Asian-Americans a fast-growing group in key states

(CBS News) Asian-Americans are a small but fast-growing part of the American population that may in the coming years have more influence -- in politics and American life in general -- than some people may realize, a new study suggests.

According to the far-reaching study from the Pew Research Center, Asian-Americans for the first time have surpassed Hispanics as the fastest-growing immigrant group in the United States. As of 2010, 36 percent of immigrants arriving in the U.S. are Asian, according to Census data, while just 31 percent are Hispanic.

Asian-Americans still make up a relatively small portion of the country -- they accounted for 5.8 percent of the population in 2011 while Hispanics, by comparison, made up 16.7 percent of the population. Still, Asian-Americans are not only the fastest-growing racial group, but also the highest-income and best-educated, the survey shows. On top of that, Asian-American communities are growing in some key political regions like Northern Virginia.

"What we're really talking about is essentially a new immigrant community," Tritia Toyota, an anthropology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said at a panel discussion of the survey on Tuesday. "If you hadn't been paying attention in the past five years... this may come as a big surprise."

The political impact the Asian-American community may have is limited, given that three in 10 Asian-American adults are not citizens. About half of Asian-Americans say they voted in the 2008 presidential election, according to the Pew study, in comparison to 67 percent of all U.S. adults say they voted that year (according to Census data).

Those who do vote are likely to vote Democrat -- the study shows that half of all Asian-Americans identify as Democrat or lean Democrat while just 28 percent identify with or lean towards the Republican party. That's not too far off from the figures for Americans overall -- 49 percent lean Democrat -- but Asian-Americans are more likely to support President Obama than Americans overall. The survey found that 54 percent of Asian-Americans approve of Mr. Obama's job performance.

Mr. Obama carried the Asian vote in 2008, winning 62 percent support to John McCain's 35 percent. The Obama campaign this year is making specific efforts to reach out to Asian-American voters, particularly in a few states where their influence could be key: Nevada, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan and California.

Northern Virginia edge could be pivotal for Obama

Northern Virginia could be a critical region for Mr. Obama in part because of its growing Asian-American community. In Fairfax County, for instance, Asian-Americans in 2010 made up more than 17 percent of the population.

Nevada, another key state for 2012, saw its Asian-American population grow by 116 percent between 2000 and 2010, according to the Census -- more than any other state. Its Asian-American population now stands at 7.2 percent of the state's total population.

The Obama campaign held events targeting Asian-Americans in those key states, including voter registration drives and small business roundtables, around the time it launched Asian-Americans & Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) for Obama, a campaign initiative to mobilize those voters across the country. The Obama campaign has appealed to "AAPI" voters in part by pointing to Mr. Obama's own heritage (the president spent his childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia), as well as his accomplishments related to the community, such as the fact that he has doubled the number of Asian-Americans sitting on the federal bench.

Republican Mitt Romney's campaign, meanwhile, is in the process of hiring Asian-American coalition directors. They will focus on recruiting, identifying and educating Asian-American voters about Romney's economic message, according to the campaign, and tap into Asian American media.

"Our campaign recognizes the importance of Asian-Americans and we will make strong push to reach out to this growing community," said Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams. "Like all voters, Asian-Americans are concerned about our struggling economy and we will appeal to them by focusing on Governor Romney's pro-growth message and his plans to create jobs and return fiscal responsibility to Washington."

Appealing to Asian-Americans can be more challenging than reaching out to other constituencies, given the level of diversity within the community. The Pew Research Center survey represented the overall Asian-American population, but it also included large enough samples to analyze the six largest country-of-origin groups: Chinese-Americans, Filipino-Americans, Indian-Americans, Vietnamese-Americans, Korean-Americans and Japanese-Americans. All of those groups combined comprise just 83 percent of the total Asian-American population.

The rise of Asian-American immigration also adds a new dimension to the debate over immigration policy. "The dominant image [of immigration] people have in their minds is of a particular slice" of the experience, Karthick Ramakrishnan, a political science professor at the University of California, Riverside, said Tuesday -- namely, the Hispanic experience. "Immigration is more complicated than that."

Pew found that 72 percent of Asian-Americans agree with the statement "immigrants today strengthen the U.S. because of their hard work and talents," while only 17 percent agree with the statement that "immigrants today are a burden on the U.S. because they take jobs, housing and health care."

Elaine Chao, the secretary of Labor in the George W. Bush administration, said Tuesday that the issue at hand isn't the racialization of immigration. "It is legal versus illegal immigration that really divides the country," she said.

This story was corrected to note that the Pew survey represented the overall Asian-American population, not just the six largest country-of-origin groups.

[marychgo]

The Democrats' "big tent" has room enough for ALL who want to work together to build a nation that serves the needs of all its people.

[diamruby]

How sad that American children are so uneducated & lazy??? Big corporations outsource all their work to foreign countries, we allow all illegal & legal foreigners educated or uneducated to stay & work while our legal American citizens are not being educated because all states are reducing education spending & poor teaches, run down schools, we choose not to invest in our children. Yes Americans are becoming the minority & our way of life will soon be living in the same filth, run down shacks, & communist rule the foreigners left. They chose to leave their countries but live the same in the USA.

[Raptorsmasher]

Americans kids are lazy because its's a reflection of their parent's lack of work ethic and people like you who whine about illegals and legals taking their jobs. Americans do not want to pay extra for their kid's education because they think they already pay too much. As a result, their kids suffer the cost cutting efforts of district who have to live within their means. Americans need to stop blaming "others" for their failures and take a good look in the mirror, because that's where the American failure resides.

[Misanthrope-Obama]

More Stephanie Condon skewed reporting and facts.
What else is new?

