Asian immigrants surpass Hispanics as largest wave in America
A woman rides a float during Chinese New Year Festival in San Francisco, California. A report released by the Pew Research Center on June 19, 2012 found that Asians have surpassed Hispanics as the largest wave of immigrants to America in the last few years.
Asians have taken over Hispanics as the largest wave of new immigrants to the United States, according to a report released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center.
According to CNN, the report showed that in 2010, 36 percent of new immigrants to America were Asians, compared to 31 percent who were Hispanic. A decade ago, those numbers were 19 percent Asians and 59 percent Hispanics.
The numbers have pushed the population of individuals of Asian descent to a record 18.2 million, also making Asians the fastest-growing racial group in the country, according to The New York Times.
According to the study, Asian immigration has increased, but the gap widened more because of the sharp decline in Hispanic immigration.
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Of illegal immigrants in the US, 11 percent are Asian while 75 percent are Hispanic, according to government data and the report's own polling, said Reuters.
Pew also suggested that more Mexicans, the largest group of immigrants currently in America, may be leaving the US than arriving, due to the poor job market, a rise in deportation and a decline in Mexico's birthrate, said The Washington Post.
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The 18 million Asians in the US make up 6 percent of the country's population and more than eight out of ten come from China, the Philippines, India, Vietnam, South Korea and Japan, said The Post. Hispanics in America number 52 million, or 17 percent of the population.
"A century ago, most Asian-Americans were low-skilled, low-wage laborers crowded into ethnic enclaves and targets of official discrimination," said the study, according to The Times. "Today they are the most likely of any major racial or ethnic group in America to live in mixed neighborhoods and to marry across racial lines."
The report comes at a time when immigration is once again at the forefront of the political landscape with President Barack Obama announcing that some children who were brought to America as illegal immigrants could be spared from deportation.
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