Click here for the Congressional
districts with the most Asian- Americans.
Click here for statistics on Asian-Americans in California.
9/14/07 Hindustan Times: Asian-Americans cross the 10 million mark,
By Pramit Pal Chaudhuri
Asian-American immigrant population broke the 10 million
barrier in the
US
for
the first time, says data released by the US Census Bureau. These
immigrants,
especially those from
India
and
China
, are also the most highly educated in the country.
Asians represent roughly one-fourth of the total 37.5 million
immigrants in the
US
in 2006.
Nearly half of Asian immigrants hold at least a bachelor's
degree. Indian immigrants
are among the best educated immigrant populations in the
US
, matched only by Japanese-Americans. According to the 2000 US Census, 64 per
cent of Indian-
Americans held a college degree and 40 per cent held a master's or professional
degree.
The percentage of native-born Americans holding a bachelor's
degree is 27 per cent.
Latin American immigrants, the largest migrant population, were the least
educated.
Only 11 per cent held a bachelor's degree.
Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau was quoted as
saying, "Driving this
are people coming from
China
and
India
. They are either coming with a bachelor's
degree, or they are coming with visas and getting degrees once they
arrive."
Indians represent the largest foreign student population in
the
US
.
Massachusetts
,
helped by the concentration of educational institutions in
Boston
, was the state with the
highest number of college-educated (37 per cent) adults.
Jeanne Batalova of the Migration Policy Institute says this
largely reflects the windows
provided by
US
immigration law. Indians who migrated to the
US
in the late 19th century
worked on farms and mines. When the
US
allowed employment-based visas in 1965 the
door was opened for educated Indian migrants. "In the 1970s, as many as 90
per cent of Indian-Americans migrants had professional degrees. But their
absolute numbers were
small."
A further shift happened when the
US
liberalised student visas and the software boom
brought in tech workers in the 1990s. This again biased immigration in favour of
educated
Indians. But, says Batalova, a balance was provided in the increasing number by
immigrants being sponsored by relatives already in the
US
. Though family reunification normally brings
in people of the same class, it also leads to greater diversity in terms of
educational levels.
Whether this represents a "brain drain" on
developing countries is less of a debate than
it once was. Says Vivek Wadhwa, an expert on immigrant entrepreneurship at
Harvard
University
: "The sad thing here is that with US's flawed immigration policies, the
country is
driving away some of the best and brightest." He suspects Asian countries
may be
contributing more to the
US
in intellectual capital than they get in foreign aid.
The triple flow of students, skilled workers and relative
sponsorship are determining the educational profile of Indian-Americans. The
peak of educational attainment for the Indian-American community as a whole was
the 1970s, but the present figure is likely to
stay more or less the same in the coming years.
9/6/07 www.mediabuyerplanner.com:
"Hispanic, Asian, African-American TV Households
Grow Faster than US Average,"
Hispanics and Asians remain the fastest-growing national
segments of the population, with television households increasing 4.4 percent
among Hispanics and 3.9 percent among Asians compared with the previous year,
according to The Nielsen Company, writes MarketingCharts.
Nielsen estimates that in local markets
Los Angeles
remains the number-one Hispanic market,
followed by
New York
,
Miami
,
Houston
and
Chicago
.
Los Angeles
also has the country's largest Asian community, followed by
New York
,
San Francisco
,
Honolulu
and
Chicago
.
New York
is the largest African-American TV market, followed by
Atlanta
,
Chicago
,
Washington
, DC and
Philadelphia
.
National Changes
Atlanta
moved up from third to second in rank, due to a
6.3 percent increase in its Black or African-American TV household population.
New Orleans
climbed two ranks to 23, indicating the strong recovery of Black or
African-American populations in the market.
Other notable increases include Minneapolis-St. Paul's moving
up two ranks, into the Top 50, and
Syracuse
's moving up one rank, into the top 100.
Within the Hispanic household estimates, there was a change
in the top 10 DMAs, with
Phoenix
moving up to rank eight. Nielsen said changes in the Hispanic market ranks
reflect the emergence of new Hispanic gateway areas over previous historic
immigration destinations; for example, as an indication of recent trends in
Hispanic immigration,
Charlotte
moved up three ranks, to 40.