A lot of Asians just like Blacks and Latinos in the USA are waking up and leaving the Democratic platform ... most of them either don't participate in politics at all or consider themselves '' Independent '' ( free of party affiliation ) ... in ideology though many are fiscal conservative/social moderate ( not socially liberal or too socially conservative )

They tend to be attracted to paleo conservatives , classical liberals or libertarians

[rightontarget]

Elaine Chao, the secretary of Labor in the George W. Bush administration, said Tuesday that the issue at hand isn't the racialization of immigration. "It is legal versus illegal immigration that really divides the country," she said.
**************************************************************

EXACTLY!!!!!!! There is absolutely NOTHING WRONG with LEGAL immigration. That is one of the things that has made this country great. How can ANYBODY (regardless of their race) who has managed to SNEAK into this country DARE to call themselves an "immigrant"???? They are an ILLEGAL immigrant and should be treated as such, someone who has broken the law! People STOP reffering to ILLEGALS as just "immigrants". THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING AT ALL!!~!! They are "entitled" to absolutely NOTHING!!!! Even suggesting that they are remotely the same as those wonderful people who came here and went through the system LEGALLY is an INSULT to our LEGAL immigrants. This is one of the MAJOR things that is wrong with our society. Nobody is willing to take the CONSEQUENCES of their own actions. Make excuses for it, get somebody else to bail you out, as long as you have a good "reason" for what you've done it should be ok, etc....... Good Lord, get over it! If you are here illegally then you have NO right to be here. You have no right to anything. Just because you could sneak into the country and have been a "productive" citizen for however many years DOES NOT MAKE IT OK! There are millions of people who entered this country LEGALLY and EARNED their right to be here. If you STEAL something (in this case your residency) you should NOT be allowed to keep it!!!!!

[nancy_naive]

Well, at least there is SOME chance we can move up from the bottom of the G-20 in mathematics, engineering, and physics again... if the GOP B-school knockouts don't ruin our state university system the way they have everything else in this country.

[raptor-022]

quotelawrence June 20, 2012 9:02 AM EDT
"family values....abortions....gay....science....education....bad politics....Romney 2012"



Well, with that very poor run-on sentence, anyone can see from a mile away exactly where you're coming from, as well as heading.

Your divisive republican party is shrinking by the year like this article explains, "Mr. Obama carried the Asian vote in 2008, winning 62 percent support to John McCain's 35 percent".

This is not much different than the 61% of Hispanics that voted for Obama in 2008, and until the divisive republican party understands this and stops the political rhetoric of social conservatism and ideologically-driven issues you posted, the GOP 'big tent' will continue to shrink as you chase more and more voters away!

[nancy_naive]

Nothing "run-on" about that. It's a properly delineated list of attributes.

A run-on sentence is when two distinct sentences or thoughts are concatenated with a comma.

OTH, your conclusions on the GOP are bang-on!

[raptor-022]

Unbelievable to think that anyone in their 'right' mind -- not far-right extremists like 'captdon,' -- would endlessly post the same political rhetoric of SOCIALIST and MARXIST B.S. in their attacks, and actually 'think' that anyone would take them seriously.

Obviously, people like 'captdon' are under the false premise that only republicans work, pay taxes and are law-abiding citizens! LOL!

[55minus5]

Well, at least it's clear who we're dealing with. Thick as a brick.

[raptor-022]

Yes, crystal clear that right-wing punditry has destroyed their thinking, if they were even capable of that before.

[raptor-022]

captdon1 June 20, 2012 8:26 AM EDT
"These traits will eventually disqualify them from the Socialist dominated Democratic party".



Seriously, if you actually believe the B.S. you posted with the usual right-wing buzz words of socialist and Marxist, there is no explaining to you how divisive the far-right republican party has become in their need to purify their party of both moderates and minorities, while waging their endless war on women's health care and the middle class!

As I said before, and it's an easy fact to see right before your very eyes, as demographics in America change, the big tent of the republican party gets smaller every year.

[55minus5]

It's only natural that Republican values are completely alien to the rest of the world, to those who come from other parts of the globe or, even, to Americans who have some knowledge about the world. In fact, Republicans (and especially TBs) are hostile to everyone but their own. They just cannot get along with anyone.

And look how maliciously, cunningly stupid the survey is:

Qout. "Pew found that 72 percent of Asian-Americans agree with the statement "immigrants today strengthen the U.S. because of their hard work and talents," while only 17 percent agree with the statement that "immigrants today are a burden on the U.S. because they take jobs, housing and health care." --

Well, duh! Those who are talented and work hard SHOULD get jobs and DESERVE housing and health care!
The question is, why isn't there enough for everybody.

[raptor-022]

Yes, just like the class valedictorian that sen. marco rubio was talking about while he was still for the 'Dream Act,' we have educated many undocumented students with taxpayers' money, and President Obama's Executive Order last Friday would protect these valuable 'Americanized students,' but republicans can only see black and white today -- never the many shades of gray in the world!

Immigrants and educated undocumented students are the key to our future, yet the divisive republicans can't see the forest through the trees!

[quotelawrence]

in response to sharong59: what as joke family values from a group that think it okay to do abortions, and to be gay neither have the intention of families, as two of the same can not re-create, so now we have children going to these that never wanted, and the science proves that these children suffer, and on the point of education it seems again that the democrats enjoy educating for a price, we are promoting education for a price with the foreign students coming to america to do what learn, and take home, robbing ourselves of educated citizens bad politics Romney 2012,

[raptor-022]

Typical divisive republican post showing how social conservative "wedge" issues form your opinion, and only allow constitutionally protected rights to your like-minded and ideologically-driven brothers and sisters!