Report: Distinct Financial Trends Among City’s Asian Groups
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The Korean green grocer, the Pakistani taxi driver, and the Filipina nurse may seem like New York City stereotypes, but new statistics show there is truth behind the cliches.
Among the area’s six largest Asian ethnic groups – Chinese, Korean, Pakistani, Filipino, Japanese, Pakistani, and Indian – distinct occupational and financial trends have emerged, according to a report released yesterday by the Asian American Federation of New York.
“The key difference between the New York Asian populations and other Asian populations is the diversity,” the report’s author, Howard Shih, data manager for the federation, said.
During the 1990s, more Asians than any other ethnic group entered New York. They numbered 1.5 million in the metropolitan area as of 2000, an 83% increase over a decade earlier. Mr. Shih reported that more than a quarter of the New York City metropolitan area’s life and physical scientists; nearly a third of textile, apparel, and furnishing workers, and a quarter of the physicians and surgeons are Asian. Labor force participation is slightly higher than the general population and unemployment slightly lower.
Despite composite trends, the findings among groups range widely. Within the burgeoning group, the disparity is particularly evident in wealth distribution: median family incomes range from about $45,000 for Pakistanis to $85,000 for Japanese, and poverty rates from 4% for Filipinos to 21% for Pakistanis.
One would assume that Indians and Pakistanis, Mr. Shih noted as an example, would be similar because they come from neighboring countries. In fact, they have extremely divergent experiences. Indians are financially one of the area’s better-off communities and tend to reside in New York’s suburban areas. Well-represented among doctors and computer specialists, more than 10% of physicians and surgeons and 9% of computer scientists are Indian, even though they’re just 2% of the labor force.
In contrast, Pakistanis are the poorest of the six major Asian groups, with more than one-fifth of households below the poverty line. Driving cars is the most common occupation for Pakistanis, accounting for about 15% of that population, according to the study. Pakistani women have exceptionally high rates of unemployment, nearly double the overall Asian population.
On the other end of the female employment spectrum are Filipina women. The study found what anyone who has recently gone to a hospital has probably already observed: Filipinos have a strong presence among registered nurses, physicians and surgeons, and other health care workers.
The stereotype of the Korean shopkeeper is also proved as fact, with the data showing nearly one-quarter of Korean men and 17% of women as self-employed. Additionally, 14% of Korean jobs are in personal and laundry services. The image of enterprising Koreans, however, does not always translate into wealth. Despite young Koreans faring about equivalent with the general population, for senior citizens the poverty rate is almost double the general population, at 21%.
Another financial condition that defies traditional stereotypes is that of the young Japanese population. At the time of the study, 10% of all Japanese men were top executives, helping to explain the high family income, at more than $80,000. What is striking about the statistics, however, is that even though the overall poverty rate of Japanese is relatively low, about one-third of single Japanese under the age of 65 were below the poverty line, a rate much higher than that for the general population. This could be explained by the recent influx of young Japanese artists and musicians who have flocked to the East Village and Astoria, Queens, replacing the flow of businessmen who entered in the 1980s.
The study is based on 2000 census statistics – the last date for which such statistics are available. It includes anyone who identified in the New York City region census as Asian. Despite the five-year gap, Mr. Shih said he does not anticipate any major demographic shifts have occurred since then.
While each ethnic group has distinct occupational and economic characteristics, Mr. Shih said examining Asians as a group is also crucial for understanding the community’s developmental prospects. When the federal government determines equal employment opportunities and other civil rights issues, he said, it does not look at the differential in incomes among Pakistanis and Indians, but Asians as a composite group.