Comparing and Contrasting Asian Families in Canada and the United States

During the last half century, immigration from Asian countries to Canada and the United States has increased dramatically. Thus, researchers need to better understand the complexities of Asian families in the respective countries. Although Canada and the U.S. share the world’s longest undefended border as well as some similarities in their respective histories, the two societies differ in many significant ways. Thus, the purpose of the chapter is to explore Asian families in Canada and the United States. Specifically, we first discuss the conceptualization of the term “Asian” and how countries have defined and operationalized the ethnic term. A brief historical account is also provided, along with a discussion about the issues of labeling individuals. Next, we focus on the immigration policies and demographics of Asian immigrants in the respective countries, bringing some attention to the similarities and differences between them. We further examine the top three largest Asian groups, Chinese, Indian, and Filipino/a immigrants to illustrate the uniqueness of the various ethnic groups.