Far from the Model Minority: Face, Class, and Transnational Chinese Families

Far from the Model Minority centers the voices of five undocumented and mixed-status Chinese immigrant families in New York City and their sending communities in Fuzhou, China. Challenging dominant narratives about Chinese Americans and the model-minority myth, these families have experienced multigenerational exclusion from educational pathways and developed mobility strategies focused on attaining “face.”

In China, low social standing led them to prioritize immigration and remittance work ...