New York City's Chinese neighborhoods have long served as gateways for new immigrants while also being home to multiple generations of Chinese Americans, creating communities shaped by diverse migration histories and lived experiences. Yet Chinese Americans are often treated as politically homogeneous, obscuring how generations may understand economic opportunity and government responsibility differently. This study examines how generational status shapes support for government policies aimed at expanding economic mobility among Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans, with particular attention to New York City. Using a mixed-methods, secondary-data approach, this study combines IPUMS Census/ACS microdata (1970–2024) on Chinese New Yorkers with political-attitude data from the 2008 and 2016 National Asian American Surveys (NAAS) and 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey (CMPS). Existing qualitative research on Chinese communities in Chinatown, Sunset Park, and Flushing provides additional local context. Results suggest that generation matters, but not linearly. In the 2016 NAAS, support for taxing incomes above $1 million increased from 78.4% among first-generation to 93.6% among third+-generation respondents, while support for public-college investment increased from 64.7% to 90.4%. However, in the 2020 CMPS, second-generation respondents were most likely to reject the claim that social programs interfere with personal freedom (55.6%, compared with 45.3% of first-generation and 47.8% of third+-generation respondents). By demonstrating the importance of disaggregating Chinese American experiences, these findings challenge linear narratives of political incorporation: generation shapes, but does not determine, political attitudes, and its relationship with government intervention varies across policy domains and socioeconomic contexts.
Keywords: Chinese Americans; generational status; economic mobility; political socialization; immigrant political incorporation; New York City