The face of new Californians – once predominantly Latino – is increasingly Asian American,
census data show.
A seismic shift in immigration has occurred in California over the last decade, with Asia replacing
Latin America as the primary source of the state's immigrants.
"This is a pretty astounding change over a short period of time," said Hans Johnson, co-director of the
Public Policy Institute of California, citing
census data.
"For the first time in decades, the number of Asians coming to
California exceeded the flow from Latin America, and it exceeds that
flow by a lot – 2 1/2 times greater."
To have Latino immigrants
eclipsed by those from Asia over the past five to 10 years "could
represent the end of an era," Johnson said.
In 2001, 42 percent of
immigrants coming to California were from Latin America, primarily
Mexico, while 37 percent were from Asia. In 2011, 57 percent of new
immigrants were from Asia, and just 22 percent were from Latin America,
census data show.
California's new faces were on display at a swearing-in ceremony at the
Sacramento Convention Center
on Wednesday. Of the 774 area residents who took the oath of
citizenship, about 450 were born in Asia, compared with roughly 160 who
were born in Latin America, according to the
U.S. Citizenship and and
Immigration Services.
They
included 119 people from Mexico, 100 from India, 94 from the
Philippines, 63 from Vietnam, 35 from Ukraine, 33 from the People's
Republic of China and 29 from Laos.
Among those celebrating their
newly minted citizenship was Melody Malliet, who dressed in a crisp
white suit to take the pledge of allegiance. She came here from the
Philippines four years ago to marry an American citizen and is now a
nursing assistant in
Calaveras County. "It feels so good to be a U.S. citizen," Malliet said with a huge smile. "I'm part of the greatest country in the world."
Filipinos – the largest Asian ethnic group in Sacramento – often come here to fill jobs in
health care.
The
changing needs of California's economy since the start of the recession
explain much of the shift from Latin America to Asia. "Part of what
we're seeing is the changing face of California's labor market, which
has been increasingly demanding more highly educated workers," Johnson
said.
Unemployment has gone up at all levels, "but it's gone up
the most for people with high school degrees or less," Johnson said.
"Immigrants from Asia, particularly India, tend to be much more highly
educated, much more likely to have earned a bachelor's degree."
While
74 percent of recent arrivals from India have at least bachelor's
degrees, 59 percent of Mexican immigrants have less than a high school
degree, and there are now fewer jobs for less-educated immigrants,
Johnson said.
The census doesn't ask for a person's immigration
status, but the declining Latino numbers reflect a drop in undocumented
immigrants, Johnson said. A substantial number of newcomers are
sponsored by California businesses that help skilled immigrants obtain
H-1B visas and other types of work authorization, he said.
"High-tech
firms are arguing in Washington, D.C., that the number of work visas
needs to be increased because they're having a hard time finding people
trained in computer sciences, and those jobs have often gone to Asian
immigrants," he said.
The number of foreign students coming to
California also has risen. For example, there are now more than 1,500
students and scholars from China and Taiwan at UC Davis.
Asian
Resources, which helps immigrants find jobs, has seen a large influx of
immigrants from Mongolia, China, Laos and India, said executive director
Stephanie Nguyen.
They include doctors, architects and professors
seeking a better life, added placement counselor Sheng Lo. "Over the
last three years, I've seen a lot of refugees from Iraq and Iran who
came here as asylees or refugees seeking political or religious
freedom," Lo said. "And we had a couple from India – a teacher and
pharmacist – who came looking for a better life for their kids. They
learned they'd have to be retrained here."
Overall, the U.S.
Census Bureau estimates that the number of new immigrants coming to
California went up slightly between 2010 and 2011, from 257,359 to
277,304. The Sacramento area also saw a slight boost in legal
immigrants, from 8,047 to 9,469, federal immigration officials said.
But
the number of new immigrants coming to California from Latin America
annually has plummeted 65 percent since 2001, going from roughly 147,000
to 60,000 in 2011, Johnson said.
The drop began in earnest around
2007, when California's economy began to falter ahead of the lengthy
recession. Since 2006, the number of Latin American immigrants arriving
each year in California has dropped by about 70,000.
Meanwhile,
the number of Asian immigrants coming to California has grown,
particularly from China and Taiwan. In 2001, about 129,000 immigrants
came to California from Asia; by 2011, that number had risen to 160,000.
Immigrants coming each year from China and Taiwan grew 45
percent over the last decade, going from 25,000 to about 38,000. The
biggest jump occurred from 2010 to 2011, when 10,000 more Chinese came
to California than during the previous year.
The number of Koreans coming here each year has also grown sharply, going from about 13,000 in 2001 to 17,000 in 2011.
At Wednesday's citizenship ceremony, hundreds of new immigrants waited in line for Social Security numbers.
Huy
Tran, an 18-year-old senior at Florin High who arrived from Hue,
Vietnam, in 2006, said he wants to help people with asthma, something
he's struggled with.
Ye Her, a Hmong refugee from Sacramento
accompanied by her daughter May Saechao, 24, proudly displayed her
citizenship certificate. "I've never felt this happy in my life before,"
she said.
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Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/17/5120459/asian-immigrants-to-california.html#storylink=cpy
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