Within the Asian household estimates, there was also a change
in the top 10 DMAs, with
Houston
moving up to rank nine.
Las Vegas
moved up one rank, to 16, and
New Orleans
increased four ranks, to 47, a further indication of population recovery in
that market.
8/30/07 Sacramento Bee:
Latina
and Asian American women live the longest,
by Stephen Magagnini
Maria Guzman, who celebrated her 82nd birthday last week with
about 40
relatives, is preparing for her next cruise -- to the Greek islands.
Guzman, who lives by herself in Elk Grove when she's not
touring the world, is
one of the unsung heroines of a new study showing that Latinas and Asian
American women live longer than anyone else in
California
.
The state's 6.5 million Latinas enjoy an average life
expectancy of 83, while
the nearly 2.3 million Asian American females can expect to live past 85,
according to the nonprofit Public Policy Institute of California.
Guzman, who loves to go to Europe and the
Holy Land
, attributes her healthy
life to "no bad habits such as drinking or smoking and ... a lot of
home-cooked
meals."
She says she sticks to chicken, fish and vegetables,
"and beans and tortillas
are my favorite food."
Guzman, who was born in the town of
San Juan De Los Lagos
in
Jalisco
,
Mexico
, married at 17 and had 14 children. "We emigrated in 1966, when she
was 40," said daughter Alicia Guzman-Folster.
California
's women live longer than men -- an average of
80.7 years
compared with 75.9, with white women seeing 80.1 years and African
American women 75. Asian American and Latino men live longer (80.4
and 77.5, respectively) than white men (75.5 years) and black men (68.6),
according to the study released Wednesday.
Asian women and Latinas -- especially immigrants -- have very
low lung
cancer death rates in particular, while African American males have very
high lung cancer rates, said Dr. Bruce Leistikow, professor of public health
sciences at UC Davis.
Aside from low smoke exposure, immigrants may tend to live
longer
because only healthy people can make it to the
United States
, said Leistikow.
Helen Lee, who co-authored the study, agreed that survival of
the fittest may
come in to play among immigrants.
Lee said that the better educated you are, the longer you
tend to live, and that
less-educated groups tend to smoke more, are more prone to obesity and often
get less access to health care.
Asian American women smoke less, are less overweight and
drink less than
any other ethnic group, Lee said.
Latinas also smoke and drink less than other groups, though
they're twice as
likely to be obese as white women, the study showed.
Dr. Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, a Mexican immigrant who's
director of the Center
for Reducing Health Disparities at UC Davis, wasn't surprised by the
results,
given the high percentage of immigrants among Latinos and Asian Americans.
About a third of
California
's 12 million Latinos are immigrants, and "it appears
that immigrants tend to have better health than the second and third
generations,"
Aguilar-Gaxiola said.
He calls it the "Latino paradox -- in spite of being
poorer in general, and with
less education and fewer regular medical visits, Latinas tend to have
better
mortality rates than other groups. For example, Mexican women who
immigrate
to
California
tend to have good pregnancy outcomes in spite of the lack of
prenatal care," Aguilar-Gaxiola said.
"Poverty doesn't necessarily coincide with unhealthy
lifestyles," he said.
"There are cultural values and protective health behaviors that exist in
immigrant
Latinos. The first generation tends to have better marriages, the families
stay
more intact. They tend to respect their elders; they don't place their parents
in a
home; they take care of their own."
The same holds true for many Asian Americans, Aguilar-Gaxiola
said.
What's troubling, Lee said, is that African Americans haven't
closed the
mortality gap with other ethnic groups. She said the average African American
man in
California
can't expect to live as long as the average North Korean.
"Black men in
California
are 10 times more likely to to die from homicide than
white men," Lee said.
"Homicide is very correlated with living in racially
segregated communities
with a high poverty level and little opportunity for educational and
economic
mobility."
Some other key findings:
Latino men and women are twice as likely to die from
diabetes as whites,
and black women are three times more likely to die of diabetes than white women.
Death rates from heart disease are about 50 percent
higher for black women
and 40 percent higher for black men than they are for whites.
