America Becoming Racial Trends and Their Consequences: Volume I (2001) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
6. Political Trends and Electoral Issues of the Asian Pacific American Population
6. Political Trends and Electoral Issues of the Asian Pacific American Population
Pages 170-199
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 170... ...
The idea that the state's electorate might someday reflect this demographic profile, and Asians and Pacific Islanders perhaps become an important future swing vote, no longer seemed unrealistic (Nakanishi, 1998~. The November 1996 elections also were supposed to be viewed as historically significant because of the number of Asians and Pacific Is1In this paper, Asians and Pacific Islanders are defined in a manner similar to that of Asian Pacific American, so named by a fact-finding report issued by the Asian Pacific American Education Advisory Committee of the Office of the Chancellor of the California State University (1990~: "Asian Pacific Americans are defined as immigrants, refugees, and the U.S.-born descendants of immigrants from Asia, including Pakistan and the countries lying east of it in South Asia, East Asia, and the Pacific Islands" (p.
|
From page 171... ...
Asian and Pacific Islander political leaders had expected recognition of a strong Asian and Pacific Islander presence, especially among Democrats, when exit polls conducted by the Los Angeles Times and the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC) showed that Asian and Pacific Islander voters strongly favored President Bill Clinton over Bob Dole and Ross Perot.
|
From page 172... ...
THE TREND OF INCREASED ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN POLITICAL REPRESENTATION Fortunately, there is considerable evidence to suggest that the political growth and maturation of Asians and Pacific Islanders did not come to an abrupt end with the controversy during the months after the November 1996 elections, nor has it stopped or prevented Asians and Pacific Islanders from running for, and winning, political office. In 1998, there were more than 2,000 Asian and Pacific Islander elected and appointed officials across the nation (Nakanishi and Lai, 1998~.
|
From page 173... ...
Since the mid-199Os, groups like the Asian Pacific Planning and Policy Council of Southern California, an umbrella organization of more than 50 Asian and Pacific Islander social services and civil rights groups in Los Angeles, have escalated their campaigns to naturalize and register recently arrived Asians and Pacific Islanders. These groups have placed voter registration at the top of their leadership agendas.
|
From page 174... ...
To begin with, Asians and Pacific Islanders are the fastest growing group, their population having doubled from 1.5 million in 1970 to 3.5 million in 1980, reaching 7.2 million in 1990. Recent projections estimate that Asians and Pacific Islanders will continue to increase to 12 million by 2000 and nearly 20 million by 2020 (Fawcett and Carino, 1987; LEAP Asian Pacific American Public Policy Institute and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center,
|
From page 175... ...
immigrants and North America, 2 percent; conversely, Latin American countries accounted for 35 percent, and Asian countries, 48 percent of the United States total legal immigrant populations (United Way Asian Pacific Research and Development Council, 1985~. Indeed, from 1981 to 1996, the top 10 sending nations were Latin American and Asian.3 From 1970 to 1980, and continuing into the 1990s, the Asian and Pacific Islander population also dramatically shifted from being largely U.S.born to predominantly foreign-born, as a result of the surge in migration.
|
From page 176... ...
also recorded substantial population gains by 1990. It is projected that in 2000 the Japanese group will fall further down the population scale, with practically all other major Asian and Pacific Islander groups outnumbering them, and Filipinos will replace Chinese as the largest Asian and Pacific Islander ethnic group (LEAP Asian Pacific American Public Policy Institute and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 1993~.
|
From page 177... ...
It is highly likely that the terms "Asian American" and "Asian Pacific American," which have been imbued with constantly changing strategic, ideological, and tactical connotations since they were first articulated in the 1960s, will undergo further reconsideration in the future (Espiritu, 1992~. Technical and Methodological Problems Facing Researchers In contrast to the study of other, larger racial and ethnic populations, a common problem facing researchers studying Asian and Pacific Islander populations is that empirical data are not routinely collected or reported for Asians and Pacific Islanders in toto or, more important, with respect to the different ethnic groups of the population.
|
From page 178... ...
To investigate topics such as the extent of interracial marriages, usage rates of mental health facilities, conditions of poverty, or levels of political involvement for specific Asian and Pacific Islander groups, a sufficiently large sample of empirical data is needed prior to the application of rigorous data analysis tools (Kikumura and Kitano, 1973; Yu, 1982; Nakanishi, 1986b; Ong, 1993; Ong and Hee, 1993; National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, 1996~. Yet, public records of marriage licenses and voter registrations do not contain information about the ethnicity, national origin, generation, or racial background; and there is, presently, no reliable computer-based dictionary of Asian and Pacific Islander surnames for identifying members of the different ethnic and national groups.
|
From page 179... ...
At the K-12 levels, see sue and Padilla <1986y, Kiang and Lee <1993y, Kao <1995y, Lee <1996y, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy <1997y, and Zhou 1998. For higher educational issues and trends, see Hsia t1988a, 1988by, Asian and Pacific American Education Advisory committee <1990y, Escueta and o srien `1991y, and Hune and Chan <1997~.
|
From page 180... ...
At the same time, other Asian and Pacific Islander groups with stronger group-level academic profiles, like the Chinese, Koreans, Thais, and Asian Indians, also show significant percentages of individuals with limited educational backgrounds. Approximately 25 percent of the women in these four groups had not completed high school, and more than 10 percent had less than eight years of schooling.
|
From page 181... ...
for Asian Pacific American Males and Females, 25 Years and Older, California, 1990 Non-High Eight Years or School College Less of Schooling Graduate Graduate Asian Indians Males 2 15 72 Females 16 27 42 Cambodians Males 45 56 8 Females 66 77 3 Chinese Males 14 23 44 Females 21 31 32 Hmongs Males 49 60 7 Females 65 85 2 Japanese Males 3 8 44 Females 5 11 30 Koreans Males 5 11 45 Females 13 24 27 Laotians Males 45 57 7 Females 65 76 6 Pacific Islanders Males 8 24 12 Females 10 28 9 Filipinos Males 8 14 35 Females 11 18 41 Thais Males 6 15 43 Females 18 28 27 SOURCE: 1990 Census of Population, Social and Economic Characteristics, California (1993~.
|
From page 182... ...
