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In this Census Feature: Around America: Rise in Minority Numbers California: Diverse, but Still Segregated San Francisco: Major Trends Daly City: Finding Comfort Milpitas: Living Near Tech Central Monterey Park: Ground Zero in API Growth Boom

Around America

By Neela Banerjee and Associated Press

With census numbers finally tallied, America is again altered by its ever-changing demographics. Asian American numbers increased from nearly 7 million in 1990 to 11.5 million in 2000. Even though the increase in Latino numbers in the last decade seems to be the most striking data to come out of the decennial count, it was actually Asian Americans who had the fastest growth rate in the 1990s.

This increase of nearly 65 percent — compared with almost 58 percent for Latinos — is part of a trend that has been building for decades, says Don Nakanishi, who heads the Asian American Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“In some ways, it’s not surprising at all,” says Nakanishi, who notes that the Asian American population has doubled every 10 years since immigration restrictions were eased up in 1965.

“Whereas in 1970 there were 1.5 million Asian Americans in the entire United States, you now have three major metropolitan areas that each have a million and a half,” he points out, citing Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City.

Along with these metropolitan numbers, Asian Americans have also been migrating to other regions of the country, though in somewhat smaller numbers than the Latino population.

Many in particular moved from traditional Chinatowns, Little Tokyos and Little Saigons, to what had in many instances been nearly all-white suburbs or even rural areas. As a result, places like the New York City suburb of Fort Lee, N.J., is now 30 percent Asian and located in a state that saw its Asian American population increase as much as 94 percent over the past decade. Other states with similar sharp increases include Louisiana, Arkansas, Pennsylvania and South Dakota.

“We expected the national and statewide numbers, but we didn’t anticipate where that growth would be,” Dan Ichinose, of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC), says. “Folks are spreading out, and that means that organizations like ours really have to work harder to make sure those people have access to services.”

In Northern California and suburban New York, meanwhile, many Asian Americans have flocked to the computer and dot-com businesses, though not necessarily always in white-collar jobs.

“Asian Americans do everything in that region,” Nakanishi says. “Everything from owning some of the most successful high-tech and dot-com and hardware-software companies, all the way to people who assemble computers and others who are simply security guards.”

He adds: There’s been a remarkable growth and diversification of the Asian population that carries with it enormous ramifications for those regions, and for the new Asian American communities there.”

Population growth does not necessarily mean increased political power, however.

“It’s premature to say whether this growth will have an immediate impact on representation,” Ichinose says.

Ichinose sees political empowerment as a gradual process that is being jump-started by community and national groups such as API Vote, who work on issues like voter registration and education that is necessary to make population growth equal political strength.

“If we are as high as 13 percent of the population, we should have 13 people in the Assembly. We are far from that now,” Ichinose says. “In California, there are no Senators of API descent. We are working on these issues. We really need to heighten our efforts to see that it will happen.”

There is also still lingering controversy and resentment that the Bush administration was unwilling to release adjusted data.

“We know there is an undercount in the Pacific Islander community,” Ichinose says.

APALC was a leader in the fight for adjusted numbers — which was dubbed one of the first real civil rights struggles of the 21st century. Ichinose believes that Bush didn’t want to use the adjusted numbers for redistricting because that might have given tore power to the Democrats. (Undercounted populations tend to be people of color, who lean towards the Democrats.)

The administration, however, argued that using the adjusted numbers might be an inaccurate view of the nation.

“We have really been coalition-building to get the adjusted numbers used,” Ichinose says. “It is just another instance of APIs, Latinos and African Americans working together to address issues of mutual concern. It is critical we do that.”

Increasing diversity nationwide, he points out, means that more coalitions need to be formed so that issues are addressed.

Says Ichinose: “I think there is a real history of working together, and now, given the diversity, it is more important than ever.”