DC Accepted Papers Paper:
Asian Americans and Identity: Scratching the Surface of Census Data
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
American’ is panethnic (various unrelated peoples which are perceived as a distinguishable
group within the larger multiracial North American society) racial category (Espiritu, 1993;
Kibria, 1998). The concept of Asian American came in the 1960s, born out of the influence of
both the Immigration Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Movement. Pre-1965 immigration
legislation put restrictions on who was permitted to enter the United States, and specifically
targeted Asian immigrants (Kibria, 1998). With the creation of a pan-Asian (the promotion of
unity of Asian peoples) identity came organized efforts for preserving and making visible a
collective Asian history tied together by the immigration of Asians to the United States starting
in the late 1800s (Bald, 2015; Espiritu, 1993).
When diving deeper into the data and disaggregating, its clear that there are statistically small difference, they are indeed significant. Indian American average household income is $101,591, while Bangladeshi American average median income is 50% lower at $51,33 as well lower than the national average (Chen, 2018). Poverty rates among different Asian American groups also vary wildy – 38 percent of Hmong Americans live in poverty while three percent of Chinese Americans live in poverty (Chen, 2018. The national poverty rate of 10.9 percent is lower than the overall average rate of 13.8 percent, contrary to the dominant narrative of Asians being the most economically successful group in United States (Chen, 2018).
Dominant narratives about Asian Americans paint a picture of a highly educated and high achieving immigrant group exceeding every other group racial group. In reality, what is definitive is Asian Americans are the fastest growing immigrant group in the United States. They are increasingly growing the number of undocumented immigrants as well (Lee and Krishnan, 2017). While Asian Americans have appeared to fair better economically, the outcomes are not happenstance, but rather because of deliberate policy decisions. Post 1965 immigration legislation favored educated, highly skilled immigrants with backgrounds in science, engineer, medicine and technology (Prashad, 2014). These policy choices translate in data on Asian Americans as high earners, as they occupy jobs that yield higher average incomes and require higher education (Chen, 2018).
The proposed study intends to begin to untangle the complex realities of Asian Americans through a multidisciplinary review of the existing body of literature and thoughtful secondary data design choices. This study seeks to answer the question:
Do Asian Americans identify pan-ethnically for the same reasons?
