Variations in nativity: the emergence of U.S.-born Asians

One important characteristic of these largely immigrant groups is their nativity, shown in Table 2. For information from ten years ago we use data from the 1990 Census. For 2000, since the census has not yet released comparable data, we use estimates drawn from the 1998 and 2000 Current Population Surveys. A striking finding is that the share of the foreign-born is declining in every case. Population growth, therefore, stems more from child-bearing by the Asian population already in the country than from immigration.

Table 2.  Nativity and recency of immigration, 1990 and 1998-2000

This process has advanced the farthest for Japanese. Already in 1990 only 35% of Japanese in the U.S. were foreign-born. By 2000 this share had dropped to 23%. In fact, more than half the Japanese population was of the 3rd and later generations in 2000. These statistics reflect the long-standing Japanese presence in the country, as well as their low rate of recent immigration.

At the other extreme are the Vietnamese, who first arrived in large numbers at the close of the Vietnam War. In 1990 fully 82% of Vietnamese were first-generation, and this group’s very high rate of immigration kept this figure up to 76% in 2000.

Other groups fall in between these two. They had large majorities in the first generation in 1990 (typically 70-80%), falling to half or less than half by 2000. In these cases, immigrants still outnumber the second generation by about a 2:1 ratio, but the U.S.-born group members (combining all generations) are fast becoming the predominant portion. And among Indians, the 3rd and later generation members by themselves already outnumber the immigrants.