ABSTRACT
The Asian-ancestry population constitutes the fastest growing and most ethnically diverse group in the United States. As of 2000, this population made up 4 percent of the total U.S. population, or 11.9 million, an eightfold increase since 1970, when the number was only 1.4 million. Though still relatively small compared to other groups, Asians are enormously diverse in national origins and socioeconomic backgrounds. Americans of Chinese and Filipino ancestries are the largest subgroups, followed by Asian Indians, Koreans, Vietnamese, and Japanese. At least 20 other nationalorigin groups have become a visible presence in the United States in recent years; these include Cambodians, Lao, Hmong, Thai, Indonesians, Bangladeshis, and Pakistanis. Owing to the recent arrival of many Asian immigrants, approximately two-thirds of the Asian population, or 64 percent, is foreign born (the first generation). Another 27 percent are U.S. born with foreign-born parents (the second generation), and less than 10 percent are U.S. born with U.S.-born parents (the third generation or higher).1 Because of the historical circumstances of legal exclusion and contemporary immigration, only since the late 1980s have Asian Americans begun to mature into the second generation in large numbers; exceptions are the Japanese, who are into the fourth generation.2
