Setting the Context on South Asian Americans: Demographics, Civic Engagement, Race Relations Alton Wang & Karthick Ramakrishnan AAPI Data
Context #1: Growth and Diversity
National Origins (2015) (in Thousands) SOUTH ASIAN 4,398 Indian 3,590 Pakistani 455 Bangladeshi Nepalese Sri Lankan Bhutanese 165 111 52 25 Source: 2015 ACS 5-Year estimates, Asian alone or in combination
Population Growth (2000-2015) 196% 97% 135% 121% 82% SOUTH ASIAN Bangladeshi Pakistani Sri Lankan Indian Source: Census 2000 and ACS 2015
Southern California Growth Rate (2010-15) NHPI 25% AIAN 20% Asian 12% Hispanic 8% Southern California Black 4% 3% White -1% Data calculated alone and in combination
Detailed Growth Rate in Southern California Bangladeshi Pakistani Sri Lankan Asian Indian Filipino Malaysian Vietnamese Korean Indonesian Thai Chinese (except Hmong Laotian Cambodian Taiwanese Japanese 7% 44% 40% 39% 33% 32% 31% 30% 28% 24% 23% 20% 17% 57% 77% 155% Data calculated alone and in combination
AA Largest Ethnic Groups in SoCal Chinese Filipino Korean Vietnamese Japanese Asian Indian Cambodian Thai Taiwanese Indonesian 60,078 44,386 41,735 28,014 225,227 192,060 373,771 354,412 649,489 640,540 Data calculated alone and in combination
Southern California Foreign Born Asian 66.0% Hispanic 37.9% Southern California 30.3% AIAN NHPI 19.9% 19.5% White 11.7% Black 7.1% Data calculated alone and in combination
Immigrants in SoCal: Asian Americans Nepalese Burmese Sri Lankan Bangladeshi Mongolian Taiwanese Malaysian Korean Asian Indian Vietnamese Chinese Thai Indonesian Pakistani Filipino Cambodian Laotian Hmong Japanese 26% 34% 82% 79% 76% 75% 71% 71% 68% 67% 66% 65% 63% 63% 62% 61% 57% 55% 51% Data calculated alone and in combination
Religious Diversity Protestant Roman Catholic Other Christian Buddhist Hindu Jewish Muslim Sikh Jain Something else Unaffiliated 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Indian American 11 5 51 10 5 10 Asian American 22 19 10 4 1 26 US Average 50 23 19 Source: Pew 2012
Gender Breakdowns Asian Nepali Pakistani Bangladeshi Indian Bhutanese Sri Lankan 0% 50% 100% 47% 54% 53% 53% 52% 51% 50% Male Female Comparable to Latinos, reflective of particular types of immigration In 2 nd Gen, remains strong for Bangladeshi Source: ACS 5-Year file, 2012
Geographic Dispersal Top state 2nd state 3rd state Total share of national population Bangladeshi New York (46) California (7) Texas (6) 59% Bhutanese Texas (12) New York (9) Georgia (9) 30% Indian California (19) New York (12) New Jersey (10) 40% Nepalese New York (13) Texas (13) California (10) 36% Pakistani New York (17) Texas (15) California (13) 45% Sri Lankan California (26) New York (14) Texas (6) 46% ASIAN AMERICAN California (32) New York (9) Texas (7) 48% Hmong California (35) Minnesota (25) Wisconsin (19) 79% Filipino California (43) Hawaii (10) Illinois (4) 57%
Context #2: Immigration
Recent Migration Trends Africa Asia Europe Central America South America Caribbean Other Prior to 2005 3.5 26.9 12.8 37.8 6.9 9.5 2.5 2005 to 2007 6.2 30.4 8.0 38.8 6.7 7.6 2.3 2008 or later 6.6 40.3 9.1 25.2 6.1 9.4 3.3 Source: U.S. Census Bureau 2011
Immigrant Share Of Adult citizens 57 80 Adults 69 89 South Asian AAPI Residents 54 72 Source: American Community Survey 5-Year, 2012
Sizeable Undocumented Population Source: Center for Migration Studies, 2015
Context #3: Civic Engagement
Many Areas of Convergence across Groups Presidential voting (exit polls) Universal health care (NAAS 2008, 2012) Preserving social safety net (Pew, NAAS 2012) Support higher taxation (NAAS 2012) Support pathway to citizenship (NAAS 2012*) Strong environmentalists (NAAS 2012, AAPI Data 2014) Strong gun control supporters (AAPI Data 2014, NAAS 2016) Want affordable and high-quality public education (NAAS 12, 16)
Areas of Divergence Experiences with discrimination Concerns about school bullying Residential segregation Electing candidates (can be zero-sum) Activism on affirmative action and sanctuary cities
2016 Election: How Did They Vote? Disagreement on Clinton support 65% in National Exit Polls 75% in Asian Am Decisions election eve poll 79% in AALDEF exit poll Our estimate: 69% 64% for English interviews
How Did AAPIs Vote? Bangladeshi Pakistani Cambodian Indian Korean Hmong Japanese AA Average Filipino Chinese Vietnamese Clinton Other Trump 90% 88% 78% 77% 75% 74% 74% 69% 65% 61% 61% 4% 5% 12% 16% 18% 21% 19% 25% 28% 34% 34%
Other Partisanship Questions Why strong Dem shift? Why so many Asian / Indian Am Republican appointees?