Asian men have slightly higher death rates from stroke
and stomach cancer.
Whites are more likely than other groups to die of
Alzheimer's disease and
suicide.
8/9/07 New York Times: Minorities Now Form Majority in One-Third of Most-
Populous Counties,
By Sam Roberts
In a further sign of the
United States
growing diversity, nonwhites now make up
a majority in almost one-third of the most-populous counties in the country and
in
nearly one in 10 of all 3,100 counties, according to an analysis of census
results
to be released today.
The shift reflects the growing dispersal of immigrants and
the suburbanization
of blacks and Hispanics pursuing jobs generated by whites moving to the
fringes
of metropolitan areas.
From July 1, 2005, to July 1, 2006, metropolitan
Chicago
edged out
Honolulu
in Asian population, and
Washington
inched ahead of
El Paso
in the number of
Hispanic residents. In black population,
Houston
overtook
Los Angeles
.
The new wave of immigration, along with its continued
dispersal to the suburbs
and Sun Belt, is transforming the places which are now being classified as
multiethnic and majority minority, said William H. Frey, a demographer with
the
Brookings Institution.
The new melting pots are not large international
gateways, Professor Frey
said, adding, Rather, many are fast-growing suburbs themselves.
In 36 counties with more than 500,000 residents each,
non-Hispanic whites
are now a minority, up from 29 counties of that size in 2000.
From 2005 to 2006 alone, eight other mostly less-populous
counties shifted
to a majority of minorities, the Census Bureau said. They were Denver,
Colo.;
East Baton Rouge Parish, La.; Winkler, Waller and Wharton in Texas; Blaine,
Mont.;
Colfax, N.M.; and Manassas Park, Va., an independent city that is considered
the
equivalent of a county.
In a new study for the Population Reference Bureau, Mark
Mather and Kelvin
Pollard found that Hispanic people were increasingly attracted to job
opportunities
and lower costs outside major metropolitan areas.
Between 2000 and 2006, the total population in small towns
and rural areas
increased by 3 percent, but the Hispanic population in these counties grew
from
2.6 million to 3.2 million, a 22 percent increase, the authors of the study
wrote.
So far this decade, they added, there are also new areas
of growth, including
exurban counties in the
Atlanta
,
Chicago
,
New York
, and
Washington
,
D.C.
,
metropolitan areas, plus parts of
Texas
, central
Florida
, and a few other states.
Since 2000, the Hispanic population more than doubled in
metropolitan
Winchester
,
Va.
;
Scranton
,
Pa.
;
Cape Coral
,
Fla.
; and
Hagerstown
,
Md.
.
The largest numerical increases were in metropolitan
Los Angeles
(576,630);
Riverside
,
Calif.
, (545,152);
Dallas
(472,222);
Houston
(470,157); and
New York
(418,720).
Black populations declined in metropolitan
New Orleans
,
San Francisco
,
Los Angeles
,
San Diego
and
New York
. The biggest numerical gains were in
Atlanta
(370,470),
Houston
(142,364),
Dallas
(130,367),
Miami (126,819)
and Washington (114,915).
The growth in
Atlanta
,
Houston
and
Dallas
was attributed in part to survivors
of Hurricane Katrina moving to those cities.
The highest growth rates among Asian populations were in
metropolitan
Napa
,
Calif.
, and
Ocala
,
Naples
,
Cape Coral
and
Port St.
Lucie
,
Fla.
The greatest numerical increases were in
New York
(309,773),
Los Angeles
(216,987),
Washington
(105,390),
San Francisco
(103,073) and
Chicago
(93,237).
Metropolitan Phoenix; Atlanta; Dallas; Houston; Las Vegas;
Austin, Tex.;
Charlotte; Portland, Ore.; and Raleigh, N.C., each recorded gains in
non-Hispanic
whites of more than 100,000 since 2000. The largest losses were registered by
metropolitan
New York
(248,422),
Los Angeles
(193,109),
San Francisco
(127,151) and
New Orleans
(111,162).
Harris County, Tex., home to
Houston
, gained 121,400 minority residents
from 2005 to 2006, the most of any county. Sixty-three percent of its
residents
were members of minorities.
