Asian American youth often feel like the only way to make their families proud and to provide any type of comfort as they grow up is to reach for higher education, even if it means incurring massive amounts of debt with student loans. Though not an expectation exclusive to any single community, this burden manifests itself in a somewhat intense way within Asian American households. In fact, this can be a weight that one carries with them when navigating critical decisions throughout life. One question we can ask ourselves is: What are the broader implications of this ingrained cultural focus on the individual and their communities?
How Filial Piety and Family Expectations Shape Lives
The expectations of pursuing higher education in Asian American households always feel like something that is a given, an accomplishment that you were prepped to achieve from an early age. Your parents’ retirement plans or notion of a caretaker may ride heavily on your potential income and career, an idea that stems from the concept of filial piety, common in many Asian cultures. This value emphasizes the importance of repaying our parents’ sacrifices with outward-facing success. When you layer this with parents and families who fled war or civil unrest, the pressure to achieve greater-than-average educational excellence can burden an individual with existential weight.
For children of immigrants, higher education is not merely an option but a stern and unspoken requirement for stability. Immigrant parents may push first-generation children toward a certain career solely because it will make more money, or into higher education, even though these may not be the best options for that individual. These options are portrayed as the only way to find achievement, success, and contentment, with enough financial stability to hopefully provide for their families’ elders.
The Price of Success
The statistics on student debt are surprising. Though different from social perception, the…
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