This research focuses on the predispositions that recent Chinese and Indian immigrant families bring with them to the United States and how these are reinforced by the communities in which they locate. The findings draw from 144 interviews in California. Three themes dominate: positioning through schooling, transnational family, and extended community and education. Our perspective joins Asian diaspora studies with cultural capital and social structural theories, enabling a more nuanced understanding of ways in which schooling in the home country informs how children are positioned in the American schooling system.