Maricopa County
,
Ariz.
, home to
Phoenix
, recorded the biggest numerical
increase in Hispanic residents (71,000) and also the biggest increase in
non-Hispanic whites (35,500).
Harris
County
and East Baton Rouge Parish registered the
biggest
increases in black residents, 52,000 and 19,000, respectively.
8/3/07
Researchers also visited eight colleges with high numbers of Asian students,
including
Cupertino
's
DeAnza
College
.
Many of the differences were attributed to the number of
years that an ethnic
group had been in the
United States
- or whether immigrants had arrived to
escape war and persecution or seek high-tech jobs.
The report, released July 27 before the education committee
of the U.S.
House of Representatives, found wide differences in:
Adult education. A high percentage of adult Asian Indians (68
percent) and
Chinese (53 percent) had at least a college degree. In contrast, only 25 percent
of Vietnamese, 17 percent of Pacific Islanders and 13 percent of other
Indochinese - Cambodians, Laotians and Hmong - had a college degree.
English fluency. More than 90 percent of Filipinos, Indians
and Japanese
identified themselves as fluent in English. Only 70 percent of Koreans, 62
percent
of Vietnamese and 60 percent of the other Indochinese groups identified
themselves as fluent.
Funding. About 80 percent of Vietnamese students reported
that their parents
paid none of their tuition. And large percentages of Southeast Asian and Pacific
Islander groups lived at home.
In contrast, many Chinese, Indian and Korean undergraduates
reported that
they worked to gain job experience or earn spending money.
Simply put, poverty creates barriers to education, whether
one is Asian-
American, Latino or African-American, said Paul Fong, a political science
professor at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose.
"There's an achievement gap among Filipino-Americans,
Cambodian-
Americans and Vietnamese-Americans - the haves and have-nots," said Fong,
noting that it can be difficult to dream about higher education when one is
worried
about earning money to pay the bills.
For a copy of the
report, see www.gao.gov/new.items/d07925.pdf.
5/28/07 www.politico.com: Pay attention
to Asian-American voters
by: James G. Gimpel and Wendy K. Tam Cho
With Republicans making little progress in winning over
Latino voters and Democrats in little danger of losing many, it may be time for
the political parties to consider an ethnic constituency that really is up for
grabs, the Asian Pacific American population.
Consisting of several large nationality groups and a number
of smaller ones, Asian-Americans have been mostly ignored, even as they move out
of traditional areas of ethnic concentration and vote in higher proportions than
Latinos.
While less numerous than Latinos, the Asian Pacific American
population is the fastest-growing minority population, and it is an important
electoral presence in a number of states -- not only California and Hawaii but
also Arizona, Nevada, Alaska, Utah and Washington in the West; Missouri and
Illinois in the Midwest; New Jersey, Maryland, New York and Massachusetts in the
Northeast; and Florida, Texas and Virginia in the South. Without question, the
Asian-American population is consequential in many additional locations in races
for local offices.
The 2006 national exit poll shows Asians to be much more
equally divided in their party identification (35 percent Democratic, 27 percent
Republican) than Latinos, with a substantial share reporting to be independents.
While only 15 percent of Latino voters reported they were independent in
national exit polling, 33 percent of Asian-Americans did.
Latinos voted 2-to-1 in favor of Democratic gubernatorial
candidates in the 2006 elections, but Asians split their support evenly, 48
percent Democratic, 46 percent Republican. In the 2006
U.S.
House contests, due to incumbency advantages, Asians went
more Democratic (59 percent), but nothing like Latinos (71 percent). Given an
objective examination of the data, then, this population looks like it could be
a genuine swing constituency, and not just in
California
.
Of course, referring to Asian-Americans as a
"group" is an imperfect definition. After all, they are more likely to
identify in nationality terms -- as Korean, Vietnamese or Chinese -- than as a
pan-ethnic bloc. It makes the most sense to think of them as local blocs, rather
than as a nationally cohesive group that can be characterized as monolithic.
