Immigrant Case Study: Chen

Unlike many immigrants who already had existing connections in America, be it the Huiguans and family groups that assisted with adjustment before 1965 or the immediate family connections after 1965, Chen and his wife were the first of their network to immigrate and thus had no connections in America. Without family and connections in their area of settlement, there was no one to vouch for Chen and to assist him in finding employment. Chen states he “started looking for a job on [his] third day in the new city and sent resumes to more than 100 different companies in different industries, with no reply.” Chen attributes his difficulty in finding a job to his “closed horizons” – he did not want to find a job that was too far from his previous experience. This sentiment is echoed by other post-1965 immigrants who resented finding jobs in America that were beneath their status and value in their home country.

In the end, Chen still used his primordial ties to find a job, as immigrants did previous to the 1965 Immigration Act. After half a year of searching, a colleague of Chen who worked with him in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in China was sent to work in the Chinese Embassy. This colleague took Chen to visit some companies who were interested in

Previous to immigration, Chen was the CEO of an international packaging company with 15 subsidiaries, had multiple secretaries, a fleet of cars with drivers, seaside properties, maids, butlers and daily social events with the company. After immigration Chen said he had to work very hard and was “the first person at the office every day and the last person to leave. [He] also cleaned the office every morning and made coffee and tea for the rest of the staff.” From this description, it seems that although Chen’s position was to coordinate imports to Canada, he also took on a janitorial