At the same time, their unusual internal heterogeneity will challenge leaders and organizers of different Asian and Pacific Islander sectors and communities often separated by both real and symbolic boundaries of national origin, language, culture, social class, religion, and other characteristics to find common ground on key policy issues, to cope with the uneven political development and maturation of different ethnic groups, and to seek effective mechanisms for pursuing shared interests in a unified manner on both continuous and ad hoc bases (LEAP Asian Pacific American Public Policy Institute and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 1993; Ong, 1994~. Although this may appear visionary, there are examples of such unifying issues since the 1970s, including opposition to university admissions quotas, anti-Asian violence, glass ceilings, and unfair immigration policy legislation.
|
From page 183... ...
Therefore, the extent to which the two major parties further cultivate their relations with, and address the specific concerns of, the Asian Pacific American community will greatly determine the future partisan direction of the Asian Pacific American electorate (Nakanishi, 1986b:10~. 183 In recent years, a number of political commentators and scholars have speculated about whether Asians and Pacific Islanders will become a major force in American electoral politics, perhaps akin to the lewish population, because of their dramatic demographic growth and concentration in certain key electoral states like California, New York, and Texas (Tachibana, 1986; Cain, 1988; Stokes, 1988; Nakanishi, 1986a; Karnow, 1992; Miller, 1995~.
|
From page 184... ...
In California, for example, Asians and Pacific Islanders may represent 10 percent of all residents, but it is estimated that Asians and Pacific Islanders are no more than 5 percent of the state's registered voters and 3 percent of those who actually vote (The Field Institute, 1992~. Voter Registration Previous studies have found that rates of voter registration vary markedly; Japanese Americans have the highest percentage of registered voters and Southeast Asians have the lowest (Nakanishi, 1986b)
|
From page 185... ...
Rather, it has many dimensions of diversity, which are influencing its continued development. Rates of Voter Registration The Asian and Pacific Islander population in the United States has the largest percentage of individuals over the age of 18 (hereafter, adult)
|
From page 186... ...
TABLE 6-4 Voter Registration and Turnout Rates (percentage) for Asian Pacific Americans and Others, 1994 Registered to Vote Voted in 1994 Elections Asian Americans U.S.
|
From page 187... ...
Therefore, Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants appear to reflect a provocative series of discrete, nonlinear trends from becoming citizens to becoming registered voters and then to becoming actual voters: they have one of the highest rates of naturalization after immigrating, but one of the lowest rates of voter registration after becoming citizens. Once they register to vote, however, naturalized Asians and Pacific Islanders have among the highest rates of voting of any group (Ong and Nakanishi, 1996~.
|
From page 188... ...
Indeed, one of the major reasons why many Asian and Pacific Islander refugees left their homelands was to escape horrendous political situations. As a result, previously learned lessons and orientations toward government and political activities may not be easily supplanted or supplemented.
|
From page 189... ...
Moreover, the total Asian and Pacific Islander electorate in Monterey Park changed its overall partisan orientation through the addition of these new, largely Chinese, registered voters. In 1984, Asian and Pacific Islander voters as a whole in Monterey 6Din (1984)
|
From page 190... ...
190 5o oo ._, o ._, 5o V)
|
From page 191... ...
By 1997, with an increase of more than 4,000 new registered voters, it was no longer possible to characterize the Asian and Pacific Islander electorate in the city in this manner. In an analogous fashion, on a larger national scale, the Asian and Pacific Islander electorate at both the grassroots and leadership levels have been undergoing, and will continue to undergo, significant changes with the increased political participation of foreignborn Asians and Pacific Islanders.
|
From page 192... ...
In recent years, the incentive and necessity for Asians and Pacific Islanders to become more involved in electoral politics has been greatly enhanced in both obvious and unexpected ways. Politicians and the major political parties, which had long neglected to address the unique public-policy interests and quality-of-life concerns of Asians and Pacific Islanders, have become increasingly responsive and attentive, especially to the growing sector of the Asian and Pacific Islander population that contributes sizable amounts to political campaign coffers.
|
From page 193... ...
1997 An Invisible Crisis: The Educational Needs of Asian Pacific American Youth. New York: Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy.
|
From page 194... ...
Kang, and F Wu 1996 Beyond Self-Interest: Asian Pacific Americans Toward a Community of Justice.
|
From page 195... ...
Los Angeles: LEAP Asian Pacific American Public Policy Institute and UCLA Asian American Studies Center. Hirschman, C., and M
|
From page 196... ...
In The State of Asian Pacific America: Policy Issues to the Year 2020. Los Angeles: LEAP Asian Pacific American Public Policy Institute and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center.
|
From page 197... ...
Los Angeles: UCLA Asian American Studies Center. 1998 1998/1999 National Asian Pacific American Political Almanac and Resource Guide.
|
From page 198... ...
Lee, eds. Los Angeles: LEAP Asian Pacific American Public Policy Institute and UCLA Asian American Studies Center.
|
From page 199... ...
Sage Race Relations Abstracts 15~2~:1-36. 1994 The Glass Ceiling and Asian Americans.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.