The New Frontiers of Globalization
Immigrant pressure on children stems from their high value on hard work. In my WP 3 “Better than Before or Better than You,” I explore the issue of Bay Area Asian immigrant parents putting extreme academic pressure on their children as a result of American Dream work ethic and positive personal experiences with elite education. However, in a rapidly advancing world, we must acknowledge that the seemingly local, America-centric problems are becoming increasingly applicable to parents all over the world, contributing to enormous pressure on children of the world to become academic elites.
For the longest time, social mobility and opportunity remained national ethos specific to the United States. From the first immigrants on the Mayflower to the millions going through customs today, America was the promise of a better life, of prosperity built on hard work. While the stability and feasibility of the American Dream has undergone debate, its unrelenting allure rests on the global perception of the United States as an expansive, opportunistic frontier. In “Rethinking the American Dream,” David Kamp explains that “It is part of our charter — as articulated in the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence, in the famous bit about ‘certain unalienable Rights’ that include ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’ — and it is what makes our country and our way of life attractive and magnetic to people in other lands.” From its conception, the United States was meant to provide equal space and potential for individual dreams. In the age of fast-paced development, our country has progressed far beyond the dreams of the Founding Fathers. And at the same time, so has the world.
Before globalization, the “work hard, dream hard” philosophy remained a uniquely American ethos because the United States was a highly developed international power. In other words, the US stability and superpower status fostered and protected opportunity. Now, international development of political and economic infrastructure has made the white picket fence globally attainable. Worldwide aid and relationships has made countries generally more politically and economically stable. A certain level of national stability is the “prerequisite” for equal opportunity. In other words, countries with developed political and legal infrastructure are able to better uphold the promise that citizens will see the fruits of their labor, fostering strong work ethic and motivation. When it established the “unalienable rights” of man, the Constitution assured Americans and billions of immigrants of certain entitlements and a fair system they could prosper in. Now, thanks to globalization, more and more countries are able to protect their citizens’ inalienable rights, prompting an “Individual Dream” rather than just American.
Additionally, the development of international connection has allowed for prestigious, globally ranked institutions of higher learning to take root and flourish in countries outside of the United States. Citizens are no longer limited to American universities to begin their Individual Dream. Furthermore, general global advancement has made students hungry for elite degrees — their tickets to success. In an interview with Forbes, Ben Wildavsky, a senior fellow at the Kauffan Foundation, describes this phenomenon as “a global marketplace for higher education” in which universities “are seeing themselves as not as part of a local or regional or national market but as part of the business world. They see themselves as competing globally, and they are adjusting their behavior accordingly.” Eager to attract students, colleges all over the globe have sought to improve themselves, providing word-class faculty, research, and resources for their students.
The worldwide growth in higher education is not limited by national borders. Globalization has allowed countries to achieve general stability, but also fosters international partnerships that ultimately benefit both parties. And nowhere this more relevant than in education. Wildavsky goes onto clarify that that “Globalization will mean different things to different players within that spectrum. Major research universities, to compete, have got to think about finding the best talent; they need to find international partnerships. You have some interesting things going on with Yale, a big leader in globalization, doing partnerships with Chinese universities.” The educational exchange between colleges has contributed to the rise of highly competitive, foreign universities. The coalition of Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) — ranked in the top 100 universities in the world — has an acceptance rate of less than 2 percent. China’s Tsinghua University and Peking University — ranked 15th and 20th respectively — have acceptance rates lower than 0.1%. The world-class SKY universities in Korea (Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsei University) accept approximately 5% of students.
It is important to note that Asian immigrants to the US largely hail from these countries, which have incredible, cutthroat universities comparable and better than those in the States. In the age of globalization, higher education is present in more countries than ever before, which means students face tremendous and growing pressure to get into top universities regardless of their location.
As I outline the global progress that allows the globality of the “American” Dream, I must clarify that American Dream has not been “lost” or “diluted.” Rather, globalization has allowed the possibility of a better future to transcend national borders.
Accompanying the hope of success is tremendous pressure on parents and children to succeed academically. The new accessibility of an “Individual Dream” in virtually every country means that extreme familial expectations and elitist perspectives towards university are no longer local to the Bay Area or the United States. In other words, the new frontiers enabled and opened up by globalization has allowed for elitist, comparison-based mindsets and the mental health struggles they create to become global problems.
Sources
https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2009/04/american-dream200904
