Philippines, China, and Korea, a new wave of migrant from mainland Southeast Asia is now significantly adding to the ethic and largest Asian immigration group, the twenty fold increase in their numbers during the last ten years was unmatched by any other immigrant group, at least until the American withdrawal from Vietnam in the spring of 1975. Admittedly, the absolute numbers involved can be viewed as negligible by international migration standards, and are modest by American immigration standards. Nonetheless, the recent concern with undocumented aliens and the fear that future political unrest in Southern Asia may produce more immigration give the Thai flow a greater significance than could be inferred from a cursory examination of immigration statistics. As thai immigrants yield to the forces of agglomeration, the newcomers redistribute themselves through out the United States, which gives rise to notable regional concentrations. One-third of all the Thais present in the united States are unofficially estimated to be living in California, which at the same time acts as an attraction pole for half of the new immigrants. (American Geographical Society, Jacqueline Desbarats, 1979, p. 302-318)
Whatever it is, there is undoubtedly a strong connection between Bangkok and
Los Angeles, apparent by the fact that Los Angeles is host to the largest Thai community in the world, outside of Thailand (Benjamin, 2006). Yet, the unprecedented increase in the number of Asians in general leaving