GOLDSEA | ASIAN AMERICAN DEMOGRAPHICS

ASIAN IMMIGRATION DECLINES

opular perception has it that wealthy, talented Asians are lining up for the chance to immigrate to the U.S. The reality is that there aren't enough professionals and skilled workers wanting in to fill available quota slots for those categories. The real danger is that the steady decline in the immigration of Asian workers will deny the U.S. the benefits of the talent and labor that helped drive the past decade's technology boom.
     For starters, overall immigration to the U.S. has dropped sharply since 1991 when it peaked at an all-time high of 1.8 million, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Only 798,378 legal immigrants were admitted for permanent residence in 1997. Asians accounted for only 33.3% of that number, down from 33.6% in 1996 and 37.2% in 1995.
     The leading nationality of Asian immigrants were Filipinos with 49,117. They were a distant second overall to Mexicans who made up 146,565. In third place was Chinese (including Taiwan and Hong Kong) with 41,147, followed by Vietnamese in fourth place with 38,519. Coreans were in 13th place with 14,239, only half of the average of 27,000 immigrating during the 1980s. The only other Asian nationalities among the top 20 were Indians with 38,071 and Pakistanis with 12,967.
     The trend shows declining immigration for all Asian groups. The immigration figures for 1994 were 53,535 Filipinos, 53,985 Chinese, 41,345 Vietnamese and 16,011 Coreans.
     In percentage terms the continents showing the biggest increase are Africa, which jumped from 3.3% of overall immigration in 1994 to 6.0% in 1997, North America, which rose from 33.8% to 38.5%, and South America, which rose from 5.9% to 6.6%. Europe showed the sharpest decline, falling from 20% in 1994 to 15% in 1997.
     Clear trends favor a larger share of immigration from under-developed nations and from the family-sponsored category rather than employment-based preferences. In 1994 employment-based preferences accounted for 15.3%. By 1997 that number had dropped to 11.3%. 1,361 immigrated under the investors' preference in 1997, up from 444 in 1994.

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