While would argue that you were a bit harsh with your comment—and those other people gave plenty of valid points, agree with you that assimilation could be a strong part of it. As another freeper mentioned, the motive may not be for themselves but for their children and their posterity. There has been a decent number of Americans of Asian descent since the Californian Gold Rush in 1948, and yet (even on this thread) Americans are considered to be of only European or African (and occasionally Amerindian—there are so few of them) descent. Americans of Asian descent who have no non-American accent, whose families who have been here in some cases for generations, and earlier than many ‘white’ American families still have to put up with people asking them what country they are from (i.e. an Asian country). On this thread, one freeper contrasts ‘Asians’ and ‘American’ women; another ‘Americans’ and ‘Mexicans.’ American runs the gambit from very dark to very light. Hopefully, there will be the realization that this is the case, so people can marry people they love rather than people who will help their children look more ‘American.’