Newswise — The successful film “Crazy Rich Asians” features highly educated, successful, wealthy, family-centric Asians and Asian-Americans. To some, it exemplifies the “model minority myth”: The perception that U.S. Asian populations have fared better than other ethnic groups in socioeconomic status, social relationships and health.
However, research by XinQi Dong, director of Rutgers University’s Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research who led the recently published Population Study of Chinese Elderly in Chicago, shows that Asian immigrants have struggled educationally and economically, are the target of discrimination and often suffer disparities in healthcare.
“The reality is that the Asian-American population faces a “paradox”: Asian-Americans are among the highest educated and highest income earners, highly educated, high income earners, yet they disproportionally experience a high prevalence of psychological distress and disorders, dementia and cancer, especially in advanced age. These conditions usually go untreated for multiple reasons, such as a desire to ‘save face’ and a lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate treatment and prevention methods,” Dong says.
More on Dong’s research here.
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