People in Hong Kong and India are so motivated by religion that they are blinded to the health problems that they have placed upon themselves. Studies show that girls who do immigrate to westernized nations do have an increased chance of developing an eating disorder. One journalist's opinion is that most immigrants feel pressure to conform to American beauty standards because they look different. They want to fit in, and in order to do that they fell the need to have that good really skinny body. For younger girls, the reason may have rooted from somewhere else.
Some immigrant girls feel that their families have sacrificed everything to come here.
So in order to make it up to them these girls feel that they need to make their parents proud and succeed in our westernized culture. So in order to succeed, they feel that they must be thin. I feel that our culture places a lot of emphasis on looks when determining a person's success. Look at all of our popular and famous music stars. There are probably a lot of people that can sing just as well as they can, but if these singers do not have the right look, they are not going to make it far.