There are still many Chinese immigrants coming to the United States presently, and all from different places.  Because America is now much more accepting of Chinese people, these families are adapting much differently than those who immigrated earlier.  Chinese-American families now are able to adapt in a more welcoming environment, and are in a position to more readily accept American values compared to before.  Thus, the adaptation of Chinese-American families who have just immigrated recently is very different from the adaptation of Chinese-American families in the 1800s.

According to Lee-Beng Chua, in his book Psycho-Social Adaptation and the Meaning of Achievement for Chinese Immigrants, Chinese immigrants are not only coming from China but also Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand.  In fact, Chua describes the Chinese-American community as the “fastest-growing Asian-American community in the US” with its population remaining “the largest of all Asian-American communities.” 

The overall motivation for these immigrants to come to America is still the same as those of the early Chinese immigrants: for opportunities and to improve their lives.  However, the specific motivations are slightly different for these present immigrants.  Specifically, according to Chua, there are many Chinese people from China who immigrate here because China relaxed emigration laws in the early 1980s; many Hong Kong immigrants came in the early 1990s because China was to regain Hong Kong in 1997; many Taiwanese came especially in the late 1980s and early 1990s because there were “tensions with communist China and affluent Taiwan.”

              Most of these Chinese immigrants are wealthier and settle in the affluent US suburbs, according to Chua, and “Chinese-Americans in the US today have gradually assimilated into and been received by mainstream society.” Because there is now much less racism against Chinese people in America, Chinese-Americans are much more easily able to adapt to American culture and accept American values. On the other hand, when racism was rampant, Chinese-Americans had only their own people and culture to turn to. This increases the variety of types of Chinese-American families in terms of their scope of adaptation to US culture.