A smart campaign will approach differences between local
Asian voting blocs by accumulating extensive knowledge about the resident
population, relying upon volunteers, local operatives and a higher-than-usual
amount of shoe leather to assemble a proper understanding. Today's overly
professionalized and centralized campaigns are unaccustomed to thinking this way
about outreach, and that accounts for both parties' poor performance among
Asian-Americans in locations outside California and Hawaii.
In recent weeks, we have examined two locations where the
Asian-American population is worth special note:
Nevada
, sure to be a presidential battleground state in 2008, and
Oregon
, where a highly targeted
U.S. Senate election in 2008 looms. Could the margins of victory in these
contests come down to Asian-Americans? Surely they could, as they might in
Florida
and a large number of other states.
Nevada
is a fast-growing state, and Californians are spilling into
Clark
County
(which encompasses Las Vegas) and
Washoe
County
(encompassing
Reno
) in search of a lower cost of living. As of fall 2006,
Nevada
was home to 14,000 Chinese-American registered voters, 6,000 Vietnamese, 7,600
Koreans and nearly 7,000 of Japanese ancestry -- surely consequential numbers in
any close election. Voter registration records suggest that Asians in
Nevada
lean toward the Republican Party more than they do nationally, but not by much.
Notably, in 2006, turnout was lower than it could have been
for all of these nationality groups except for those of Japanese ancestry, who
happen to have the deepest roots in the United States. For the Vietnamese,
Koreans and Chinese, however, turnout in
Nevada
's midterm elections hovered between 31 percent and 36 percent -- a clear sign
that these voters were not being activated by the two major political parties.
And
Oregon
is home to extraordinarily large Asian populations that remain unaffiliated
with either political party. Twenty-five percent of metropolitan
Portland
's Japanese population remains politically unattached, but this percentage
jumps to 31 percent for Vietnamese, 33 percent for Koreans and 37 percent for
Chinese. That such large shares of these populations have no certain party
identification is arguably a sign of political party neglect and widespread
campaign ignorance.
Bearing these numbers in mind, the two political parties and
their campaign committees would do well to build an effective outreach strategy
to the Asian-Americans living on hotly contested terrain.
James G. Gimpel is a professor of government at the
University
of
Maryland
. He consults with parties, interest groups and candidates on mapping and
get-out-the-vote strategies. Wendy K. Tam Cho is an associate professor of
political science and statistics and senior research scientist at the
National
Center
for Supercomputing Applications at the
University
of
Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign.
5/1/07 2000 Census: Metropolitan Areas with the Highest Proportion of Asian
Americans
Metropolitan Area Total
population
% of Asian Americans
Honolulu, HI MSA 876,156
46.0%
San Francisco
Bay
Area
7,039,362 18.4%
Greater
Los Angeles
Area 16,373,645
10.4%
Sacramento/Yolo, CA CMSA
1,796,857 9.0%
San Diego
, CA MSA
2,813,833 8.9
%
Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area 3,554,760 7.9%
New York
metropolitan area
21,199,865 6.8%
Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area 7,608,070
5.3%
Greater
Houston
4,669,571 4.9%
Las Vegas
, NV/AZ MSA 1,563,282
4.7%
2/7/07 press release from Congressman Mike Honda (CA-15), Chair of the
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC):
The rate of uninsured in the Asian American community in the
United States
increased to 17.9% in 2005 from 16.5% in 2004, and 21.8% of Pacific
Islanders
are currently uninsured. Over 2.3 million AAPIs are without health
insurance,
and millions more can barely afford to pay their premiums.
According to the 2000 Census, over 370,000 AAPI children live
below the
poverty level, that is, 14.3% of Asian American children, and 22.7% of
Pacific
Islander children.
There are approximately 328,000 veterans of AAPI descent, and
62,378
AAPIs who are currently on active duty in the military.
Over 220,000 Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are
looking for work.
The Census reported 1.1 million small businesses owned by
Asian
Americans that employed over 2.2 million individuals in the
U.S.
in 2002.
AAPIs tend to have higher life expectancies than the majority
of the
population. In 2004, Social Security constituted 90% or more of total
income
for 31% of elderly married couples and 50% of elderly unmarried persons of
AAPI descent.
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