More Elected Officials Congress in 2016: 14 Congress in 2017: 18 5 Indian Americans Fabulous Five John Chiang 2018 CA Governor
Uptick in discrimination? Yes, when it comes to workplace discrimination Not when it comes to police, restaurants and stores New battery on microagressions (released in May)
Who is the immigrant vote? 2% 28% 11% 25% 34% White Latino Asian Black All other
1st Stage the Voting Gap: Citizenship White 98 Black 95 NHPI 88 Latino 66 Asian 66 Silver lining: fastest citizenship acquisition rates, can be improved
2nd Stage in the Voting Gap: Registration White 73 Black 73 Latino 59 NHPI 58 Asian 56 Naturalization is not enough
3rd Stage in the Voting Gap: Turnout Black 91 White 87 NHPI 85 Asian 84 Latino 82 Keep up the GOTV work
Low Participation Even Among Seniors, Highly Educated US Average AAPI Seniors 54 72 College Educated 58 77 Voting Among Adult Citizens (2012)
Youth Are Key to Future Native Born Foreign Born 44 49 56 62 67 2020 2040 2060 2080 2100 Projected Growth of 2nd Generation
And yet very low turnout given high education Black 53 White 46 Asian 37 Latino 37 NHPI 34 Youth (18-29) Voting Rates in 2012
How do the get to Participation Parity? 27% 24% Citizenship Registration Turnout 49% Source: Calculations based on 2012 Current Population Survey
Context #4: Poverty & Health
Poverty ASIAN AMERICAN 11 Bangladeshi 21 Pakistani 16 Sri Lankan 10 Indian 9
Self-Reported Health Excellent/Very Good/Good Fair Poor Asian American 73 21 6 Cambodian Chinese Filipino Hmong Indian Japanese Korean Vietnamese 61 61 66 66 72 80 80 88 28 31 26 29 20 12 16 7 6 8 7 9 3 4 11 8
Affordable Care Act Don't Know Unfavorable Neither Favorable Asian American 16 18 51 Cambodian Chinese Filipino Hmong Indian Japanese Korean Vietnamese 14 12 13 11 16 19 35 19 11 19 57 18 16 26 16 11 54 38 40 51 45 59 61 24
Context #5: Public Opinion
Very Serious Problems for Asian Americans Quality of schools Cost of elder care 41 41 Bullied in school Cost of college Cost or rent/mortgage 35 34 34 Credit card debt 31 College debt Medical debt 26 26
Problem of School Bullying Fairly Serious Very Serious Asian American 17 35 Cambodian Chinese Filipino Hmong Indian Japanese Korean Vietnamese 7 9 17 24 21 17 14 11 29 25 28 45 51 44 40 70 * Among those with children under 18
Broadly Progressive Opinion Gun control Higher Taxes Preserve social safety net Universal health care Support pathway to citizenship
Context #6: Race Relations
Think of self as Asian American Cambodian Korean Chinese Indian Hmong OVERALL Filipino Japanese Vietnamese 7% 11% 23% 22% 21% 20% 19% 18% 26%
Barriers Remain on How Others View South Asians Now I am going to read you a list of different groups. After I say each one, please tell me if you think the group is very likely to be Asian or Asian American, somewhat likely, or not likely to be Asian or Asian American. Proportion indicating not likely Chinese Japanese Korean 6 7 8 Filipino 14 Indian 38 Pakistani 44 Arab or Middle Eastern 51
Basis of Asian commonality What, if anything do Asians in the United States share with one another? Indian ASIAN AM Common race Common culture 52 49 53 62 Common economic interests 57 70 Common political interests 43 52
Political Commonality With Others Thinking about government services, political power and representation, would you say Asian Americans have a lot in common, some, little in common, or nothing at all in common with A Lot Some A little/nothing Pacific Islanders 11 27 41 Whites 12 31 45 Latinos 10 27 49 Blacks 8 25 54
How Others View Asian Americans Thinking about government services, political power and representation, would you say have a lot in common, some, little in common, or nothing at all in common with Asian Americans. A Lot Some A little/nothing Pacific Islanders 21 41 28 Whites 13 37 34 Blacks 10 36 40 Latinos 12 25 48
Affirmative Action Oppose Don't Know Support Asian American Cambodian Chinese Filipino Hmong Indian Japanese Korean Vietnamese 91 89 82 79 78 74 84 78 70
Cross-Racial Alliance Work Many issues of convergence, can foster greater sense of crossracial political commonality in the future Universal health care Preserving social safety net Support higher taxation Support affirmative action Support citizenship for undocumented Party and presidential dynamics
Thank You! alton@aapidata.com karthick@aapidata.com aapidata.com