This lecture was recorded on April 28, 2023, as part of the 2023 Asian American Theology Conference “Multiple Belongings in Transpacific Christianities: Christian Faith and Asian Migration to the US.” Find out more about the conference here: https://pts.events/events/aat-2023-mbtc/. Introduction by Dr. David Chao of Princeton Theological Seminary.
The 1965 Immigration Act transformed the demographics of US migration, flipping new arrivals from up to 90% European to majority Asian and Latine/x. The law greatly diversified Asian America, as skilled migrants and their families arriving under the 1965 law joined refugees fleeing Southeast Asia after 1975. Post-1965 Asian America, unlike earlier communities shaped by restrictive nation-based quotas and racial exclusion, encompassed several dozen nationality groups and ethnicities, languages, and creeds. Framed broadly, the new Asian migrants remade historically white Christian institutions and organizations, challenging normative categories and assumptions about Christian faith and practice. Within Asian America, new migration multiplied and rejuvenated ethnic churches even as it raised new questions about what the future of these churches would look like across differences of generation, language, and theology.
