Asian Americans, Diversity Among

The term Asian American currently includes U.S. residents of South Asian, Southeast Asian, and East Asian origin or ancestry. South Asians are mainly Asian Indians. Southeast Asians include Indochinese from Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, and the Philippines. East Asians comprise Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in July 2008, an estimate of 15.5 million U.S. residents, about 5% of the American population, reported being Asian alone or Asian in combination with one or more other races. The Asian group has within it a diversity of ethnicities. Among this Asian population, Chinese Americans were the largest group at 3.62 million, followed by Filipinos (3.09 million), Asian Indians (2.73 million), Vietnamese (1.73 million), Koreans (1.61 million) and Japanese (1.30 million).

Although there are more than 28 ethnic subgroups, Asians are usually classified as a single group of “Asians” in the United States and have been treated as a homogenous group with the same or similar characteristics such as cultural values. Asian Americans share some common characteristics (e.g., close family ties, harmony, and order) with non-Asian ethnicities that need to be taken into consideration in educational, clinic, and community decision making. However, treating them as a homogenous group may result in various problems due to a neglect of the specific characteristics of the subgroups and even the differences within the subgroups.

Therefore, it is important to recognize that Asian American families are culturally and experientially diverse. They differ in such aspects as immigration experiences, family composition, lifestyles, cultural values and beliefs, religion, income, education, and ethnic identity. These diversities of Asian American families had been largely neglected because most of the research had focused on the success of Asian Americans as model minorities.

Religious beliefs, a central component of cultural values, are very diverse among Asian American families. According to research by Lien and Carnes, the vast majority (72%) of Asian Americans have a religious identity. The majority of Asian Americans who have no religious identification are Chinese Americans and Japanese Americans (if Confucianism is not counted as a religion). Filipino Americans are the most religious Asian American group, with almost all (94%) providing a religious identification. After Filipino Americans are Korean, Vietnamese, South Asian, and Japanese Americans, ranging from 87% to 62%. The types of religions identified by Asian Americans include Christianity, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Shamanism (Hmong), Sikhism, and Jainism. Filipino and Korean Americans are by far the largest groups that identify with Christianity (86% and 75%, respectively). Filipino Americans are also a major group of Asian American Catholics (about two thirds), with the next being Vietnamese Americans (20%). The third largest religious group, after Christians and Catholics, is Buddhism (15%), which is represented mainly by Vietnamese (49%), Japanese (24%), and Chinese (19%) Americans. South Asian Americans (or Asian Indians) are the major group of Hindus (6%). Another important religion among Asian Americans is Islam, which comprises 2% of Asian Americans but as much as 17% of South Asian Americans.

Asian Americans also differ by their immigration histories. For example, South Asians migrated to the United States in the recent 20 or 30 years, while Japanese families have been in the United States for a much longer time. Similarly, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, while Japanese have the [Page 151]highest proportion born in the United States (about 58%), Koreans had the lowest (about 24%); Vietnamese had the largest proportion of naturalized citizens (about 50%) while Asian Indians were more likely to be foreign-born and non-U.S. citizens than other Asian groups. In an early study, by Victor Nee and Herbert Wong, comparing Chinese immigrants with Japanese immigrants, Chinese immigrants were found to be slower in making transitions from sojourner to immigrant due to the structural characteristics of Chinese village society, compared to Japanese immigrants who were not tied by strong family bonds to Japan and therefore made a more rapid transition.

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