College Park, MD -- Chinese Americans are a geographically concentrated but diverse group that lags in income return compared to other groups–despite high investments in education and occupation, according to a study released last month.

“A Portrait of Chinese Americans” is a joint study by OCA (formerly known as the Organization of Chinese Americans) and the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Maryland. It provides a detailed and in-depth analysis of the Chinese American community and dispels prevailing stereotypes and assumptions about the group. The study is based on data obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2000 Census and the 2006 American Community Survey.

“The report was done because the Organization of Chinese Americans and the Asian American Studies program felt that it was very important to conduct research that would be more detailed and more substantive than the kind of studies that tend to be pan-Asian oriented,” said Dr. Larry Shinagawa, director of the university’s Asian American Studies program.

He added: “Sometimes what we need to do is go in-depth in a particular experience rather than comparing across ethnic groups. And we realize that certainly there is such a thing as diversity of Asian Americans. But a lot of times, we forget that there’s diversity within those communities.”

Although the Chinese are often seen as a homogenous group that shares a common ancestry, there are many differences within the group, including period of immigration, country of origin, language, generation and ethnicity. These differences often account for wide social and economic contrasting divergences within the group known as bimodalism.

For example, Chinese Americans born in mainland China exhibit an occupational split between white-collar professional and scientific jobs as well as blue-collar working class jobs. And while there are twice as many college degree holders among Chinese Americans who are 25 and older compared to the general population, there are also 18.5 percent of Chinese Americans who earn less than a high school diploma. These wide divergences show an emergence of bi-modal distributions that are characteristic of the Chinese American community.

Asiatowns

The study also finds that although Chinese Americans are diverse and exhibit bimodal characteristics, they tend to be highly concentrated and live in select states. More than half of the 3.5 million Chinese Americans live in New York and California and often settle in “Asiatowns” or Asian-American suburban communities where one Asian-American ethnicity is the largest among other Asian groups, which are also present in significant numbers. Such Asia-towns are located by coastal cities such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C.

Chinese Americans also tend to be clustered in their selection of majors, schools and occupation. They are more heavily represented in managerial and professional occupations such as software developers, auditors and managers, than the general population. On the other hand, other Chinese Americans are concentrated in blue-collar jobs such as cooks, waiters and cashiers.

While highly-educated Chinese make more than less-educated Chinese Americans, both groups receive a lower return on income compared with the general and Non-Hispanic White populations–even though Chinese Americans invest heavily in human capital such as education and occupation.The study also finds that Chinese Americans consistently make lower income than whites in every level of education.

“The quest for equal treatment is still there,” Shinagawa said. “We still need to go further and if we want to participate fully as equal members, we need to assert our needs through civic engagement. But without data to support a portrait of what the Chinese American experience is going through, it’s hard to substantiate any of this.”

Shinagawa said that while other minority groups have had the support of strong community organizations with strong leadership and lobbying efforts, Asian Americans are still evolving toward more sophisticated approaches to organizational development in these arenas. To create a supportive infrastructure for Chinese Americans to succeed, he believes that data combined with action, as well as perspective combined with faith in a worthy cause, can bring positive change for the Chinese American community.