Asians replace Hispanics as America's largest immigrant group

[downtown]

Surprised? http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/06/19/the-rise-of-asian-americans/1/

Here are some tidbits from the article, which is pretty neat:

...Compared with the educational attainment of the population in their country of origin, recent Asian immigrants also stand out as a select group. For example, about 27% of adults ages 25 to 64 in South Korea and 25% in Japan have a bachelor’s degree or more.2 In contrast, nearly 70% of comparably aged recent immigrants from these two countries have at least a bachelor’s degree....

...Recent Asian immigrants are also about three times as likely as recent immigrants from other parts of the world to receive their green cards—or permanent resident status—on the basis of employer rather than family sponsorship (though family reunification remains the most common legal gateway to the U.S. for Asian immigrants, as it is for all immigrants).

The modern immigration wave from Asia is nearly a half century old and has pushed the total population of Asian Americans—foreign born and U.S born, adults and children—to a record 18.2 million in 2011, or 5.8% of the total U.S. population, up from less than 1% in 1965.3 By comparison, non-Hispanic whites are 197.5 million and 63.3%, Hispanics 52.0 million and 16.7% and non-Hispanic blacks 38.3 million and 12.3...

For the most part, today’s Asian Americans do not feel the sting of racial discrimination or the burden of culturally imposed “otherness” that was so much a part of the experience of their predecessors who came in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

About one-in-five Asian Americans say they have personally been treated unfairly in the past year because they are Asian, and one-in-ten say they have been called an offensive name. Older adults are less likely than young and middle-aged adults to report negative personal experience with bias.

Compared with the nation’s two largest minority groups—Hispanics and blacks—Asian Americans appear to be less inclined to view discrimination against their group as a major problem. Just 13% of Asian Americans say it is, while about half (48%) say it is a minor problem, and a third (35%) say it is not a problem.8

Do you think this may change any of the US immigration debates? What do you think about this new data? It appears that Asian immigrants appear to be doing better than other ethnic groups, but they also tend to arrive to the US better educated, and do not struggle with the same discrimination as blacks, native americans and latinos.

 

[Tahuti]

Do you think this may change any of the US immigration debates?

Possibly, but not inevitably. For instance, Dutch immigration debate continue to centre around Turks and Moroccans (of which most them already are Dutch nationals), yet Indians, Chinese and Japanese are by far the biggest migrant groups* in the Netherlands, hence any new immigration restrictions that are specifically made against the former will hurt the latter the most.

What do you think about this new data? It appears that Asian immigrants appear to be doing better than other ethnic groups, but they also tend to arrive to the US better educated, and do not struggle with the same discrimination as blacks, native americans and latinos.

Fact is, when most Asians left their countries of origin, they were already one of the socially ranking groups within their countries and simply brought it with them. Hispanic, Arab and African migrants usually belong to the lowest social classes in their own country of origin, and naturally, brought that along as well, which is why these have such a bad rep. Generally speaking, Hispanics, Africans and Arabs seek social mobility they lack, while Asians seek freedom they lack.

EDIT: While Moroccans and Turks are the largest minorities in the Netherlands, most of them are Dutch citizens by birth by now, so it makes little sense to refer to these as immigrants

 

[Formaldehyde]

The modern immigration wave from Asia is nearly a half century old and has pushed the total population of Asian Americans—foreign born and U.S born, adults and children—to a record 18.2 million in 2011, or 5.8% of the total U.S. population, up from less than 1% in 1965.3 By comparison, non-Hispanic whites are 197.5 million and 63.3%, Hispanics 52.0 million and 16.7% and non-Hispanic blacks 38.3 million and 12.3...

The subject bar in the OP is a bit misleading. The number of Hispanics in the US is still far larger than the number of Asians. Even the graph in the article, which shows that there are now more Asian immigrants per year than Hispanic, doesn't make it clear if that is just legal immigrants or all immigrants.

 

[downtown]

It's hard to tell, since we can only roughly estimate the ethnic extraction of illegal immigrants. My last almanac pegged Asians at around 30% of the illegal pool, but I think that was a few years ago.

There are a lot more hispanics in the country than asians...which is why I said immigrant group, and not minority group. If your parent was an immigrant, but you were born here, you may be a minority, but you aren't an immigrant.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Based on that graph, there are far more Hispanic immigrants than Asian in the past 12 years.

And I find it difficult to believe that 30% of the "illegal pool" are Asians. That would imply that the US visa system is hopelessly broken. Do you have some other source than your almanac?

 

[warpus]

Are they including south asians under "asians" here or just east asians? Just curious

 

[downtown]

Based on that graph, there are far more Hispanic immigrants than Asian in the past 12 years.

And I find it difficult to believe that 30% of the "illegal pool" are Asians. That would imply that the US visa system is hopelessly broken. Do you have some other source than your almanac?

I may have misremembered it then. I did some other checking, and I guess the number is closer to 12% than 30%...I may have been thinking of something else. That still means there are over a million illegal immigrants who are Asian.

And Warpus, it includes south asians.

 

[Azale]

This is a LONG awesome article, I'll just post a comment to the little bit that I've read already.

A century ago, most Asian Americans were low-skilled, low-wage laborers crowded into ethnic enclaves and targets of official discrimination.

Sounds like Hispanics now. Wouldn't say the "official discrimination" is really comparable, but it's worth bringing this comparison up to remind people that conditions for ethnic groups are not static.

 

[Save_Ferris]

Considering that there are billions of people in Asia, compared with about 500 million in Latin America, I'm not surprised.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Sounds like Hispanics now. Wouldn't say the "official discrimination" is really comparable, but it's worth bringing this comparison up to remind people that conditions for ethnic groups are not static.

Asians were first encouraged to immigrate to build the railroads but were specifically banned from ever becoming citizens.

 

[warpus]

And Warpus, it includes south asians.

Thanks for the clarification. I'd have been surprised if it didn't (cause then that'd mean that only east asians are the largest, etc.) but then I've always seen "asian" only reference east asians in the U.S.

 

[Leonel]

Thanks for the clarification. I'd have been surprised if it didn't (cause then that'd mean that only east asians are the largest, etc.) but then I've always seen "asian" only reference east asians in the U.S.

Well that's the way it's supposed to be!

 

[Formaldehyde]

I'm sure Indians in particular are a large percentage of that change.

 

[Leonel]

Why can't they just be West Asians? West is better sounding anyway and there's fewer countries that encompass British "Asian" than normal "Asian."

 

[del62]

Asia is such a massive place with over half the planets population. I am not sure you can really class them as one group.

 

[Skwink]

Why can't they just be West Asians? West is better sounding anyway and there's fewer countries that encompass British "Asian" than normal "Asian."

It would've been so much easier if Columbus could of called the Native something else so we could call people from India Indian.

 

[Formaldehyde]

That's because he royally screwed up and thought he was actually near India.

 

[Cutlass]

Considering that there are billions of people in Asia, compared with about 500 million in Latin America, I'm not surprised.

Latin America is a bit closer though...

 

[mangxema]

Asia is such a massive place with over half the planets population. I am not sure you can really class them as one group.

Yeah, to me that kind of makes this a non-story. We know that Hispanic immigration has gone down recently; it's only natural that such a massive section of the world might replace Latin America the biggest source.

 

[FriendlyFire]

It would've been so much easier if Columbus could of called the Native something else so we could call people from India Indian.

Or Asia Minor in geographical terms ... who was the smart person that named that country ?