Asian Population in U.S. Surges, but Unevenly

Newcomers from the Indian subcontinent shifted the balance of the nation’s Asian population in the 1990s, as intermarriage and lower birth rates shrank the Japanese American community, new 2000 census data show.

The population of Asians overall grew by a robust 48% in the decade, dispersing into previously unfamiliar regions and outpacing all racial and ethnic groups except Latinos. Within the sprawling, heterogenous Asian category, however, all members did not fare equally.

Asian Indians--those who identified themselves as such or as Bengalese, Bharat, Dravidian, East Indian or Goanese--more than doubled, to almost 1.7 million, becoming the third-largest Asian group behind Chinese (2.4 million) and Filipino (1.8 million).

“It was a combination of highly skilled immigrants flowing into the high-tech sector and research sector and the growing amount of family unification by people who immigrated in the 1980s,” UCLA demographer Paul Ong said.

By contrast, Japanese Americans, once the nation’s largest Asian group, lost 6% of their number and slipped to 6th place, with fewer than 800,000.

The decline was not unexpected. After five generations in the United States, Japanese are highly assimilated, marrying members of other racial or ethnic groups at a rate of 50% in cities and 70% in rural areas.

Lifestyle changes, too, have taken a toll, as today’s well-educated Japanese Americans tend to marry later and have fewer children.

“I have no grandchildren,” said Rumi Uragami of Costa Mesa.

Japanese community groups greeted the news with resignation, but little alarm.

“[It] doesn’t concern me that much,” Kathy Kamagai of La Canada Flintridge said of the population drop. “I never considered the Japanese American community to be the sole preserver of the Japanese culture in the world.”

The Japanese slide stood out in bold relief as every other Asian group parsed into a census line item expanded in the ‘90s.

A bolt of immigration boosted the Chinese population by almost 48%, to more than 2.4 million. The number of Vietnamese spiked by 83%, surging past 1 million.

In Orange County, home to possibly the largest Vietnamese population outside Vietnam, most of the increase reflected U.S.-born children, rather than immigrants, demographers said.

The Korean population rose by almost 35%, although immigration tapered off from the previous decade, a trend some analysts tie to the violence directed at Korean shop owners during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

“The civil unrest early in the decade may have discouraged Koreans from coming,” Ong said.

Though the Filipino community added 31.5%, its count disappointed those who predicted the 2000 census would crown California’s largest Asian group as the largest in the nation.

(Racial and ethnic population totals for California communities are expected to be released soon.)

Community leader Leo Panduc said improved economic conditions may have prompted some Filipino Americans to return to the Philippines for their older years.

“The dollar goes a long way in the Philippines,” he said. “For $2,000 a month, you can have a housekeeper and driver.”

While not as high-profile as Chinese or Japanese Americans, Asian Indians have lived in California since the turn of the 20th century.

The ‘90s influx fed the new economy’s desperate hunger for highly educated workers. The State Department issued 115,000 special H1B visas to high-tech workers in 1999 alone, half to Indian men.

The challenge is to convert population into influence, said Prem Shunmugavela, of the India Abroad Center for Political Awareness. “Political activism needs to grow at the same rate as out population has grown,” he said. “The hope is that the rise in numbers will serve as a catalyst.”