As the presidential candidates battle over U.S.-Mexico immigration policy, a sweeping new survey shows that Asian Americans have overtaken Latinos nationally as the largest group of new immigrants arriving each year in the United States – a development with profound political and economic implications.

Not only are Asian Americans the fastest-growing racial group in the country, but they have the highest incomes, are the best-educated and are happier with their lot in life compared with other groups, according to “The Rise of Asian Americans,” a comprehensive new Pew Research Center survey and report being released Tuesday.

“It is a reversal of fortune for Asian Americans,” said David Lee, a longtime community organizer in San Francisco’s Asian American neighborhoods who teaches political science at San Francisco State University.

“One hundred years ago, they were the poorest of the poor,” Lee said. “Today, they are the best-paid, best-educated, most-in-demand workers in the country.”

And in recent months, even though Asian Americans are slightly less than 6 percent of the U.S. population, they have become much-coveted voters. Both President Obama’s re-election campaign and the California Republican Party have begun efforts to reach Asian American voters and encourage members of the community to run for elective office.

Politically, Asian Americans are more satisfied than most Americans with the nation’s direction, generally approve of Obama’s performance, lean Democratic and prefer bigger government than other Americans, the poll finds.

Socially, they place a higher value on marriage and parenthood. And while many don’t like the “Tiger Mom” image of pushy, demanding Asian American parents, 62 percent think American parents are too soft on their kids.
Six largest groups

The Pew study is based on census data and surveys of 3,511 Asian Americans, including representative samples of the six largest Asian American country-of-origin groups – Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Filipino and Vietnamese – which comprise more than 80 percent of all Asian Americans.

Oh, and about that term “Asian American” – it is largely the province of articles and reports about “Asian Americans.” Only 19 percent of those surveyed said they most often describe themselves as Asian American or Asian. Most (62 percent) describe themselves by their country of origin, like Chinese American or Vietnamese American.

Census data released several months ago show that Asian American growth had outpaced Latinos both nationally and in California. But Tuesday’s Pew survey and report marries that information with one of the larger attitudinal studies of Asian Americans. In 2010, about 430,000 Asians – roughly 36 percent of all new immigrants – came to the United States, compared with about 370,000, or 31 percent, who were Latino.

Change at the border

Part of the shifting immigration picture comes from changes happening along the southern U.S. border.

A May study from the Pew Hispanic Center showed that “the net migration flow from Mexico to the United States has stopped and may have reversed” because of tighter border security, a rise in deportations and changing economic conditions on both sides of the border.

That combined with Tuesday’s report shows “a kind of sea change in the immigration patterns,” said Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer with the Pew Hispanic Center.

Immigrants from Asian countries often come from different circumstances, analysts said. Many arrive in the United States with the help of work visas, so they are better educated and thus often have better-paying jobs. Pew found that 61 percent of adults between 25 and 64 years old who have come from Asia in recent years have at least a bachelor’s degree. That’s twice as high as non-Asian immigrants.

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