The US values Asian work over Asian lives.

“I would only hire Asians if I could,” a professor once told me. “You all are so hard-working.”¶ She meant it as a compliment.¶ Her words came back to me last week, as Asians were the victims of two mass shootings in California: at a dance studio in Monterey Park and at two farms a mile apart in Half Moon Bay. In both cases, the suspects are older Asian men.¶ The attacks come during an existential moment for Asian communities—and an America historically conflicted over our presence. The initial December 2019 reports of a novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China, unleashed a spate of hate crimes in the US. Between 2020 and 2021, anti-Asian violence rose by 339%, according to California State University Santa Barbara’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. The passage of time has not helped much; more Americans now blame Asian Americans for Covid than at the height of the pandemic in 2020.¶ And the perception affects Asians at work, both in day-to-day treatment and prospects for ascension. A study from the global think tank Coqual finds one in three Asian and Asian American professionals have experienced racial prejudice, and Asians report facing microaggressions at higher rates than other races.¶ That Asians are struggling mightily in the workplace might surprise well-meaning folks like my former professor. Except her perception of Asians being diligent and dutiful is precisely a part of the problem: To some, Asian work matters more than Asian lives.¶ There are so many misconceptions over the Asian experience in the US that create this image. It starts to feel conditional, as if the only place for Asians in the US is that of work, of subservience. Also dangerous is when this becomes how we see ourselves.¶ Arriving on US shores as guests, then neighbors.¶ Our history in the US, of course, is impossible to separate from labor. The first waves of Asian migrants came to toil on ships, plantations, railroads. After centuries of exclusionary and discriminatory practices, the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act ushered in new faces and new reasons for arrival on US shores, jobs, education, and political freedom among them.¶ For much of the last century, this willingness to serve as a final destination distinguished the US’s immigration policy from that of other countries. Late 20th-century Germany, for example, had its “Gastarbeiter,” or guest worker, program for foreigners only intended to work short stints. As stays grew longer and families followed, migrants never quite shook a sense of impermanence, forming “parallel societies” that struggled to integrate into mainstream German institutions. The problematic idea of immigrants as “guests” has gained political momentum in more recent US history, particularly through the H-1B program, launched in 1990 to allow employers to hire skilled workers on temporary visas. The current wave of mass layoffs is underscoring just how fragile a place in this country can before those employees.¶ Today, Asians are the nation’s fastest-growing racial or ethnic group, projected to reach 46 million by 2060. The stereotype of Asians as hard-working and studious comes with great expectations—and a steeper fall if things don’t go according to the script. And it’s hardly just external pressure. Asian immigrants’ dreams for their children are often expressed as an extension of professional ambition—“You can be anything you want, as long as it’s a doctor or lawyer”—versus what such jobs actually represent: stability, acceptance, and the achievement of the American Dream.¶ Great workers, not great leaders?¶ Thus comes the challenge for Asians who might be seen as efficient workers but not effervescent leaders. The Coqual report says: “Pervasive stereotypes such as being seen as quiet, and hardworking outsiders affect the workplace experiences of Asian and Asian American employees.”