Based on A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki, compare and contrast the experiences of Mexican and Chinese immigrants. How are they similar and dissimilar?

Asians have been in the United States for over 150 years, but they have been continually regarded as foreign or "exotic." They have been seen as incapable of assimilation, and they have also been subject at times to immigration restriction laws, such as the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Later, Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during World War II, as they were thought to be sympathetic to the Japanese cause during the war and were regarded as potential spies. Today, Asian Americans are the fastest-growing ethnic group. Unlike Mexican Americans, Chinese Americans are regarded as a "model minority" and held up to other ethnic groups and to whites as an example of how to succeed economically in the US.
Mexican Americans (or Chicanos, as people of Mexican descent are called) represent the largest group among Hispanics in the US. Unlike the Chinese, some Mexicans were in parts of the current US before Anglos moved in and claimed theses areas after the Mexican War. Others came to the US later in search of better economic opportunities, as the Chinese did. Mexican Americans are unique among ethnic groups in the US because they live so close to their homeland. This situation has helped reinforce their language and culture in a way that is unlike the experience of Chinese Americans and other ethnic groups. You can find more information about these two ethnic groups in the first chapter of the book.

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