Suburbia reimagined: Asian immigration and the form and function of faith-based institutions in Silicon Valley

ABSTRACT

Rapid immigration has caused dramatic social and spatial reconfigurations of American suburbs. This study examines how Asian immigrants reshaped the form and function of one Silicon Valley suburb through the building of faith-based institutions. It shows how immigrant faith-based institutions challenge scholarly understandings of suburbia as space of immigrant assimilation, and instead underscore their role in facilitating immigrant integration, community building and place-making. These institutions connect immigrants with social services and networks that help them adapt to new communities, promote intra- and interfaith alliances among diverse ethnic and national groups, and help immigrants stay connected with their countries of origin.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the Chester Miller Fellowship at the Department of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley for generously supporting the fieldwork as well as Upendra Sapokta for his critical editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The study refers to faith-based institutions as places whose primary function is religious worship. This is distinct from faith-based organizations whose missions serve as the organizing principle for the provision of social or other services (see, for example, Bielefeld and Cleveland 2013).

2. Fremont has substantial populations of first-generation immigrants from Afghanistan, China, India, Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, among other Asian countries. As noted in Table 2, interviewees for this research included immigrants from Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Thailand as well as native-born Asian Americans of Afghani, Indian and Thai descent.

3. Although researchers reached out to representatives at various Asian American Christian churches, none agreed to allow observations of their activities or provide access to their leaders and congregants.

4. Historically, the H1-B programme prevented spouses of visa holders from working. As of May 2015, under Obama Administration, US Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) instituted a policy to allow spouses to work. As of June 2018, under the Trump Administration, USCIS revoked the policy.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Chester Miller Fellowship at the Department of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley.