Posted on 11/11/2012 6:21:04 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Apart from some fatuous self-congratulation from Asian-American liberals, there has been very little discussion of the 73-26 Asian-American margin of support for President Obama in last Tuesday’s election. That’s slightly smaller than the highest estimate of Latino support for Obama, at 75-23. Asian-Americans are a small minority now but their numbers are growing rapidly.
Most conservatives consider Asian-Americans poster-children for the American model of self-motivated success. The facts bear this out. The Pew Research Center reported last July:
Asian Americans are the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States. They are more satisfied than the general public with their lives, finances and the direction of the country, and they place more value than other Americans do on marriage, parenthood, hard work and career success…
Asians recently passed Hispanics as the largest group of new immigrants to the United States. The educational credentials of these recent arrivals are striking. More than six-in-ten (61%) adults ages 25 to 64 who have come from Asia in recent years have at least a bachelor’s degree. This is double the share among recent non-Asian arrivals, and almost surely makes the recent Asian arrivals the most highly educated cohort of immigrants in U.S. history.
Compared with the educational attainment of the population in their country of origin, recent Asian immigrants also stand out as a select group. For example, about 27% of adults ages 25 to 64 in South Korea and 25% in Japan have a bachelor’s degree or more.2In contrast, nearly 70% of comparably aged recent immigrants from these two countries have at least a bachelor’s degree.
Asian-American kids occupy nearly three-quarters of the places at New York City’s exam-based high schools (including Bronx Science and Stuyvesant) although they comprise less than 12% of the student population. The main threat to the upward striving of working-class immigrant kids who study hard to get into top schools is the NAACP. The New York Times reported Oct. 15:
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and other groups filed a racial bias complaint with the United States Education Department. They charge that reliance on a single test for determining who gets into Bronx Science and seven other specialized high schools discriminates against young African-Americans and Latinos. Other factors, like student grades, need to be considered as well, they say.
Asians “also stand out for their strong emphasis on family,” the Pew study reported. “More than half (54%) say that having a successful marriage is one of the most important things in life; just 34% of all American adults agree. Two-thirds of Asian-American adults (67%) say that being a good parent is one of the most important things in life; just 50% of all adults agree.”
If the Republican Party can’t win the support of the immigrant group with the strongest family values and the most success in achieving the American dream, what can it say to the Hispanics, the immigrant group with the least success in achieving the American dream?
I do not mean to be glib. The issue requires study. But I will venture a guess: Asian-Americans, like any other immigrant group, come here with the hope of bringing family members with them. Tough enforcement of immigration laws makes life as hard for them as it does for any other immigrant group, and frustrates their hope of reuniting families in America. The result of our present immigration laws is that we fail to keep out the illegals we don’t want, and make it harder to absorb the skilled and energetic immigrants we do want. There will be endless discussion during the next few months of Romney’s mistake in moving to the right of Rick Perry on immigration during the Republican primaries, and I will leave the detailed parsing to the professionals. I hope the professionals talk to Asian-Americans first.
America is unlikely to tolerate ethnic quotas (Asians in, Hispanics out). There are plenty of bright Hispanics as well (with 25% unemployment in Spain, German firms are recruiting Spanish engineers to fill the 30,000 job openings for engineers in Germany). But there is a sensible way to encourage the kind of immigration that boosts economic growth and discourage the kind of immigration that impedes economic growth.
The distinguished Canadian economist Prof. Reuven Brenner of McGill University wrote two years ago in First Things magazine:
Without innovation, America faces prolonged stagnation. The outlook seems bleak. Between 1988 and 1998, manufacturing productive growth rose from less than 2 percent to more than 5 percent per annum. By 2008, it had fallen back to the 2 percent range as the great wave of innovation abated. This outcome is not inevitable, however. America has been obtaining a disproportionate flow of skilled innovators by attracting these “vital few” to its shores. Without their contribution, America may neither sustain the economic growth required to absorb the penurious many nor raise their standards of living. The impact of the vital few does trickle down…
The problem lies in policy. American sentiment toward immigrants has swung from boomtown hospitality to churlish xenophobia in the course of the present recession…
It is hard to blame opponents of immigration. Earlier this year, the Pew Hispanic Center reported that California’s estimated 2.7 million illegal residents—7 percent of the state’s population—add $4 billion to $6 billion in costs. Cutting off state payments for the American-born children of immigrants supposedly would save about $640 million a year. By similar estimates, Arizona’s illegal immigrant population is costing the state’s taxpayers about $1.3 billion per year. Whether these estimates are exact or only in the ballpark, it is clear that poor migrants drain state finances under the present institutional and regulatory landscape, and the drain is substantial.
…The least the United States can do is try, explicitly, to attract the vital few to its shores and, at the same time, speed up the domestic production of talent.
…Congress should first increase visas for skilled immigrants—those who would invest in their own entrepreneurial ventures in the United States in particular. Congress also should facilitate a temporary worker program, but without instantaneously bestowing on those workers the many monetary government benefits for which America’s already taxpaying citizens are eligible. For immigrants in the United States who do not have proper documentation but who have built up equity in this country, opportunities should be provided to obtain legalization if they can demonstrate good moral character. Such an “earned” legalization should be achievable and verifiable in an accountable manner.
As Prof. Brenner observes, immigrants have made a disproportionate contribution to American economic growth in recent years. “At the height of the last tech boom in 1999, Chinese and Indian engineers were at the helm of 24 percent of the technology companies started in Silicon Valley,” he writes, adding:
In 25.3 percent of [high-tech and engineering] companies, at least one key founder was foreign-born.
• Of all immigrant-founded companies, 26 percent had Indian founders; 7 percent had founders of British and Chinese origin; 6 percent had founders from Taiwan; Japanese and German founders each led 5 percent; 4 percent had founders from Israel; 3 percent had founders from Canada; and 2.5 percent had founders from Iran.
• In Massachusetts the single largest founding group was Israelis, at 17 percent.
• Indian entrepreneurs dominated in New Jersey, leading 47 percent of all immigrant-founded start-ups.
• Immigrants also represented 24.2 percent of international patent applications filed from the United States in 2006. Chinese filed the largest number of patents, followed by Indians, Canadians, and British.
If we Republicans can’t persuade our most successful, entrepreneurial, family-oriented citizens to support us, we won’t be in business much longer.
Oh, this is funny. Doesn’t the author know that immigration is ONLY about hispancs?
Posters here at FR will bitch and moan because so-and-so on FOX News won't work to advance conservatives causes, but those same posters will continue to pay their salaries.
If anyone is Lilly White raise your hands /S
I think the new congress critter from Mass is 1/64000 Chellokee. My Grandfather got compensation from the government because of the Trail of Tears because his people were sent west removed from their homes! Also my mothers side of the family had Indian blood so I have quite a bit of it in me but I have never been able to use it to gain favors or jobs how the heck was she...
I tried it once to get a government job had to have proof took them proof my Grandads family was on the Dawes Roll’s and he was on the Guion Miller Rroll Index and they told me that was not enough go figure!
Nope. As another poster pointed out, the bread and circuses are entrenched on both sides, just in different forms.
Gay marriage lost in California in 2008, because blacks came out to vote for Obama in record numbers, and 80% of them voted against gay marriage. The black vote was the margin of defeat for gay marriage. What apparently made a difference this year is that (1) Obama endorsed gay marriage, which swayed many blacks' opinions, and (2) Obama then met with many black pastors from religiously-conservative denominations and urged them to tone down their anti-gay rhetoric.
It IS sad, but they just will not do it.
I’m an Asian born american. I can tell you that when GOP can’t draw support from Asians there are some thing really wrong. You can throw away the assumption of minority are for free stuffs out of the window. Asians are the most hard working people around maybe same with latinos. I have a chinese friend with a baby. Her husband left her and she’s left without job. She refused to get a foodstamp card because that was kind of insulting to her dignity. Believe me Asian people are conservative at heart and they are pro-life. They care about social issues but not more than economic issues.
And yet my Asian friends do support democrat party by a lot. Older Asian groups like Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Burmese, Cambodian were overwhelming for GOP because of Ronald Reagan. Now Reagan is dead. Young Asians view GOP as outdated, white party, old people party, etc. The problem is in the last 20 years, GOP has no answer to liberal media machine attacking to the party image. They let them define them as such as such. Young Asians went to schools and colleges and were indoctrinated by liberal education system. It’s not cool anymore to be a republican these day. And that’s really sad.
Chi-com colonists and Muslim colonists.
The muzzies that came since 9/11 (seems like millions of them!) see that you can keep voting over and over without dipping your thumb in ink.
The real divide is between people who want to live their lives as free people, and people who want to be taken care of by the state, or who believe the short term benefit of getting something from the state is more important than the long term health of our nation.
Anyone who is voting for a candidate because they'll get free birth control, or a phone, instead of thinking "why would I want the government involved in my personal affairs?" hasn't yet learned the cost of their decision, or simply hopes to take the benefit now and somehow avoid the cost later. Or they believe that the government really is like a surrogate parent, and will help them throughout their life.
Many young people, even the descendants of immigrants who escaped tyranny, don't understand how fast the government can turn from good to evil. They should all meet someone who has seen tyranny up close and personal.
