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The Immigrant Advantage: What We Can Learn From Newcomers To America About Health, Happiness And Hope (2011)

by Claudia Kolker(Favorite Author)

3.84 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1416586822 (ISBN13: 9781416586821)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Free Press

review 1: By the time I finished this book, I had such a bad craving for pho, I had to sneak off for a bowl of it. The author knows a lot about her Vietnamese neighbours, from their com thang (delivered home-cooked meals) and the hui (money clubs). The info here is a good introduction to Vietnames an other immigrant communities' best features. What would have been even more useful is more information on the originating cultures. I knew a little from having lived in Asia, but I (and other readers) could use a little more, perhaps even a more substantial bibliography. Still I liked this book and I hope more people who know nothing about their newcomer neighbours get a chance to read this book.
review 2: “As a lot of us do, I’d grown up acutely aware how much I owe... mored to being American. My insouciance about the future. My unhindered education. The chutzpah to go, as a single woman, anywhere that I pleased.”In this very interesting non-fiction exploration/memoir, Kolker examines 8 behaviours and cultural concepts brought to the USA by immigrant groups, and how these behaviours lead to far higher quality of life than would be expected for these groups, taking into account income levels, dislocation from family and community support networks etc. She also relates her attempts to implement them in her own life.Kolker must be a really interesting person and this comes across straight away in her writing. Part Jewish, part Mexican, and having done stints as a journalist in Haiti and other exotic American locations (and I use American in the North, Central and South sense), she spends time in Houston and Chicago with a young family and her photo-journalist husband.She has also managed to pick 8 very varied cultural ideas, including money clubs, the cuarantena (quarantine) applied to new mothers, com thang (a sort of communal meals-on-wheels business), the benefits of front-stoop-perching – really something from every aspect of life.Kolker moulds her research into her own life, and I found it fascinating to see how she makes the principles work for herself – her founding of a money club, her digging out and patronage of a com thang business (I tried to do the same but it appears there are not enough Vietnamese people in London).I would absolutely advocate this fairly quick, simple read for anyone interested in examining how other people live and picking up a few life tips along the way. less

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