• MEMBERS

Survey: Area Asians have head start

Print | Email

This misconception of Asians as a homogenous community of affluent overachievers, fueled in part by the many Asian surnames among spelling bee winners and National Merit Scholars, may impede the availability of social services to Asians who need them, Klineberg said.

It also contributes, he said, to unfair attitudes about other minority groups, since Asians' successes create the notion that "by implication, Houston's blacks and Latinos have only themselves to blame if they have not achieved equal success."

Klineberg will release the survey findings with City Councilman Gordon Quan, a Chinese-American, at 5:30 p.m. today at the Southern Chinese News Building, 11122 Bellaire Blvd.

The data on Asians are a supplement to Klineberg's annual survey, conducted since 1982, of county residents' demographic characteristics and attitudes on a wide range of issues. Results of the basic survey were reported in May.

This year's Asian survey, along with one conducted in 1995, represents the most extensive analysis of Asian populations in any U.S. city, Klineberg said.

"It is much more difficult to obtain representative samples from Houston's increasingly important Asian communities because they still constitute a relatively small proportion of the Houston population as a whole," -- about 6 percent, Klineberg said.

U.S. census figures show that the county's Asian population grew from 109,878 in 1990 to 193,059 in 2000, a 75.7 percent rise, surpassing even the 73.5 percent increase in the number of Hispanics.

Within the city's diverse Asian-American community, the survey shows, Vietnamese and Indians recorded the fastest growth in the 1990s, followed by Filipinos, Chinese and Koreans.

The survey findings regarding distribution of nationalities among Asians here correspond closely to census figures, strengthening confidence in the survey data's reliability, Klineberg said.

The survey shows that the county's Asian community is newer to this country than other immigrant groups and far better-educated than even Anglos.

For example, 68.8 percent of the Asians surveyed arrived in this country as adults, compared with 52.5 percent of Hispanics and 6 percent of blacks. Only 3.2 percent of Asians reported that one or both parents were born in the United States, compared with 27.5 percent of Hispanics and 93.6 percent of blacks.

Among Asian immigrants, 59.1 percent have a bachelor's or graduate degree, compared with 44.4 percent of U.S.-born Anglos, 23 percent of U.S.-born blacks, 15.4 percent of U.S.-born Hispanics and 8.5 percent of Hispanic immigrants.

Asked their father's occupation when they were 16 years old, 48 percent of Asian respondents said their fathers were doctors, lawyers, professors, engineers, corporate executives or other professionals. This was true of just 39 percent of Anglos and 17 percent of blacks and Latinos.

"Asians have been relatively successful in Houston primarily because they come from families in their countries of origin whose educational and occupational attainments far exceed the average for native-born Americans," Klineberg said.

This pattern, he said, reflects an Asian "brain drain" based on immigration policies that grant priority to people with "needed professional skills."

The survey shows, however, that incomes of the county's Asian-Americans are not keeping pace with their impressive educational and professional backgrounds.

Only 42.5 percent of Asians reported annual household incomes of more than $50,000, compared with 55.2 percent of Anglos. Klineberg said a probable reason is Asians' difficulty in transferring their educational credentials into a new society, combined with discrimination.

The diversity of Harris County's Asian community, Klineberg said, is reflected in the different reasons for emigrating reported by Asians of various nationalities.

Among Vietnamese, for example, 72.4 percent said they left their homeland because of "war, politics or (a desire for) freedom." Educational opportunities were the most common reason cited by Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants, while Indians, Pakistanis and Filipinos most often cited employment opportunities.

This diversity also is reflected in the levels of educational attainment among Asians of different nationalities, Klineberg said.

The highest educational levels were reported by Filipinos, with 77.6 percent holding a college degree, followed by Indians and Pakistanis (68.9 percent), Chinese/Taiwanese (66.2 percent) and Vietnamese (37.7 percent).

Vietnamese immigrants, who arrived as refugees from the war in their homeland, "are generally facing more difficult challenges than other Asians in Houston," Klineberg wrote in a report on the survey findings. "Houston's Southeast Asians are also significantly less likely than other Asians to have health insurance and more likely to report problems buying groceries to feed their families.

"Clearly, many Vietnamese are having a hard time in this city, and they may be less likely to receive the help they need, in a language they can understand, from a wider community that continues to believe that all Asians are doing fine."