They should talk to a German in who lived there in the 30s.....when Hitler took over, he totally overhauled the German welfare system.....people were taken care of, they didn’t have to worry about starving anymore or being unemployed.........They soon learned the hard way that those came with a very steep price indeed.
The Japanese Americans always leaned liberal due to the forced encampment of WW2. The Chinese Americans are socially conservative but they believe gov should fund education (public and college). The biggest tipping point is the Lee Wen Ho affair where a DOE scientist was suspected of being a Chinese spy. Before the FBI could get to the bottom of it, the Clinton admin leaked the investigation. Lee was arrested and held with no charge and since the word leaked out the FBI investigation went nowhere. In the end the conservatives were castigating Lee as a Chinese spy. Problem it also affected many Chinese Americans. Consider the incident similar to the Dryfus Affair and how it affected French Jews. The other issue is the constant harping about China on trade, human rights and etc. There are many US allies that have equal bad human rights, trade and etc issues, but China is picked out while others are ignored heighten Chinese suspicions of US motivations based on jeolousy. The Chinese have a saying about Americans. When you are poor, Americans feel sorry for you and will give the shirt of their backs, but if you become successful, Americans will become jealous and despise you. They see many critics of China over human rights, trade, military modernization, etc as American jealousy of Chinese rising success. GOP is seen more anti Chinese then Dems. Go back and look at the voting data. After Nixon open relations with China, Chinese American voters leaned GOP, Reagan seen as symbol of traditional family values, C-A voters leaned GOP till Bush 41 when the US embargo China over T Square, and the subsequent rise of DoD view that China is threat to US in 21 Century. Lee Wen Ho affair is the tipping point for many C-A voters. The other issue is amnesty for illegal immigrants. There are many in the Chinese community who are illegal immigrants by over staying their 6 month visa. Many are professionals who work under the table in Chinatown.
If the mere fact of a fellow black in the White House endorsing homosexual “marriage” was all it needed to change their stance, then it wasn’t very deep-rooted in the first place. I wouldn’t change my stance on the wrongness of homosexual “marriage” merely because some RINO endorses it, and especially not because the RINo endorses it, and especially while said RINO also endorses the anti-conservative position of more government dependence.
It’s not the baseline “gimmees” they support, it’s things like government grants for small business targeted to racial minorities and immigrants, and family reconciliation for immigrants.
So whites need to just lay down and die, shut up and pay our taxes, and stop striving to have any political representation in this nation? It’s not “cool” to be white, according to the “diversity” industry (”diversity” meaning representation of any race except white), so the GOP is not “cool” by fact of a large white voting bloc?
How did you get that out his/her post???
Which is why this can't go on unchallenged anymore. The world has no deficiency of anti-white sentiment, and this should be no more acceptable than any other kind of bigotry.
A lot of the Indian-Americans who registered as Republican in the Bush years are now registered Democrats. They're playing it safe in the way they learned in the old country.
I'm finding out now that in India parties have alternated in power, but when these people were growing up for many of them it must have seemed like the only choice was Mrs. Gandhi or chaos. I suspect the thinking was similar for Koreans or Taiwanese or Chinese or Thais of the same generation.
Their children go to top universities and are liberal, but probably not much more liberal than the other students at those schools. They may cite their ethnicity as a reason for voting as they did, but I suspect their White classmates voted much the same way.
And this is why the STUPID PARTY remains stupid! Again, rinos are losers. Look at the facts!
If the mere fact of a fellow black in the White House endorsing homosexual “marriage” was all it needed to change their stance, then it wasn’t very deep-rooted in the first place.
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Excellent point.
I used to have a ‘thing’ with a Black DC talk show host (think he is still on XM) and I was his ‘token whitey’. Believe Joe Madison is the name....
He used to give me some good air time and we could discuss things, not have a continual screaming match.
His main contention on time on air was....(his was midnight to 6 AM)
The regular caller gets 2-4 minutes which is plenty of time to get your point across and have a good discourse.
A good caller got 3-8 minutes and a real interesting caller 10 or more, dependent on the ‘waiting list’.
I usually got the 7-10 treatment (on more than a few occasions I cut the call short) but his main thing was,
I can give you 1/2 hour on air but if you are truly committed to your thought, 1/2 hour is not enough time to change ones mind - Mine or Yours.
One of his ‘favorite’ tirades was Conservative? What in the Hell are you trying to Conserve?
Admitted he was playing to the Black audience but he was not quite as bad as WOL (Cathy Hughes?) was as far as tolerance went..
The GOP is like Lot in the midst of Sodom and Gomorrah, I’m afraid the majority of Americans have turned their backs on God, Obama and his ilk are reflective of that, I hope I’m wrong, but humanity worships materialism, their Gods are Nikes, I-pods, and Costco deals.
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